BAKU: Gerard Depardieu To Give Reading In Baku

GERARD DEPARDIEU TO GIVE READING IN BAKU

news.az
Dec 6 2010
Azerbaijan

French actor Gerard Depardieu is to read selected extracts from Prosper
Merimee’s novella Carmen at Azerbaijan’s Opera and Ballet Theatre.

He will read the extracts on 13 December, before a performance of
Bizet’s opera Carmen.

The evening is part of the fourth International Rostropovich Festival
which opens on 12 December.

Soloists from Galina Vishnevskaya’s Opera Centre will perform in
Carmen.

Prize-winning singers will perform the main roles. Alina Shakirova
will play Carmen, Oleg Dolgov will be Don Jose, Anastasia Privoznova
Micaëla and Azerbaijani singer and Bolshoy Theater soloist Elchin
Azizov will take the role of Escamillo.

Russia’s Yaroslav Tkalenko will conduct, while the production is
directed by Ivan Popovskiy.

Last month Depardieu denied that he had called for financial aid for
the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh republic.

Armenian media reported that the Oscar-winning actor called for
financial assistance for Karabakh as part of a fund-raising campaign
by the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund.

Depardieu expressed surprise at the reports, describing them as
wishful thinking.

From: A. Papazian