Tbilisi State Opera launches collaboration with world’s leading troupes

Tbilisi's principal opera company has launched a brand-new program for professional exchange with some of the leading troupes around the world with a concert featuring Georgian and German stage artists on Thursday.

The Tbilisi Opera and Ballet State Theatre unveiled its initiative — titled the Young Artists Program — this week with a press conference before the artists marked the launch with the concert.

Within the framework of this project, programmes are planned in various leading theatres of the world, aimed at enhancing the skills of young singers, for their continuous education and professional development", said the company in a release.

Artists from the two venues marked the first concert within the program on Thursday. Photo: Tbilisi Opera and Ballet State Theatre.

The first collaboration under the program marked the joint Tbilisi show on Thursday, involving performers from Berlin's Staatsoper Unter den Linden.

Soprano Slavka Zamecnikova, mezzo soprano Clara Corinna Scheurle, tenor Andres Moreno Garcia, baritone Adam Kutny and pianist Markus Zugehoer were joined by their counterparts from the Tbilisi theatre.

Soprano Irina Sherazadashvili, mezzo soprano Nino Zakaidze, tenor Paata Sukhitashvili, baritone Giorgi Mchedlishvili, bass Giorgi Chelidze, tenor Giorgi Tsintsadze, and pianist Natia Azarashvili went on stage to perform fragments from opera productions along with the Berlin-based artists.

The cooperation between the two venues also involved master classed led by concert master Markus Zugehoer and Tbilisi theatre artistic director Badri Maisuradze on Wednesday and Friday.

The Tbilisi venue hosted singers and pianists from the two capital cities for the show. Photo: Tbilisi Opera and Ballet State Theatre.

Marking the ongoing celebrations for the anniversary of 25 years of diplomatic and cultural relations between Georgia and Germany, the first collaboration under the Young Artists Program is supported by the Goethe Institute Georgia.

The Berlin theatre will also host a joint concert within the cooperation, with artists from the two venues scheduled to come together in June next year for a show in the German capital.

Organisers of the Young Artists Program from the Opera and Ballet State Theatre also plan to collaborate with other acclaimed opera troupes and institutions including the New York Metropolitan Opera, the Bayerische Staatsoper and the Accademia Teatro alla Scala.