The Istanbul State Opera and Ballet (İDOB) met with art lovers at the Atatürk Cultural Center’s (AKM) Türk Telekom Opera Hall with its “New Year’s Concert.”
At the concert, the İDOB Orchestra, conducted by Murat Kodallı, and the choir, led by Maria Chekriekchieva, accompanied the soloists, presenting a wide-ranging musical selection from waltzes to operettas and works by leading composers of the opera repertoire.
Noting that this was the first concert of the new year, İDOB Director and Artistic Director Caner Akgün said the repertoire featured operettas and operas by universal composers.
Stating that tickets sold out in a very short time, Akgün said, “We would like to thank our audience once again for their great interest. We would have liked to repeat it several times, but our schedule is extremely busy. With the presence of AKM, both the number of productions and the density of İDOB’s program have increased significantly. We want to bring the works we stage to audiences as much as possible.”
Conductor Kodallı said a colorful program in two parts had been prepared, adding, “With the intensity here, we prepare much faster. We go through an intense rehearsal process and then come together on stage. We try to do our best with fine craftsmanship.”
Expressing strong optimism for the new season, Kodallı said, “We want to welcome 2026 with great hope, and I hope it brings peace, happiness and beauty to all of us. We also hope it offers us major productions that will attract public interest and more opportunities to work with joy.”
In the two-part concert, soloists Caner Akın, Uğur Etiler, İpek Zehra Evre, Burak Kul, Burçin Savigne and Nazlı Deniz Süren took the stage.
The concert opened with the overture from Mikhail Glinka’s “Ruslan and Ludmila.” In the first part, works by Gioachino Rossini, Vincenzo Bellini, Giuseppe Donizetti, Giuseppe Verdi and Georges Bizet were performed.
In the second part, Vienna’s New Year sparkle was brought to Istanbul with examples from Johann Strauss’s operetta repertoire. The evening continued with works by Franz Lehar, Emmerich Kalman and Jacques Offenbach, and concluded with Strauss’s “Radetzky March,” performed to the audience’s applause.
