Russian stage director wins international opera award

Moscow-born Dmitri Tcherniakov has picked up two gongs at the inaugural International Opera Awards held in London this week. Tcherniakov won awards for best director and best new production for his staging of The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh.

The 2001 production was originally staged for the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg but has also been shown at New York’s Metropolitan Opera during the 2003 Lincoln Centre Festival and at the Netherlands Opera this year. The multi-skilled Tcherniakov is known as much for his costume design as for the productions he directs.

The inaugural Opera Awards were held at London’s Hilton Hotel on 22 April with prizes in 22 categories. Patrons of the awards include opera fans as well as directors and singers such as Placido Domingo. The Opera Awards Foundation was set up in 2012 by British businessman Harry Hyman and Opera magazine editor John Allison who felt that the people involved in opera as well as the art itself were not receiving the recognition they deserved.

Also up for an award was the Mariinsky, which lost out to the Metropolitan Opera in the category of best opera house. The Helikon Opera in Moscow was also nominated for a best chorus award, which went to Cape Town opera. Similarly Olga Polikarpova was up for a best costume award, which was given to Buki Shiff from Isreal.