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We are now fortunately familiar with Katie Mitchell: last season the Aix-en-Provence Opera Festival presented her two acclaimed productions on the New Stage of the Bolshoi - Written on Skin and Trauernacht. The new opera by British composer George Benjamin and the stage performance of J.S. Bach cantatas made a deep impression on public and received particular praise from the press. But that was just the beginning; the main objective was to include Mitchell’s staging in the repertoire of the Bolshoi Theatre! And we succeeded: in cooperation with Aix-en-Provence we'll show the baroque opera Alcina in modern outfit! The premiere series of the performance will be held on 18, 20, 22, 24 and 26 October.

After a pause of seventeens year the Bolshoi comes back to The Maid of Pskov by Rimsky-Korsakov. The choir, the orchestra and the soloists of the Bolshoi Theatre, under the baton of the chief conductor and musical director Tugan Sokhiev will present a concert performance of this opera.

The first premiere of the 242 season was a theatrical concert, which combines two remarkable works - The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra by Benjamin Britten and Le carnaval des animaux by Camille Saint-Saëns. Probably, the definition of the genre seems to be too official, though it reveals a very unusual but, for sure, absolutely fascinating idea.
The second run: October 19 & 21.

This will be the second time in its entire history that the Bolshoi is turning to a Britten opera and its first ever production of Benjamin Britten’s BILLY BUDD. In days gone by, Billy Budd used to be a rare visitor to world stages but, in recent times, it is being produced increasingly often. The Bolshoi is presenting a co-production together with Deutsche Oper (Berlin) and The English National Opera – a company with which it cooperated with spectacular success last season. But whereas its first experience of doing a joint production with the ENO was in the field of 18th century baroque opera (Handel’s Rodelinda) for which it garnered six Golden Mask nominations and eight Golden Mask nominees, this time round it has chosen a 20th century English music classic.

The opera by Mieczysław Weinberg first appeared on the Bolshoi theatre’s repertoire. The Bolshoi starts to acquaint the public with the heritage of this remarkable composer with his last (but not the least!) opera (it was originally composed in1986) - “The Idiot” based on the novel of the same name by Fyodor Dostoevsky.