The idea of the International Cultural and Humanitarian Intercollegiate Youth Project ‘OPERA & PODIUM’ is based on the friendly partnership of two art universities – Saint Petersburg State University of Industrial Technologies and Design and the Saint Petersburg State Conservatory named after N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov that celebrates 160 years since its foundation in 2022 being the first educational institution in Russia in the field of musical art and theater.

The project aims at uniting and engaging students in creative and project activities, preserving and reviving Russian cultural traditions, awakening interest in Russian history and culture, increasing the competitiveness of Russian education, which corresponds to the main directions of the Russian humanitarian policy.

The main objective of the project is to open the team potential of creative young people by creating a unique atmosphere of synthesis between different types of art – opera singing and design – under the guidance of experienced mentors from among the prominent artists and highly qualified academics.
The youth teams will be made up of Russian and international students of different majors (opera singing, theatre directing, costume design, applied information technologies in design). They will develop a concept of staging a scene from a classical Russian opera of the 19th century and, accompanied by the student symphony orchestra, will perform a concert performance of arias, dressed up and set against the decorations designed in the course of the project.

In addition to the creative component, the project also includes an educational and cultural components that will include lectures on the history of the Russian music and theatre, the historical background of the corresponding musical works, the origin and history of Russian costumes, and the historicity of the characters in Russian opera. Special master classes by leading theatre artists and musicians and thematic excursions to museums, backstage and costume rooms will be organised for project participants.

Russian history, opera, fashion, design and multimedia will come together and become the beginning of cooperation and cocreation between Russian and international students of two leading Saint Petersburg universities, becoming a landmark event of the cultural life of the city and the country.