Master classes, auditions and meetings with renowned artists have become a tradition at the Opera Centre. They have already taken place there this season with the famous opera director Tito Capobianco and American baritone Sherrill Milnes.
Living in Europe for more than 20 years, Mikhail Yurovsky has gained enormous authority, conducing major opera companies and orchestras in Dresden, Leipzig, Rostock, Berlin and Vienna. One special feature of his artistic endeavor has been his passion for uncovering and making known to the public unjustly forgotten masterpieces of music, especially of the 20th century, by such master composers Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitry Shostakovich and Sergei Slonimsky. He generously shared his vast experience as a conductor, choosing as material for his master classes two opera productions in the Centre’s repertoire, Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta and Verdi’s Rigoletto. The master classes took place in an open format and were attended not only by soloists of the Centre, but also by students of the Moscow Conservatory, the Gnessin Academy of Music, the Schnittke Institute and the Russian Academy of Theatrical Art.
In the words of Mikhail Yurovsky, “there is no analog anywhere in the world to the Galina Vishnevskaya Centre. It is an absolutely priceless idea and provides a springboard for young singers such as every one of them can only dream.”