The Diaghilev festival 2019 presented the programme of main events. This year the emphasis is on the concert part. The festival will present the whole specter of musical phenomena: from ancient works to the most recent experimental opuses, carefully selected by the artistic director Teodor Currenzis. The festival will open on the 20^th of May and will last for 11 days.

The peculiarity of the Diaghilev festival 2019 is a strong concert programme. The festival will open with the 9th Symphony by Mahler, the work based on traditions but modernistic by its nature, the last completed work of the composer. The Festival orchestra completed from the musicians of musicAeterna and guest musicians will traditionally perform the monumental and extremely difficult work. The final point of the festival will be a performance of German Requiem by Johannes Brahms. One of the best western collectives will live out this time the interpretation of Teodor Currentzis – the orchestra that for many years has worked with maestro in Europe but never in Perm – Mahler Chamber Orchestra – together with the Perm choir musicAeterna. After that, Maestro will come on the main stage of the festival – the stage of the Perm opera – with the concert version of the opera “Idomeneo” by Mozart that will be presented in summer in Salzburg directed by Peter Sellars.

There are several unique musical collectives invited to Perm with their programmes. For the first time in Russia the French ensemble of ancient music La Tempête will perform musical narration made of two works of baroque authors: the oratorio by Heinrich Schütz about Christ resurrection and madrigals by Johann Hermann Schein performed by a singer – a bearer of the tradition of Melkite singing. The artistic idea of the concerts of La Tempête lays in sensitive immersion of the audience into music, link with space and artists, that is why it implies active cooperation with other art forms, such as electroacoustic music, theatre, dance, light and video mapping.

The concert of the ensemble Klangforum Wien should be unusual, too. This ensemble is 24 musicians from ten countries who strongly believe that music can change the world. They will perform two works of one of leaders of the experimental sound, a master of microtonal music Georg Friedrich Haas who will be one of resident composers of the festival. The Austrian orchestra will perform a play by Haas “Hyena” – an extremely sincere dialogue with an inner “hyena” – alcoholism – written on the text of the actress, writer and wife of the composer – Mollena Williams-Haas. The second work of the composer is The string quartet #3 ”In iij. Noct” – musicians will perform in full darkness, without music sheets and in maximum distance from each other. They interact with sounds only and they decide how far they are ready to go before coming back. The duration of the work will be fixed during the performance.

Georg Haas, composer:
-      I’m glad that three of my pieces will be performed at the festival. Three pieces which I think present my music in a quite beautiful way. One is a traditional piece which is reflecting musical history; one piece which is showing my work with light and darkness - which will be deep experience as for the performance as for the audience; and then, one of these pieces which I think is the most important in my life, the piece “Hyena”. It is music for storyteller and chamber ensemble speaking about fundamental human experience which is happening in all cultures and in all traditions, speaking about being addicted, the escapes of addiction, and save the life by escaping. To send this message into the audience, this is amazing for me.

The second resident composer – Arvo Pärt. His music will be performed in the concert of two unique choir collectives founded by Teodor Currentzis: the Perm musicAeterna and Cyprus ByzantiAeterna. During the festival there will also be a series of recitals: Vadim Kholodenko, Alexey Liubimov, Jiovanni Sollima, Mikhail Mordvinov, Anton Batagov, Cécile Lartigau, Polina Osetinskya, Alexey Goribol, Matthias Höfs and Christian Schmitt. Each of them will perform with a unique author selection of works from baroque to avant-garde.

Anton Batagov, composer:
-      I’m coming to Perm for the Diaghilev festival for the seventh time. And every time for me it is a big event, very joyful, I can’t wait for it. It’s not just arriving, coming on stage and playing some music, it’s an atmosphere that every participant feels as soon as he leaves the plane. It’s more than just professional work of some people. It’s a special moment in life.

Connoisseurs of intellectual experiment will appreciate the show by legendary Anatoliy Vasiliev “Old man and the sea” staged in 2017 for the Chekhov festival; it immediately became an object of great rarity that should be caught in programmes of lucky festivals. The artistic search and research of the borders of endless opportunities of the contemporary theatre will be continued by the performance-journey of the Spanish theatre Kamchàtka and the performance of Anna Garafeeva put on music by Alexey Siumak “Thread”.

Alexey Siumak, composer:
-      The performance is based on three lines. The first one is an antique Greek myth about Minotaur, an anthropomorphic beast with a bull’s head who lives in a labyrinth. Walking in the labyrinth looking for the truth we ask questions: what a beast is it and what the truth is it? The second line if a circle system of “Divine comedy” by Dante. There is other Minotaur; it guards the entrance to the seventh circle of hell. And the third line that we interlaced in our story, it tells about modern electronic social networks. It is not a news that when talking to someone on the Internet we can’t always definitely say if a person on that side id a bot, a real one or just a mask. Again we face a labyrinth and a beast but in other way. We hope that after the performance all participants and spectators will find answers to some questions.

Again the festival audience will attend all unusual but already traditional formats: piano and string gala in the Diaghilev House that are held in total darkness with no programme announced; concerts at dawn in the hall of “wooden gods” of the Perm Art Gallery; concerts of alternative music and the afterparty. There also will meetings, lectures, master classes, so the communication with artists will flow in all formats and with no limits. The main venue for experimental projects, informal socializing and creative search will become the Shpagin factory that was transformed into a free creative space. Last year the artists could use only one shop, this time the events will be held in several workplaces and in the territory near the factory.

Teodor Currentzis, the artistic director of the Perm opera and ballet theatre and the Diaghilev festival:
- We are very lucky that in the centre of the city, in its oldest part, there is such a place where we can found a culture cluster – a creative laboratory with no border between audience and performer, where people can feel freedom and art can become a part of everyday life. And then new generations will know Perm from other side –not as a closed city but as an open one. That is why it’s very important that the Shpagin factory will be the main office of the Diaghilev festival – the center of appearance new culture and esthetical values.

The educational and club programmes of the Festival will be announced in April. Thanks to support from Seyfeddin Rustamov, a beneficiary owner of PJSC “Metafrax” a special project devoted to help students studying “traditionally not women” specialties in art sphere “Women in art” will be continued this year. Also a project “Fine chemistry” that will give young composers, directors and performers opportunity to realize themselves at the big venue of the international festival will be realized this year.

The main programme of the festival agreed on the 1^st of March by the organizing committee of the Diaghilev festival chaired by the vice-premiere of the government of the Perm region Anton Klepikov is available on the project’s website, the video presentation with comments from participants on the YouTube channel of the theatre and official pages on Facebook and VKontakte. Tickets will be available from the 18^th of March.

Diaghilev festival – 2019 is supported by the Ministry of culture of the Perm region and Department of culture and youth policy of Perm administration. The official partner is a group of organizations PJSC LUKOIL in Perm region.