Organization

International Festival of Vocal Music "Opera Apriori"

Conductor

Ayrat Kashaev

Stage director

Oleg Dolin

Costume designer

Evgenia Panfilova

Lighting designer

Narek Tumanyan

Chorus master

Alexander Rybnov (II)

Pavel Suchkov

Margarita Lobyreva

Bass

Alexander Kolesnikov

Black Bob

Tenor

Borislav Molchanov

Clem

Soprano

Alexandra Nanoshkina

Rowan

Tamara Kasumova

Juliet Brook

Contralto

Ekaterina Bolshakova

Miss Baggott

Singer

Bass-baritone

Alfred

Child vocalist

Prokhor Vakhrameev

Gay Brook

Set designer

Let's Make An Opera - The Little Sweep, Op.45 -  (Let's Make an Opera - The Little Sweep)

Let's Make an Opera Britten

Public

Let's Make an Opera - The Little Sweep

Approved

Benjamin Britten's opera The Little Chimney Sweep, written to a libretto by Eric Crozier, premiered in Aldeborough on June 14, 1949. It was conceived as the second part of the performance "Let's Make an Opera!" and is presented in the spirit of home theater: along with adult actors, children played and sang. Little performers (Guy, Juliet, Sophie, Tina, Hugh, Johnny and Sam) performed on stage under their real names, and among the props was the rocking horse Dobbin, a children's toy of the composer himself.

In the center of the plot is the boy Sam, whose fate echoes the trials of life that fall to the lot of the heroes of English poetry and novels by Charles Dickens. His father gave him as an apprentice to two chimney sweeps. In the course of the action, he gets stuck in the chimney, but the children save him and hide him in their room. Good Nanny Rowan helps them feed and tidy up the little chimney sweep. After various adventures (Sam has to be hidden so that he does not catch the eye of the harsh housekeeper Miss Baggot), he is sent in a chest towards a new, free and happy life.

The music of the opera retains the halo of lightness and improvisation inherent in playing music at home. Folk songs accompanied by a small orchestra (strings, two pianos and percussion) alternate with spoken dialogues and ensembles. Many numbers written in the spirit of English dances and marches, witty sound reproduction (imitating the "voices" of an owl, pigeons, finches in a night song, tapping hooves in the final number, etc.) make "Little Chimney Sweep" the predecessor of the musical.

The Chamber Musical Theater was the first in Russia to stage Britten's opera. Estonian director Arne Mikk staged the play in 1979, when a permanent children's group appeared in the theater (its founder and permanent leader is Elena Ozerova). In 2015, this production was replaced by a performance staged by Mikhail Kislyarov.

And on March 7, 2020, the premiere of another production took place - already on the Chamber Stage of the Bolshoi Theater. The action, as conceived by the director (and set designer) Oleg Dolin, takes place in a magical educational institution for children with unusual abilities. The story, with a hint of books and "horror stories" beloved by the modern children's audience, fell in love with young viewers, and Britten's style, ¾ “the difficult language of the great Briton, albeit not as intricate as in his other works”, ¾ according to critics, was “mastered by artists, both big and small, perfectly well” (Alexander Matusevich)

English

Let's Make an Opera - The Little Sweep by Britten, Sun 19 Dec 2021, From (2021/2021), Directed by Oleg Dolin,, Conductor Ayrat Kashaev

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Programme, About & Synopsis

Photos

Further reading

Performance Dates & Venues

Venues