The most ambitious project of the National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre of Belarus is the 2nd Minsk International Christmas Opera Forum that will be held from 15 to 20 December 2011. The founders of the Opera Forum are the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus, Minsk City Executive Committee and the National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre of Belarus. During the forum, the audience will see not only new productions of the National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre of Belarus with the best local artists and guest stars, but also specifically brought to this Forum Giuseppe Verdi’s opera La traviata directed by Moscow Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theatre. This performance, conducted by Felix Korobov, opens the Opera Forum on December 15th. The main part in the acclaimed production by Alexander Titel will be performed by Hibla Gerzmava, who will arrive in Minsk soon after she had a great success in a few revival performances of Giacomo Puccini’s opera La bohème at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Violetta Valery performed by Hibla is always a heat, a strain and a fracture, a mixture of passion and sensuality with loneliness and despair. This presents a beauty and a profound tragedy, born of the most amazing and irresistible force in the world under the name of Love…