On March 23, 2019 Riccardo Massi will return to the Bolshoi Theatre as Des Grieux in the Adolf Shapiro production of Manon Lescaut. Anton Grishanin will conduct. Elena Razgulyaeva will sing Manon; Maxim Aniston Lescaut; Vyacheslav Pochapsky Geronte; and Giorgi Sturua Edmondo.
The Bolshoi’s Shapiro staging of Manon Lescaut has special significance for Riccardo Massi: the production’s 2016 premiere, in which he sang Des Grieux, functioned not only as his role debut but his Bolshoi house debut as well. That same year, Massi premiered another new staging of Manon Lescaut, by Mara Kurotschka and Jürgen Flimm, at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin. This will be Massi’s fourth time singing in the Shapiro production, having returned to it following the premiere in both the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 seasons, as well as in the fall of 2018.
Following this engagement, he will sing Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly and Pollione in Norma at the Bavarian State Opera, as well as Cavaradossi in Tosca at the Washington National Opera.
Information about Manon Lescaut at the Bolshoi:
Manon Lescaut: Elena Razgulyaeva; Cavaliere Des Grieux: Riccardo Massi; Lescaut: Maxim Aniston; Geronte De Ravoir: Vyacheslav Pochapsky; Edmondo: Giorgi Sturua; Un lampionaio: Bekhzod Davronov; Maestro di ballo: Stanislav Mostovoy; Sergente degli arcieri reali: Valery Gilmanov; Un capitano: Vladimir Komovich; un musico: Anna Bondarevskaya.
Anton Grishanin, conductor; Adolf Shapiro, stage director
[Photo by Damir Yusupov]