“The Wild Hunt of King Stakh” will be performed at the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus on September 17 to mark the National Unity Day

Vladimir Soltan’s opera “The Wild Hunt of King Stakh” will be shown on the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus on September 17, National Unity Day. Vladimir Korotkevich’s novel The Wild Hunt of King Stach is often called a historical detective and is no less often compared with Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Baskerville Dog. The libretto opera by Korotkevich returned to the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus in 2021. In the play come to life the terrible and beautiful legends of the mysterious swamps of Polesie.

The collector of folklore Beloretsky got lost in the forest and got into the estate of Nadezhda Yanovskaya, the last of the representatives of the once rich and noble family. The girl is tormented by the horror of the invasion of terrible cavalry under the leadership of King Stach. According to the family legend, Stah was treacherously killed while hunting by his friend Janovsky Sr. Beloretsky undertakes to unravel a mysterious story with the revived dead.

This opera has become a national musical classic. It was created in 1989 in direct co-authorship of composer Vladimir Soltan with the musical director of the play Yaroslav Voshchak and the entire production group. The premiere and further screenings of the play on the home stage were held with full sold-outs. In 1990, the talented work of the composer, directors – conductors, director, artist and performers of the main roles was awarded the State Prize of the BSSR. In the year of production (1989), the opera was presented on the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia.

The new production in July 2021 was carried out by the main director of the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus, winner of the Francisk Skaryna medal Anna Motornaya, she breathed another life into the work.

Anna Motornaya, the main director of the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus: “The Wild Hunt of King Stakh” is a unique phenomenon of Belarusian culture – Myth and Symbol, which melted into a single whole past and present, literature and music, lyrics and drama, history and romance, bright, memorable images, characters and us living today ... - Weaving into a contradictory tangle the author's "Above" and "Pro", mystical and real, everyday and sublime, natural and theatrical-game, ordinary and unusual, meanness and honesty, faith and love, Vladimir Korotkevich, Svetlana Klimkovich and Vladimir Soltan create for us a unique reality and allow us to believe at least for a moment in the possibility of defeating our own fear. For all of us, through the score of Vladimir Soltan, the adventurous romantic saga of Vladimir Korotkevich, with its deep undertones and event turns, turned into a surprisingly piercing, and achingly true story about living people.

According to the results of 2021, the opera won the Republican competition for the best cultural project of patriotic themes in the nomination “The best performance of musical theater”. In 2022, the performance was presented on the Historical Stage of the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia as part of an exchange tour of two Bolshoi Theatres – Minsk and Moscow – and was a success with the Moscow public. In 2023, the performance deservedly received the National Theatre Award in the nominations “Best Opera Performance” and “Best Director’s Work in a Musical Performance” (Anna Motornaya). In October 2024, the national opera was presented at the famous Mariinsky-2 stage as part of the Days of Minsk in St. Petersburg.

In the evening of September 17, the main parties will be: Anastasia Mikhnovets (Nadezhda Yanovskaya), Ivan Berezin (Dubatovk), Andrei Logvinov (Andrey Beloretsky), Alexander Mikhnyuk (Andrey Svetilovich), Andrei Selyutin (Ales Vorona), Viktor Mendelev (Ignat Berman), Alexander Keda (Rygor), Alexander Gelah, Vladislav Zozulko (Shlyakhtichi). At the conductor's remote of the Symphony Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus - Maestro Vladimir Ovodok.