Moldavian Opera and Ballet Theater

a musical theater in the Moldavian SSR. In 1955 the A. S. Pushkin Moldavian Theater of Opera, Ballet, and Drama was formed out of the Moldavian Music and Drama Theater. The first opera, Gershfel’d’s Grozovan, was produced in 1956, and the first ballet, Asafev’s Fountain of Bakhchisarai, was staged in 1957. In July 1957 the theater’s opera and ballet companies left to form an independent opera and ballet theater.

The Moldavian Opera and Ballet Theater performs many works by Moldavian composers, including Gershfel’d’s opera Aurelia (1959), Stirca’s opera Domnika ’s Heart (1960; revived in 1970 as Heroic Ballad ), Lazarev’s opera Dragon (1976), Zagorskii’s ballet Dawn (1960), and Lazarev’s ballets Broken Sword (1960), Antony and Cleopatra (1965), and Arabesques (1970). The theater also presents world classics and works by Soviet composers of the other republics. Outstanding operatic productions include Khrennikov’s In the Storm (1962), Kholminov’s Optimistic Tragedy (1967), Shebalin’s Taming of the Shrew (1972), Dolidze’s Keto and Kote (1972), Rachmaninoff’s Aleko (1973), and Molchanov’s Dawns Are Quiet Here (1975). Among the theater’s most successful ballets are K. Karaev’s Path of Thunder (1961), The Lady and the Hooligan (1968), based on Shostakovich’s music, Carmen Suite (1971), with music by Bizet as arranged by Shchedrin, and Prokofiev’s Cinderella (1971).

In 1975 the theater’s singers included People’s Artist of the USSR M. L. Bieshu, People’s Artist of the Moldavian SSR T. G. Aleshina, P. A. Botezat, N. N. Bashkatov, L. V. Erofeeva, and V. S. Savitskaia. The leading dancers are M. I. Kaftanat and R. A. Potekhina. The principal conductor is A. A. Mochalov, and the chief director is Honored Art Worker of the Moldavian SSR E. G. Platon. The principal chorus master is Honored Art Worker of the Moldavian SSR G. D. Strezev, and the chief costume and set designer is N. N. Koriagin. The opera company toured Rumania in 1957, and the ballet company performed in Bulgaria in 1971.