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International opera festival to be held in Minsk this week

Belarus' National Academic Grand Opera and Ballet Theater will host an international festival of opera between December 10 and 15, the theater's director general, Uladzimir Hrydzyushka, told reporters in the Belarusian capital city on Monday.

Mr. Hrydzyushka played up the importance of the Christmas Opera Forum, noting that it had become one of the most "vivid and memorable events in the country's life" over its four-year history, and that this year's festival would bring together singers from 16 countries.

The festival will kick off with a performance of the Flying Dutchman directed by Germany's Hans-Joachim Frei.

Eight other operas will be performed on the National Academic Grand Opera and Ballet Theater's main stage and in the chamber hall within the festival's framework. They include the St. Petersburg-based Mikhaylovsky Theater's production of A Masked Ball and the Belarusian theater's Turandot, premiered last year.

The festival will wrap up with a gala evening of famous opera singers from Belarus, Russia, Estonia, Lithuania, Canada, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and other countries. //BelaPAN