Main Stage

Music and libretto by Khristof Pliev

Stage Director: Anatoly Galaov

Musical Director: Larisa Gergieva

"Kosta" - the folk heroic-epic musical drama in 3 acts,  7 scenes by Christopher Pliev. The libretto by Maxim Tsagaraev and Joachim Sharoev. The premiere took place in 1960 at the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR in the framework of the Decade of Ossetian Art and Literature.

History of creation

Christopher Pliev conceived the opera as a musical offering to the great Ossetian poet, artist and educator Kosta Levanovich Khetagurov, timed to the centenary of his birth. The authors of the libretto are Maxim Tsagaraev and Joachim Sharoev (who also directed the premiere performance). The plotline of the opera is based on real events from the life of Khetagurov.

Initially, the opera was one act (in 5 scenes). It was first staged in 1960 at the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR, at the Decade of Ossetian Literature and Art. Opera was highly appreciated by both viewers and critics, the newspaper "Soviet Culture" wrote rave reviews. Adoptive and critical comments on the opera prompted Christopher Pliev to continue working on the opera, substantially reworking and expanding it. As a result, the new version of the opera resulted in three acts and seven scenes. In this form, it was already staged on the stage of the North Ossetian Musical Theater, in 1962. 

Also in the new edition of the opera, it was staged in 1974 in Moscow, on the stage of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theatre during the Decade of Ossetian Art and Literature in Moscow.

Opera for more than 25 years has opened seasons in the North Ossetian musical theatre.

Characters

Costa, baritone

Mother of the orphans, soprano

Kubadi, bass

Mother Earth, mezzo-soprano

Anna Tsalikova, soprano

Varvara Schroeders, soprano

Lieutenant-General Kokhanov, bass

Adjutant, tenor

Prince Dzakhsor, baritone

She sang, a tenor