Curtain Up On ‘War & Peace’
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When the Metropolitan Opera opens its “War and Peace” tonight at 7:30, the largest cast in the Met’s history will be onstage. The production includes 250 extras, 118 chorus members, and 41 dancers, plus four chickens, one horse — and one goat.
This opera, composed by Sergei Prokofiev, presents the Leo Tolstoy novel on a grand and glorious scale. The legions of extras and animals are used to dramatize the largest land battle in European history and the opulence of an Imperial Russian ball. Moving all those people on and off stage isn’t a snap: The opera has a running time of four hours and fifteen minutes. It also requires 1,200 costumes and 79 dressers to help with those costumes.
Tonight’s performance will be conducted by Valery Gergiev. Soprano Marina Poplavskaya, who is in her debut season at the Met, will sing the role of Natasha.
