Astana Opera to hail Christmas Music concert

ASTANA. KAZINFORM Artists of the Astana Opera will be Celebrating Christmas around the Christmas Tree, and they invite residents and guests of the capital to this musical evening. The concert will be held on December 25 at the opera house's Chamber Hall.

The festive program includes instrumental music - C. Franck's Panis Angelicus from Mass in E minor, C. Saint-Saens' Oratorio de Noël op. 12 Tecum Principium, A. Lotti's Crucifixus, C. de Morales' O Magnum Mysterium, traditional French folk carol, J. Schultz's O Come, Little Children, F. Gruber's Silent Night, P. Tchaikovsky's Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, A. Adam's O Holy Night, L. Redner's O Little Town of Bethlehem, English folk tune The First Noel, D. Kramer's Fantasy on the theme V Lesu Rodilas Elochka (The Forest Raised a Christmas Tree), J. Pierpont's Jingle Bells, D. Fraser's This Christmastide and others.

Over the centuries, many composers addressed the theme of the Catholic prayer to the Virgin Mary Ave Maria, and on this evening the works of F. Schubert, J.S. Bach - C. Gounod, J. Massenet will be featured. Other vocal works will also be performed - Almirena's aria Lascia Ch'io Pianga from G.F. Handel's opera Rinaldo, E. Elgar's A Christmas Greeting, etc., Astana Opera's official website reads.

The concert will feature performances by the Astana Opera's soloists - Honored Artist of Bashkortostan Alfiya Karimova (soprano), Tatyana Vitsinskaya (mezzo-soprano), as well as the Choir of the Astana Opera Children's Studio headed by Altynganym Akhmetova. Instrumentalist musicians Anel Shakirova, Assel Zhakiyanova (violins), Botagoz Kaliyeva (cello), Balzhan Saparova (flute), Yerbolat Tashkenbayev (percussion), Yelena Sakhno (piano) will perform along with them. Performances of the Trombone Quartet including Farkhad Bolatov, Pavel Borodulin, Almas Sagimbayev, Kairat Yegimbayev, and the Horn Quartet including Marat Konusbayev, Kalkaman Dyusenbayev, Manar Isakhanov, Madiyar Belekov will delight the listeners.

For the first time, organ music, performed by Saltanat Abilkhanova, will be played on the Astana Opera's stage. The author and initiator of the musical evening is an artist of the Astana Opera Symphony Orchestra, harpist Liubov Tkachenko.

The concert will begin at 19:00.