Performer: Avgust Amonov

Why attend a concert performance of an opera? What is the point without the action and the spectacle collectively resulting in, hopefully, the awe-inspiring whole? In answer to this I should like to suggest that concert performances of opera are the perfect opportunity to really ‘get under the skin’ of a work, for two principal reasons.

Once upon a time, an Emperor was hunting when his red falcon caught a white gazelle. As he grasped the animal, it transformed into a beautiful princess in his arms and they fell in love. She was the daughter of Keikobad, the King of the spirit world, a woman of such translucent beauty that she cast no shadow, but she lived under a curse...