The Adventures of Kintaro in the Prokofiev Hall of Mariinsky Theatre, the 25th of May, 2019

After May Night I had 25 minutes to walk from the Concert Hall to the Prokofiev Hall of Mariinsky-2 (the walk usually takes about 10 minutes depending on the traffic lights) to see Rustam Sagdiev’s children’s opera “The Adventures of Kintaro”. It is his second opera and the first one was “The Turnip” which I saw in December 2017. So, I can say that I have seen all the operas of this composer!

“The Adventures of Kintaro” is based on Japanese folk stories and it tells about Kintaro, who yearning for adventure end up at a witch’s cottage, where he frees a young maiden that the witch has changed to a bird. Kintaro is more interested in continuing his adventures than being with the maiden, who gives him a wooden comb that will help to bring them together if he ever changes his mind. Next Kintaro is attacked by cats, after which he descends to the cave of a stone giant and in the end he joins the devils in their card game. He survives all this and returns to his own boat and finally he (of course) wishes to rejoin with the beautiful maiden with the help of the comb.

I like the fact that Mariinsky Theatre has in its programme regularly operas for children. You notice the results of their work even in the regular opera performances, where there are lots of children and youngsters in the audience. And the children operas in Russia are not any half-hearted creations, but proper productions with thought and resources. “The Adventures of Kintaro” was also a visually enchanting opera, whose costume design and make-up (Olga Kovalenko) was a pleasure to look at even for an adult. The performance had also other interesting features. I liked e.g. the card game of the devils a lot. Both the devils and the winnings were shown as shadow theatre: especially the singing of the devil heads was spectacular and the Mercedes Benz symbol as a prize was both obvious and funny.

Sagdiev’s music had Asian impressions and it was suitable for children without underestimating them. The music was not too easy, but there were also themes that almost became ear worms. The pianist Yuri Kokko was great and a true star of the opera. I also liked a lot Tsvetana Omelchuk in the role of the witch. And Lev Elgardt and Pavel Stasenko in the role of the stone giant were also good.