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With Christmas Eve around the corner, this evening's Opera on 3 is set in the Ukrainian village of Dikanka with Rimsky-Korsakov's 'Christmas Eve'.
A snowstorm has hit the village, where the blacksmith, Wakula, is unhappily in love with Oksana. She'll only marry him if he gets her the Tsarina's golden shoes. The villagers are singing kolyadkas, Ukrainian Christmas Carols, but Wakula is in not in the mood for singing. In desperation, he turns to the devil to fly him to the capital to get the shoes for Oksana. Will this be enough to win her hand?
Tom Service presents this concert performance recorded last year at the Philharmonie, Berlin, in conversation with Rosamund Bartlett. The cast is led by Mikhail Vekua as the blacksmith and Sofia Fomina as Oksana, with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, George Enescu Philharmonic Chorus, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski.

Vakula the smith ..... Mikhail Vekua (tenor)
Chubb, an elderly Cossack ..... Dmitry Ulyanov (bass)
Oksana ..... Sofia Fomina (soprano)
Solokha ..... Ksenia Dudnikova (mezzo-soprano)
Tsaritsa ..... Marina Prudenskaja (mezzo-soprano)
Golova, the mayor ..... Sergei Leiferkus (baritone)
Devil ..... Alexander Fedorov (tenor)
Patsyuk/Panas ..... Milan Siljanov (bass-baritone)
Sexton Ossip ..... Vsevolod Grivnov (tenor)
Woman with a violet nose ..... Nadine Weissmann (alto)
Woman with an ordinary nose ..... Josefine Mindus (soprano)

George Enescu Philharmonic Chorus
Iosif Ion Prunner, chorus master
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
Vladimir Jurowski, conductor