A thrilling gothic noir from one of the world’s bravest theatre companies based on the celebrated novel. Featuring acclaimed actors, opera singers and musicians from Belarus and Ukraine.
King Stakh's Wild Hunt is one of Uladzimir Karatkievich’s most popular novels. Inspired by Eastern European folklore, it follows the ghostly hunt to free a young heiress from an evil curse.
Directed by Belarus Free Theatre’s co-founding Artistic Directors, Nicolai Khalezin and Natalia Kaliada, this show unites actors, opera singers and musicians from Ukraine and Belarus, many of them political refugees from war or dictatorship.
This world premiere features a transporting score by composer, Olga Podgaiskaya, conducted by Vitali Alekseenok, with the lead roles performed by Ukrainian baritone, Andrei Bondarenko and Ukrainian soprano, Tamara Kalinkina.
King Stakh's Wild Hunt interlaces opera, theatre, multimedia and live music to tell a story rooted in the history of Belarus with blazing contemporary relevance for Europe today.
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THEATRE & DANCE
THEATRE AND DANCE AUTUMN 2023
UPCOMING EVENTS
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Running time: approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes, including interval
Age guidance: 16+ (contains adult themes, violence, depictions of death and hanging, loud noise including gun shots, smoke, haze and strobe lighting)
Performed in Belarusian with English surtitles
Presented by the Barbican
King Stakh's Wild Hunt is a Belarus Free Theatre production, co-commissioned by the Barbican, and supported by the Maria Björnson Memorial Fund, Backstage Trust, the Belarusian Council of Culture and GMF (The German Marshall Fund of the United States).
Photography and Production: TsvitPaporoty Production
Creative team
Based on the novel by Uladzimir Karatkievich
Nicolai Khalezin Director, Dramaturgy and Original Text Adaptation
Natalia Kaliada Director
Andrėĭ Kali︠a︡da Narrator
Vitali Alekseenok Conductor
Olga Podgaiskaya Composer
Andrei Khadanovich Librettist
Maryia Sazonava Choreography
Nadya Sayapina Set Design & Head of Production Design
Nicolai Khalezin Set Design
Anastasiya Ryabova Costume Design
Anastasiya Miadzelets-Teush Mask Design
Peter Small Lighting Design
Dmytro Guk Video Design
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Performers
Soloists Tamara Kalinkina (Soprano), Andrei Bondarenko (Baritone), Iryna Zhytynska (Mezzo-soprano), Oleksandr Chuvpylo (Tenor), Oleksandr Forkushak (Baritone), Olena Arbuzova (Soprano) and Mykola Hubchuk (Baritone)
Musicians Five-Storey Ensemble
Actors Raman Shytsko, Maryia Sazonava, Yuliya Shauchuk, Pavel Haradnitski, Stanislava Shablinskaya, Siarhei Kvachonak, Kate Vostrikova, Daniella Kaliada (in video projections only)
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The Belarus Free Theatre brings together actors, opera singers, and musicians from Belarus and Ukraine to present the world premiere of ‘King Stakh’s Wild Hunt” on Sept. 14-16 at the Barbican Theatre.
Composer Olga Podgaiskaya’s score is based on Uladzimir Karatkievich’s novel by the same name.”King Stakh’s Wild Hunt” is one of the most popular novels by the Belarusian writer. The story is inspired by Eastern European folklore and follows the ghostly hunt to free a young heiress from an evil curse.
The co-founders and Artistic Directors of Belarus Free Theatre, Nicolai Khalezin and Natalia Kaliada will direct. Ukrainian baritone Andrei Bondarenko and Ukrainian soprano Tamara Kalinkina will take on the lead roles. They are joined by the Belarus and Ukrainian Five-Storey Ensemble and Belarus Free Theatre’s permanent ensemble, who all have been exiled from their homeland and now live in Poland and the UK. Vitali Alekseenok conducts.
Excerpts from the audiobook recorded by Natalia Kaliada’s father, the late Andrėĭ Kali︠a︡da are featured as narration. The opera will run just over two hours and will be sung in Belarusian with English subtitles. There is an adult advisory in place for mature content.
Director, Nicolai Khalezin, said in a press release, “King Stakh’s Wild Hunt is a piercing story that combines mysticism and reality, love and hatred, nobility and cowardice, history and modernity. We wanted to give this amazing story a new tone by combining opera singers with stage actors, classical musicians with new theatrical technologies. Another one of our intentions was to unite some of the talented artists who cannot perform in their homeland today. Uladzimir Karatkievich managed to find his way to the reader even under the communist Soviet regime, weaving truth and relevance into the lines of his novels. History puts everything in its place, and this is exactly what we hope to achieve in King Stakh’s Wild Hunt.”
- Operawire
