Adalmina's Pearl in Prokovfiev Hall in the Mariinsky Theatre, the 16th of February, 2020

The second opera of my trip to St. Petersburg was a children’s opera – ”Adalmina’s Pearl” in the Prokovfiev Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre. The composer of the opera is Grayr Khanedanyan and it is based on a fairytale by a Finnish writer Zacharias Topelius, which was a good reason to go and see the opera.

Princess Adalmina gets at her christening a pearl as a present from her red fairy godmother. The pearl will make her more and more beautiful, rich and wise, if she wears it all the time. If she loses the pearl, she will lose all her beauty, riches and wisdom. The white fairy godmother gives her a humble heart as a present, but this present she will only get if she loses the pearl. The king and the queen do not care for the present of the white fairy godmother, but decree that the pearl must be set in a diadem that the princess must wear day and night.  They spoil Adalmina and they are very proud of her. The princess grows to be a very arrogant and lonely young woman. One day she runs away to the forest and drops her diadem to the river. She instantly becomes poor but kindhearted. The princess stays to live in the forest and all the animals become her friends. Elsewhere prince Alvaro has lost his kingdom to an evil witch. He finds Adalmina’s diadem and soon meets her, too. Alvaro fights the witch and wins after which he, together with Adalmina, returns to the king and queen. The youngsters get married and everybody is happy.

They really know in the Mariinsky Theatre how to do children’s operas. As usual, they had invested quite a lot to this opera. Tatiana Mashkova’s colourful costumes were splendid enough for the young audience and the narrator (Philipp Evich) was suitably dramatic for the role.  

The music of the opera was not very demanding, except a couple of the princess’s arias, but most suitable for children, who were learning about the magnificent world of opera. Elena Gorlo’s red fairy godmother and Tsvetana Omelchuk’s white fairy godmother were my favourites, but the other singers were not at all bad, either.  

Small dancers from the group of dancers ”New Dance Theatre” were also part of the performance. The youngest of the fairies were not quite able to concentrate solely on dancing, but had to occasionally wave to their parents in the audience, but all in all the small dancers were adorable and they created a nice fairytale feeling on the stage. So, this was a nice opera for both young and old.