The International Christmas Singing Competition in Minsk will bring together singers from 21 countries, Director General of the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theater of Belarus Vladimir Gridyushko told media.
      The competition will feature singers from all over the former Soviet Union, the countries of Western Europe. Most of the participants, 125, are from Russia. Belarus will be represented by 45 singers and Ukraine by 25. The jury panel will be comprised of the directors of leading theaters of Ukraine, Bulgaria, Russia, Estonia, Uzbekistan, Austria, France, Germany, and Canada.
      The International Christmas Singing Competition will be held as part of the Minsk International Christmas Opera Forum at the Bolshoi Theater of Belarus on 12-18 December.
       The forum will be opened on 12 December with the first-night performance of the Opera Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo. Fans of chamber operas will be treated to two premieres on 15 December: The Servant Turned Mistress by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, and Il Maestro di Cappella by Domenico Cimarosa directed by Mikhail Pandzhavidze. On 16 December the Bolshoi Theater of Belarus will produce Opera Rigoletto, Giuseppe Verdi’s immortal drama, and on 18 December a gala-concert of the world opera stars.