Theatre for children

Last year, the Astrakhan State Opera and Ballet Theatre won a grant from the President of Russia. Almost 100 cultural figures in all regions of the country received support for their creative projects. Julia Skripchenkova, director of the Astrakhan Opera and Ballet Theatre, was among the winners. The Grant gave financial support to the project of theatrical programs for children "Reading the opera", designed to educate the younger generation interest in contemporary musical and dramatic art to help to understand opera. Within the framework of this project, six programs had passed  since the last theatrical season. The works of Russian classics were staged in them in combination with musical fragments from operas written by famous composers.

The first program of the cycle was held in October under the title "The Stories of Antiquity”. Pupils of the middle and senior classes were able to appreciate the scenic embodiment of the literary work "The Lay of Igor's Campaign" and to listen to fragments from the opera "Prince Igor" by Alexander Borodin.

Within the framework of the theatrical cycle, the following programs were held on the Small Stage of the Theatre:

-"Results of dreams and harmonious exercises” Young viewers saw the staging of the literary work "Eugene Onegin" by A.Pushkin in combination with musical fragments from the opera "Eugene Onegin" by Pyotr Tchaikovsky.

- " The fatal passions are everywhere, and there is no defense from the fate ...". A scenic embodiment of Pushkin's poem "Gypsies" and fragments from the opera "Aleko"  by S. Rachmaninoff. The music of the opera conquered the spectators  with the sincerity of expression and melodic generosity, youthful passion and dramatic power, richness and expressiveness of melodies.

- "The passion of gentle, meek souls, oppressed by fate" introduced the  starting Russian sentimentalism founder Nikolai Karamzin, and the music of the opera "Poor Liza" by  Leonid Desyatnikov to schoolchildren.

- "Collect all the bad and at once make fun of it..." attached schoolchildren to the work of N. Gogol.  They saw the immortal work of the writer "The Inspector General" and the eponymous opera by Vladimir Dashkevich.

- "The Book of Love and Hope" - the final program of the cycle acquainted schoolchildren with Chingiz Aitmatov's work "Piebald Dog Running the Edge of the Sea" and musical fragments from the opera " Emrayin’s Star" by Alexander Smelkov.

In total, the programs from the cycle were shown 15 times. During this time, about two thousand schoolchildren became spectators, among them pupils from the Kamyzyak and Kharabaly districts.

Thanks to this project, the children have got a unique opportunity to study literature through the prism of theatrical art. After all, there are works that need to be lived through, and the theatre helps to do this.

Soloists, chorus, musicians of the symphony orchestra, artists of the ballet troupe of the Astrakhan State Opera and Ballet Theatre, students of the Astrakhan College of Culture and Arts, and the student of the Children's Art School No. 2 Roman Mikhailichenko took part in the programs.

The programs are  directed by Ekaterina Sablina. The host and author of the programs is Julia Skripchenkova.