Russian opera The Golden Cockerel to go ahead at Adelaide Festival

Performances of opera The Golden Cockerel at the Adelaide Festival - featuring Russian and Ukrainian cast members - will still go ahead, say festival directors.

The Adelaide Festival’s artistic directors are committed to going ahead with its Russian opera centrepiece The Golden Cockerel, despite that country’s invasion of Ukraine.

Neil Armfield and Rachel Healy said Russian president Vladimir Putin’s military actions made its co-production with French and German opera companies “more urgent and necessary”.

The opera stars British-Ukrainian bass-baritone Pavlo Hunka and Russian singers Venera Gimadieva and Andrei Popov, as well as Estonian, Lebanese, French, British, German and Australian artists.

A scene from Barrie Kosky's production of Russian opera The Golden Cockerel. Picture: Jean Louis Fernandez

“Adelaide Festival stands united against military aggression and war,” Healy and Armfield said in a prepared statement.

“Our Ukrainian and Russian artists are supporting each other and together every member of this company prays that this opera, forged through international collaboration, will be received by audiences as a symbol of hope.”

Healy and Armfield said the invasion had sent “shockwaves” through the company of The Golden Cockerel, which is due to run at the Festival Theatre from March 4 to 9.

“Despite this, the team is passionately committed to proceeding with the presentation of this magnificent work,” they said.

“Our hearts are breaking for the people of Ukraine and their families in Australia and elsewhere.”

Directed by Berlin-based Australian Barrie Kosky, The Golden Cockerel was written by Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1907, based on Alexander Pushkin’s 1834 poem but also as a response to the Russo-Japanese war.

Modern portrayals of the central Tsar’s role have prompted comparisons to Soviet leaders and Russian presidents.