On Thursday, February 6 the 13th edition of the Hibla Gerzmava Invites… Music Festival has been launched at the Moscow Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre. For 12 years the Festival was taking place in Abkhazia but this year it is the first time it is running in Moscow.

The Festival has started with the Opera. Jazz. Blues improvisation program, which has already become a tradition for the theatre and usually sells out the full house. This tradition of jazz concerts was revived by Hibla Gerzmava marking the 80th anniversary of the Jazz Goal band performances directed by opera singer Vladimir Kandelaki. Hibla Gerzmava gave a concert along with the Jazz Ensemble of the Orchestra of the Moscow Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre. The concert has been the debut performance for the band, which has united both academic orchestra musicians and those of Moscow jazz scene. The orchestra was conducted by a pianist and composer, an outstanding jazz interpreter Sergei Makeev. The opening ceremony of the Festival featured a number of surprises. For example, Ara Karapetyan, managing director of the Moscow Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre, has appeared as pianist to accompany Hibla Gerzmava in Rosina’s aria from Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia. He demonstrated a wonderful example how masterfully the opera can be transformed into the jazz.

The Festival features a pair of other concerts that will take place at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.
Tuesday, March 18 will see the performance of Verdi’s Requiem performed by the State Symphony Orchestra of Tatarstan under Alexander Sladkovsky alongside the Yurlov State Academic Choir Capella (artistic director: Gennady Dmitryak) and soloists soprano Hibla Gerzmava, mezzo-soprano Elena Manistina (soloist with the Bolshoi Opera), tenor Evgeny Akimov (soloist with the Mariinsky Opera), and bass Mikhail Kazakov (soloist with the Bolshoi Opera).
Tuesday, April 29 will see the recital Viva L’Opera! performed by Hibla Gerzmava and tenor Badri Maisuradze (soloist with the Bolshoi Opera) accompanied by the Orchestra of the Moscow Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre under Felix Korobov featuring excerpts from operas by Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Cilea and Giacomo Puccini.