Kirill Petrenko Conducts Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina At The Met 2/27

Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina will return to the Met February 27 for the first time in more than a decade, conducted by Kirill Petrenko.

Abut the artist: Ukrainian bass Anatoli Kotscherga makes his Met debut in the central role of Ivan Khovansky, the leader of a conspiracy against Peter the Great, with Ukrainian tenor Misha Didyk debuting in the role of his son, Andrei. A cast of stars, all in house role debuts, sings the other principal roles: Olga Borodina sings Marfa, a passionate member of the religious movement called the "Old Believers"; Ildar Abdrazakov sings Dosifey, the leader of the movement; Vladimir Galouzine sings Vasily Golitsin, a liberal-minded aristocrat; and George Gagnidze sings Shaklovity, a boyar loyal to the tsar. Benjamin Millepied makes his Met debut with new choreography for the "Dance of the Persian Slaves" ballet, a crucial dramatic moment in Act IV of the opera. This will be the third revival of August Everding's production, which premiered in 1985, and the first time Khovanshchina has been heard at the Met since the 1998-99 season.

Petrenko made his Met debut in the 2003-04 season leading Lehár's The Merry Widow. He conducted Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos in both the 2005-06 and 2009-10 seasons and Mozart's Die Zauberflöte in 2007-08. The Russian-born conductor, a former Music Director of the Komische Oper in Berlin, will become the Music Director of Munich's Bavarian State Opera in 2013. Millepied, a former principal dancer with the New York City Ballet, recently choreographed the Met/Juilliard co-production of Smetana's The Bartered Bride, which premiered last season. He has also choreographed for New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, the School of American Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet, the Ballet de Genève, and his own company, Danses Concertantes. In addition to his stage work, he achieved international recognition as the choreographer for Darren Aronofsky's Academy Award-winning film BLACK SWAN, a psychological drama set in the world of a ballet company.

Borodina made her Met debut as Princess Marina in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov. Marfa will be her twelfth Met role, joining Dalila in Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila; Pauline in The Queen of Spades; the title characters in Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri and La Cenerentola; Laura in Ponchielli's La Gioconda; Eboli in Verdi's Don Carlo; the Principessa de Bouillon in Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur; Marguerite in Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust; and her most frequent assumptions, Amneris in Aida and the title character in Bizet's Carmen. Abdrazakov, who will be singing his first-ever performances of Dosifey, sang Enrico in the Met premiere of Donizetti's Anna Bolena earlier this season. In the 2009-10 season, he sang the title role in the Met premiere of Verdi's Attila, under the baton of Riccardo Muti. His other recent Met appearances include Raimondo in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor during the company's 2011 tour of Japan and the Four Villains in Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann. Galouzine debuted as Sergei in the Met premiere of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. He has also sung Grigory in Boris Godunov, Pinkerton in Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Alexei in The Gambler, Calàf in Puccini's Turandot, the title role in Verdi's Otello, Canio in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, and, last season, Hermann in The Queen of Spades.

Kotscherga's recent engagements include Ramfis and the King in Verdi's Aida at the Bavarian State Opera, the Commendatore in Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Bolshoi in Moscow, and Kochubey in Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa at the Lyon Opera, conducted by Petrenko. Didyk recently sang Andrei in Mazeppa, Hermann in Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades, and Alexei in Prokofiev's The Gambler at Lyon Opera, and Kuzmich in Janá?ek's From the House of the Dead and Sergei in Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Vienna State Opera.

Shaklovity is Gagnidze's second Met appearance this season, following a reprise of his acclaimed Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca. He will also make his Met role debut as the title character in Verdi's Macbeth this season. Vitaliy Bilyy will sing Shaklovity in the March 10 performance.

Khovanshchina Radio Broadcasts
The February 27 opening performance of Khovanshchina will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Channel 74, as will the performances on March 6 and March 17. The February 27 performance will also be streamed live on the Met's Web site, www.metopera.org.
The March 17 matinee will be broadcast live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network.

For More Information, Go to the Met's Web Site
For more information, including bios of the performers and production team, and general information about the Met season, please visit the Met's Web site at http://www.metoperafamily.org/