The Turnip in the Prokofiev Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre, the 9th of December, 2017

My second opera on Saturday was a children’s opera called ”The Turnip” in the Prokofiev Hall of Mariinsky Theatre. I had not been there before, but I can warmly recommend it. The hall is situated in the cellar of the new Mariinsky (Mariinsky-2) and the entry is from Ulitsa Soyuza Pechatnikov. There are five rising rows of seats (rather long rows) and at least in this performance they had added extra chairs to form a sixth row. The seats are the most comfortable there are in Mariinsky; not only were they big, but there was also an extra space between the seats so that you did not hit your neighbour with your elbows and there was plenty of legroom, too.    

The composer of ”The Turnip” was Rustam Sagdiev, who is a member of the Academy of Young Singers of Mariinsky ensemble. By the way, he was performing in a small role in the previous evening’s Fedora as well as in this this opera in the role of a nightingale (though he mainly played a triangle). The opera tells an old Russian folktale about animals (a mouse, a cat and a dog) and human beings (grandparents and a grandchild), who quarrel with each other. Then the grandfather plants a turnip, but needs help to harvest it and only when all animals and humans settle their quarrels are they able to uproot the turnip.  

In Russia also children’s opera is considered to be valuable and that’s why the singers of this opera, too, were of excellent quality. I liked above others Shota Chibirov in the role of the dog and Anna Barhatova in the role of the cat. Both had lovely, full-bodied voices.  

The music itself had echoes of songs from different regions of Russia. Even I thought I could detect some references, so they must have been crystal clear to the locals. The music was mostly played by a piano, but there were also some other instruments involved (a balalaika, the above mentioned triangle and wooden spoons to name a few). Rather nice music in my opinion.

Even in this opera special attention had been paid to costumes. It seemed that the children did not recognize all the animals (at least the little boy sitting next to me did not recognize the mouse, even though it was quite obvious to adults viewers), so the costumes were creatively made. But I found the opera quite nice: the story was educational, you were able to hear the worlds easily and there was actually a person who explained the story of the opera to the audience.