La Fiancée du Tsar

Valentin Uryupin, conductor | Rafael R. Villalobos, staging, set and costume design | Felipe Ramos, lighting | Dimitry Ivashchenko, Vasily Stepanovich Sobakin | Pavel Yankovsky, Grigory Grigoryevich Gryaznoy | Ekaterina Lukash, Marfa Sobakina | Alex Birkus, Malyuta Skuratov | Mathias Vidal, Yelisey Bomelius | Alina Chertash, Lyubasha | Dumitru Mîțu, Ivan Sergeyevich Lykov | Catherine Hunold, Domna Ivanovna Saburova | Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine | Chœur de l'Opéra National de Bordeaux | Salvatore Caputo, chorus master

The Tsar's Bride (1899) ranks among the masterpieces of the romantic opera repertoire. At once an epic narrative and a musical fresco of unique scope, the work calls for large voices, a sumptuous orchestra and an omnipresent chorus. The opera is based on the history of Ivan the Terrible in the sixteenth century who, isolated by power, secretly attempts to find a wife. Facing this predator shines the role of Marfa, an icon of purity soaring in the high notes in an attempt to rise above a world of men who seek to control her. Particularly attentive to the many faces that male domination has taken yesterday and today, Rafael R. Villalobos, in his new staging of The Tsar's Bride, underlines the central role that "love potions" have played for centuries in our culture: "This work stands out today not only as a historical drama with one of the most beautiful and inspired scores in the Russian classical repertoire, but also as a mirror which, more than a century later, continues to reflect the ways in which power can appropriate the bodies and destinies of women."

Coproduction Opéra National de Bordeaux, Opéra Orchestre Normandie Rouen, Ateliers de l'Opéra National de Bordeaux

Opera broadcast by France Musique