Two nominations have each been made in the genres of operetta and musical, creating a shortlist of four works (from 15): Barbara New — a musical by Anna Kozlova and Tatiana Sinkevich; The Flying Dutchman — a fantasy musical by Naum Galperovich and Sergey Beltyukov (based on Vladimir Korotkevich’s novel of the same title); and two operetta versions of Boats of Despair (also based on Korotkevich’s work) — one by Oleg Chirkun and Natalia Marchuk and the other by Oleg Khodosko and Denis Martinovich. Despite having the same plot, the two works differ in their artistic concept and musical content. The former resembles a folk comedy while the latter is more of a light opera — a popular genre in the West and in Russia but as yet little known to Belarusian audiences.
The Musical Theatre’s artistic council invited applicants to present their works, after which the shortlist was drawn up, explains the Theatre’s Artistic Leader, Adam Murzich. He tells us, “These are certainly the best in our genre; the composers really went the extra mile during their presentations. Our theatre is pleased to see such co-operation although it’s too early to say whether the finalists’ works will appear on our playbill. Our leading artistic specialists are weighing everything thoroughly, since contemporary musical theatre combines genres, involving soloists, orchestra, choir and ballet. Every member of the team has their role to play. It will delight me if even one of the finalists has their show performed.”
