On October 11, Albina Shagimuratova performed at Astana Opera. As part of her extensive tour, she presented the program “Albina Shagimuratova and the Laureates of the 27th International Glinka Vocalists Competition”, taking the stage alongside talented young colleagues and accompanied by the Astana Opera Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Honoured Worker of Kazakhstan Yerbolat Akhmedyarov.
As Albina Shagimuratova noted, Kazakhstan holds a special place in the tour dedicated to the centenary of the competition’s founder, legendary Irina Arkhipova.
Yerkegali Rakhmadiyev’s famous symphonic kyui Qudasha-Duman opened the evening. The program was brilliantly composed, demonstrating both the power of classical heritage and the vocalists’ multifaceted talents. The singer, hailed as a “phenomenon” by critics from leading international publications, performed the song Non Ti Scordar di Me by Italian composer Ernesto de Curtis.
The concert was filled with vibrant colours thanks to the performances of the competition laureates. Arias from Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila, Verdi’s La Traviata and Rigoletto, Gounod’s Faust, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, and other masterpieces, performed by Yekaterina Savinkova, Valentina Pravdina, Otabek Nazirov, Kirill Popov, and Konstantin Fedotov, demonstrated exceptional talents of these young artists. Particularly impressive were the duets: Don Giovanni and Zerlina (Mozart), performed by Pravdina and Fedotov, and the duet from Rigoletto, performed by Savinkova and Nazirov.
The evening’s grand finale was the famous brindisi from La Traviata, performed by all the concert participants.
“When the Italian composer’s song, one of the so-called Neapolitan songs, was performed, the hall fell completely still and silent, and everyone listened with their eyes fixed on the singer. I think it was a tremendous joy for the entire audience,” viewer Raushan Kaukova shared after the concert.
