Ilya Bannik to Step in for Ailing Alexei Tanovitski in Met Opera's IOLANTA

Ilya Bannik will make his Met debut as King René in Thursday's performance of Tchaikovsky's Iolanta, replacing Alexei Tanovitski, who is ill.

The originally scheduled premiere of Iolanta was canceled as a result of yesterday's city-wide ban on road travel and the shutdown of public transportation due to adverse weather conditions. This Thursday's performance will now be the Met premiere of Iolanta, which will be presented in a double bill with Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle.

Both operas are conducted by Valery Gergiev and directed by Mariusz Trelinski in his Met debut. Iolanta also stars Anna Netrebko in the title role, Piotr Beczala as Vaudémont, Aleksei Markov as Robert, and Elchin Azizov in his Met debut as Ibn-Hakia. Bluebeard's Castle stars Nadja Michael as Judith and Mikhail Petrenko in the title role.

Ukrainian bass Bannik sings frequently at St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre, where his recent roles have included the Four Villains in Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Baron Trobonok in Rossini's Il Viaggio a Reims, Samuel in Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera, and Sarastro in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. His other recent performances include Gremin in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin at Edmonton Opera and the Emperor in Robert Lepage's staging of Stravinsky's Le Rossignol at Canadian Opera Company, Aix-en-Provence Festival, Lyon Opera, and Dutch National Opera.