National opera singer to perform in Moscow

AShe will play the role of Amelia in opera A Masked Ball by Giuseppe Verdi, Azertag reported.

Azerbaijani soprano Alieva graduated at the Baku music academy and joined the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow as soloist in 2010. She has won prizes at the Operalia Competition (Milan, La Scala, 2010), the Francesco Viñas Competition (Barcelona, 2010), and at the Maria Callas Competition.

Alieva's discography includes 'Pace Mio Dio', CD of Italian opera arias for Delos Records and her vocal recital 'Russian Songs and Arias' with the New Russian State Symphony Orchestra for Naxos. She has also recorded a disc of "Great Italian love duets" with tenor Alexandr Antonenko and the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Constantine Orbelian.

A Masked Ball opera in three acts by Italian composer was premiered at the Teatro Apollo in Rome on February 17, 1859.

Under contract to the Teatro San Carlo in Naples in 1857, Verdi had settled on the story of the assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden in 1792 as the basis for a proposed opera.

Verdi's opera was forced to undergo a significant series of transformations and title changes. Based on the Scribe libretto and begun as Gustavo III set in Stockholm, it became Una vendetta in domino set in Stettin, and finally Un ballo in maschera set in Boston during the colonial era.

From the mid-20th century, it has become more common for the setting to revert to its original 18th-century Stockholm location. A re-creation of the original Gustavo III has been staged in Sweden.