“The Story of Kai and Gerda” is one of the most famous operas by Sergei Banevich. The world premiere of the opera (titled “The Story of Gerda and Kai”) took place on December 24, 1980 at the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater. CM. Kirov (now Mariinsky). The opera had a happy stage fate. It was staged in Chelyabinsk, Yekaterinburg, Perm, Minsk, Kyiv, Vladikavkaz, Pskov, Novosibirsk. It was first performed at the Bolshoi Theater on November 28, 2014.
The libretto was written by Tatyana Kalinina based on “The Snow Queen” by Hans Christian Andersen - a fairy tale known to every child. Following the general outline of this fairy-tale story, the authors significantly reworked it. Some chapters were removed to make the action more dynamic and understandable for young viewers. A new character has been added - the Lamplighter, who acts as a narrator and comments on events, presenting the philosophical layer of the opera in a form accessible to children. “This story and the opera that follows it are equally addressed to adults and children,” says the composer, “it, like educational novels, tells about how easy it is to lose and how difficult it is to find yourself.”
Sergei Banevich is a continuator of the traditions of the St. Petersburg school of composers, a student of Galina Ustvolskaya and Orest Evlakhov, who, in turn, studied with Dmitry Shostakovich. He went down in the history of Russian theater and cinema of the late 20th and early 21st centuries as the author of music for numerous performances and films. His film credits include Niccolo Paganini, The Testament of Professor Dowell, Flight 222, The Pickwick Club, The Mole, Cook, Two Women (the list goes on).
But the main recipient of his work was always children. Sergei Banevich is the author of the operas “The Lonely Sail Whitens”, “Ferdinand the Magnificent”, “Town in a Snuffbox”, “The Little Prince”, “Twelve Months”, the operettas “Treasure Island”, “The Fate of the Drummer”, the musicals “The Steadfast Tin Soldier”, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”, “The Little Mermaid”, musical performance “Land of Children”. The composer’s creative credo is to write music for children according to all the canons of “adult” musical drama.
A team of young people worked on the production of “The Story of Kai and Gerda” at the Bolshoi Theater (conductor Anton Grishanin and director Dmitry Belyanushkin), led by the master of Russian scenography Valery Leventhal, who worked at the Bolshoi Theater for several decades of the 20th century (in 1988-95 - at as chief artist). For Dmitry Belyanushkin, this was the second experience of working at the Bolshoi Theater: in January 2014, he staged a “semi-stage” version of the opera “The Marriage of Figaro” by W. A. Mozart. And after “The Story of Kai and Gerda” at the Bolshoi he also staged “Tales of the Fox, the Duckling and Balda” to the music of I. Stravinsky, S. Prokofiev and A. Pravednikov (2015) and A. Dargomyzhsky’s opera “The Stone Guest” (2016).
According to Dmitry Belyanushkin, his main directorial principle is to try to reveal what was intended by the author. And in the case of Kai and Gerda, the directors worked closely with the composer, sharing and exchanging ideas with him. For the Bolshoi Theater, Sergei Banevich created a new, fourth edition of the opera: a new orchestral introduction was written, the accents in the prologue were changed.
The directors set themselves the task of making the performance dynamic and rich, interesting for both children and their parents. “This should be an absolutely “adult” performance, close and understandable to a children’s audience,” said Dmitry Belyanushkin, anticipating the premiere shows. – In this opera, Banevich talks about the eternal: about human relationships, love, the ability to hope and believe. There are warm, lyrical moments here, but there are also some very bitter notes and real drama. I hope that adults will read the meanings that we put there and think about it too.”
