On June 15 and 27, 2006 the Opera Centre held two Gala-concerts with new graduates participating – 15 students of Galina Vishnevskaya finish a two-year education course. There were premieres and debuts, parts in opera performances and numerous concerts. Georgy Protsenko sang Faust wonderfully in the opera by Ch. Gounod and the part of Vodemont in “Iolanta” by P. Tchaikovsky – the Centre’s last production. The audience remembered Aleksey Tikhomirov (Mephistopheles and the King Rene) who received high appreciation of critics. Maria Pakhar along with debuts in “Faust” as Margaret and in “Iolanta” as Iolanta was successful as Natasha Rostova in the opera “War and Peace” by S. Prokofiev – the project of the Bolshoi Theatre. Among graduates, there is also Tatiana Metina (Gilda in “Rigoletto” by G. Verdi), Igor Gornostaev (Ebn-Khakia in “Iolanta”), Inna Voitik (Marta in “Faust” and Marta in “Iolanta”), Vladislav Golikov (Bomely in “The Tsar’s Bride” by Rimsky-Korsakov, Laudire in “Vampuka” by Ehrenberg) and others.
Along with performances on the Centre’s stage, the students toured a lot: only during the last few months, the Centre successfully took part in the international festivals “The Golden Prague”, “May Opera Evenings” in Macedonia, “The Holland Festival” in Amsterdam.
Between the concerts, the soloists of the Centre will take part in the Opera Festival in Omsk where they will perform “Iolanta”. By the tour of the tour, on June 28 Galina Vishnevskaya handed in solemnly her students the Diplomas in received education.