The opera  ‘Pinocchio’  of  Gloria Bruni was premiered on 19th December 2020 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Minsk after being successfully performed on stages in Hamburg, Naples, London and Parma.

 It was a world premiere of sorts: in fact, the German composer created additional music and added new scenes especially for the Belarusian version of the story of the well-known puppet, so that the opera has been considerably expanded and now reaches two acts.

This is not just an opera for children, as one might think, but is also intended for an adult audience.

The Minsk version is distinguished by the duo of librettists: Ursel Scheffler, original librettist, and the debutant in opera direction, Natalia Baranovskaya, who coordinated more than 40 young performers from the Bolshoi Theatre’s children’s opera school for her stage productions, in addition to the cast of singers.

The choreography was supervised by international competition winner Sergey Mikel, the lighting designer – Lyudmila Kunash, the computer graphic designer – Denis Astashenok, who created picturesque scenery and luminous costumes for the occasion, also making use of video projections and animated figures.

Maestro Vladimir Ovodok masterfully conducted the orchestra and choir.

Pinocchio had more than 30 performances and was elected as one of the ten most important productions of the Bolshoi Theatre in Minsk, where it will be performed also in the future.