"Gala concert of world opera and jazz stars" on the foundation day of St. Petersburg

On the 310th anniversary of St. Petersburg, the City Government for the first time presents at the Palace Square a gala concert of the Stars of World Opera and Jazz. Spectators are waiting for a large-scale open air concert, the highlight of which is multi-genre: performances by the best world opera soloists and the Philharmonic Orchestra - in the first act, will be replaced in the second - by the jazz standards of the Igor Butman orchestra and the Australian vocalist Fantine.

May 26 on City Day, 20.00 - 23.00 (20.10 - the beginning of the live broadcast of the gala concert on the TV channel "100 TV")
Free admission!

Photo: Nikolai Krussser

On Palace Square, near the Arch of the General Staff, a specially equipped stage is being built with a transparent top overlap. Three video screens will broadcast video and sound, which will allow you to hear a concert anywhere in the square. The successful experience acquired by the Oasis company, which last year prepared the Classical Art festival at the Mikhailovsky Castle, will be consolidated and fixed this year on the main square of St. Petersburg.

The gala concert of the stars of world opera and jazz, thanks to its program and its participants, will be elegant and sophisticated, respectively, the place where it takes place, and at the same time attractive and exciting for the general public.

Participants in the opera department are soloists of world opera scenes. The famous Maria Guleghina, she is called "Russian soprano with Verdian music in the blood." One of the world’s leading tenors, known as the best performer of the parties of Othello and German, is Vladimir Galuzin, N.A. Russia, Alexey Markov - Mariinsky Theater’s leading baritone, winner of the Golden Mask and Golden Spotlight, voice of Montblanc 2009. Ekaterina Sergeeva - laureate of international competitions. Coloratura soprano with world fame - Olga Peretyatko and Dmitro Popov tenor, Honored Artist of Ukraine. On stage - Honored Collective of Russia Academic Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra under the direction of N.A. RF Nikolay Alekseev.

Photo: Nikolai Krussser

The most popular works of world opera classics will be performed this evening. The combination of the arias of the genius melodicist Verdi, solo numbers from the operas of Bizet, Bellini and Puccini will provide the viewer with an immersion in the atmosphere of the luxury of a cultural capital that has maintained this status for three centuries.

The performance of the Admiralty Brass Band of the Leningrad Naval Base under the direction of Valentin Lyashchenko will turn the square into an improvised dance floor and any spectator can be invited to the stage - to a waltz tour with a professional dancer. The program’s decoration will be staged performances with the participation of corps de ballet artists, a children’s choir and the Smolny Cathedral choir. The elegant dance of wheelchair athletes will sing a special note in the concert, singing the strength of the human spirit, paying tribute to their moral strength and vitality.

In the second jazz section, a surprise for the public will be the performance of a dark-skinned jazz vocalist - Fantine together with Igor Butman and his orchestra. The combination of sunny jazz and the amazing plasticity of the World Champions in Latin American dances, Valeria Bushueva and Andrei Buschik, will add spectacularity and emotional intensity to the concert.

A distinctive feature of the holiday will be a fundamentally new approach to the development of public funds. The Committee on Culture of St. Petersburg, which has embarked on austerity, but is obliged to maintain a high status of the cultural capital, urged contractors to find ways to solve this difficult task, ”says Yekaterina Galanova, director of Oasis,“ The format for celebrating City Day at the Palace, proposed by us, largely smooths out the contradiction: on the one hand, the elegant Gala of world opera and jazz stars can give odds to the famous open air Salzburg and Vienna, but on the other hand, due to many years of friendship with most ists, as well as optimization of technical solutions the construction of the stage, it was possible to reduce the original holiday budget by 20%, and it will be 20, 5 million.

The project was created by the Government of St. Petersburg, the executor is CJSC Oasis in collaboration with NP DANCE OPEN, the organizer of the International Ballet Festival of the same name.