The Enchanted Island

The baroque fantasy "The Enchanted Island" — a pasticcio opera set to the music of various baroque-era composers, chiefly Handel, Vivaldi, and Rameau. The editor-compiler of the pasticcio is the theatre director and composer Jeremy Sams, who also wrote part of the music, stylising it in the baroque manner. The musical-theatrical composition is based on Shakespeare's plays «The Tempest» and «A Midsummer Night's Dream». It was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera on 31 December 2011.

We watched the opera in a cinema and fell in love completely and irrevocably! Rich music, a beautiful plot combining drama with cheerful moments, an abundance of female roles (which is very important for our "star-studded" company). We were also struck by the computer graphics, of incredible complexity and beauty.

A long preparatory period began. A. Sadovnikov spent a year and a half writing the Russian text of the opera, using every hour free from work, and prepared the vocal score. All the artists received good roles with solo arias and ensembles. And what a field of activity this project offered the artists and costume makers! E. Litinskaya and I. Neduva appreciated it and once again created masterpieces. The huge shells and jellyfish descending from the ceiling, for which a complex system of suspensions was devised, invariably delighted the audience.

After 2016 we all became very fond of Valik Zvinyatskovsky, who played the role of little Sanya. We very much wanted him to appear in "The Enchanted Island" too, but there was no role for a boy in it. We had to invent and write one. That is how Cupid, the patron of newlyweds, appeared, performing boastful couplets (to music by H. Purcell) right before the storm:

"I am almighty Eros,

In Roman — Cupid.
Strong as sherry,

Dependable as an elephant."

And so on in the same vein. At the end he also made Ariel disenchant the newlyweds and return them to each other (to music by J. Mattheson), rolled Helena and Hermia onto the stage on a piece of a shipwreck, and conducted the final chorus. Before every performance Valik would make a point of checking the hanging scenery and the props; in short — he lived in the show! An amazing boy; it's a pity it is not yet clear when we will be able to give him a role again.

Text of the opera