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Bogdan Volkov and Alexander Kireyev, from the Bolshoi Theatre’s Young Artists Opera Program, are to participate in the Mirella Freni and Opera: 60 Years of Love concert which is to take place on 11 April at the Luciano Pavarotti Municipal Theatre of Modena, Freni’s home theatre. Bogdan Volkov will sing Lensky’s aria “Where, oh where did you go off to?”, from Eugene Onegin, and Alexander Kireyev — Yeletsky’s aria I love you, from The Queen of Spades. They will also perform the Marcello Rodolfo duet In un coupé, from La Bohème. The Mirella Freni Academia di Bel Canto soloists and Volkov and Kireyev will be accompanied by La Grande Orchestra from the town of Faenza (conductor — Nicola Valentini).

This year Mirella Freni has a double jubilee. On 27^th February she celebrated her 80^th birthday with a concert at the Luciano Pavarotti Municipal Theatre of Modena, while the 11^th April concert will mark the 60^th anniversary of her professional career (she made her debut as a singer at this Theatre on 3^rd February 1955 in Carmen). Having won the hearts of audiences at all the world’s major opera houses, Mirella Freni would often return to her home theatre — here she sang Mimi (La Bohème), Marguérite (Faust Charles Gounod), Violetta (La Traviata), Title Role (Manon Massenet and Manon Lescaut Puccini), Elvira (I Puritani Bellini), Title Role (Fedora Umberto Giordano) and Caterina Hubscher (Madame Sans-Gêne Umberto Giordano). Having retired from the stage, Mirella Freni devoted her life to teaching and, in 2004, opened her Academia di Bel Canto.

The Bolshoi Theatre’s Young Artists Opera Program continues its successful cooperation with foreign programs for young singers. In recent years there have been joint performances of the Bolshoi’s Young Artists Opera Program with the winners of the opera competition of Paris National Opéra, the soloists of the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, and the scholarship-holders of the Luciano Pavarotti Foundation. And this year on the Bolshoi’s New Stage there was a concert uniting soloists from London’s Royal Opera House Jette Parker Young Artist Programme, the Salzburg Festival Young Singers Project and Zurich Opera’s International Opera Studio.

Among the Bolshoi Young Artists Opera Program friends and partners are also the La Scala Academia and the Mirella Freni Bel Canto Academia: in November 2014 soloists from these 3 institutions gave a concert on the Bolshoi Theatre’s New Stage.