Opera and Ballet Theater reveals its repertoire for January

Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre has announced its repertoire for January 2024.

Pyotr Tchaikovsky's ballet Nutcracker will be staged on January 5-6, Azernews reports.

The ballet is based on E.T.A. Hoffmann's 1816 fairy tale, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. It was premiered at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg in 1892.

The ballet tells the story of a little girl who goes to the Land of Sweets on Christmas Eve. Ivan Vsevolozhsky and Marius Petipa adapted Hoffmann's story for the ballet. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote the music.

Nutcracker is included in the treasury of world ballet art. Traditionally, the State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre stages the Nutcracker ballet on winter holidays.

Leyli and Majnun will be presented to the audience on January 10 and 12. The masterpiece, a classic Azerbaijani tale of young lovers and meddling parents, is compared to Romeo and Juliet.

Premiered in 1908, the opera is considered the First Opera of the Muslim East. The first performance of the opera was led by Huseyn Arablinski, and Hajibayli himself played the violin.

Uzeyir Hajibayli wrote the libretto for the opera based on Azerbaijani poet Muhammad Fuzuli's poem.

His masterpiece laid the foundation of a unique new genre that synthesises oriental and European musical forms.

Don Quixote will be staged on January 10. It is a ballet in eight scenes, based on episodes taken from the famous novel Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes. The ballet was originally choreographed by Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus.

Giacomo Puccini's opera Tosca will be shown on January 21. It is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It was first premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on January 14, 1900.

The opera contains some of Puccini's best-known lyrical arias. Being one of the best opera classics, Tosca is still very popular and is in the repertoire of the opera house.

The drama opera Sevil will be presented to theatre enthusiasts on January 25.

Sevil is a lyrical psychological drama opera written in 1949–1952 with music by Fikrat Amirov to a libretto by Talat Eyyubov based on Jafar Jabbarly's play Sevil. The premiere of the opera was held on December 25, 1953, at the Azerbaijan State Opera and Ballet Theatre.

Besides, Sevil is the first Azerbaijani opera written in a modern lyrical and psychological genre.