The Kirov are coming - but not to Dublin. The most talked-about Russian opera company makes its debut in Belfast on Friday, at the Waterfront Hall. A 210-strong line-up of voices and players is promised, in a Pushkin Opera Gala that's taking place within days of the bicentenary of the great poet's birth. The fare will include the Coronation Scene from Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov as well as excerpts from Eugene Onegin, The Queen of Spades, Mazeppa, The Golden Cockerel and Russlan and Ludmilla. Among the singers will be soprano Tatiana Pavlovskaya and tenor Nikolai Putilin. Valery Gergiev conducts, and will travel with the chorus to Omagh a day later, for a special, afternoon performance of Rachmaninov's Vespers in memory of those who suffered in the Omagh bombing.
