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DTSTAMP:20260923T070824Z
UID:7d56da80-2c7d-4378-8eea-9df19bc443a9
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261127
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260923
DESCRIPTION:Nov 27 - Dec 23\, 2026\nHer 42nd Street-style Covent Garden deb
 ut as Carmen catapulted Aigul Akhmetshina to stardom at 21\, but Bizet’s
  wildcat scarcely begins to exhaust her allure. And to think that she hail
 s from the wilds of Bashkortostan\, where she and two siblings grew up wit
 h a single mother who left her to play granddad’s accordion\, devour psy
 chology books\, and swan around playacting in whatever glad rags she could
  scrounge. “A free bird\,” her family called her\, and at 14\, off she
  flew to study voice in the Bashkir capital of Ufa. There\, in the hometow
 n of Rudolf Nureyev (whose mother gave birth to him on a train bound for V
 ladivostok—oh\, these origin stories!)\, she kept afloat waitressing\, b
 usking on stilts\, and dreaming of advanced training at the conservatories
  of Moscow and St. Petersburg. When she struck out there\, the young artis
 ts program at the Royal Ballet and Opera in London somehow found her. At a
 ge 30\, Akhmetshina does her teachers proud\; that smoky yet lustrous inst
 rument\, her sensual phrasing\, and a magnetic stage personality mark her 
 as one in a million. The songlist for her Carnegie Hall debut\, with Jonat
 han Palmer Lakeland on piano\, kicks off with Benjamin Britten’s “Tell
  me the truth about love\,” possibly a gender-bent tribute to Carmen (
 “Some say that love’s a little boy\,” it begins\, “And some say it
 ’s a bird …”). We’ll hear Jule Styne’s “People” (hello\, Bar
 bra!)\, mixed and matched with Tchaikovsky\, Massenet\, Kurt Weill\, Irvin
 g Berlin\, and Velázquez—Consuelo Velázquez\, that is\, she of “Besa
 me mucho.” After the encores\, it’s back to the Metropolitan Opera\, s
 hears in hand\, to rehearse Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila opposite the
  Met newcomer Clay Hilley. For Akhmetshina\, it’s a reunion with the con
 ductor Giacomo Sagripanti\, who notched his magnificent company debut paci
 ng her uniquely self-possessed\, gorgeously sung Rosina in Rossini’s Bar
 ber of Seville (there’s video out there\, not to be missed). We can’t 
 wait.
LOCATION:Metropolitan Opera\, 30 Lincoln Center Plaza\, New York\, NY 10023
 \, USA
SUMMARY:Samson et Dalila\, by Camille Saint-Saëns
URL;VALUE=TEXT:https://airmail.news/arts-intel/events/samson-et-dalila-by-c
 amille-saint-saens
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