Source: RIA Novosti

Russian Opera Singers Took Part In Divine Service In Thailand

Pattaya, Thailand • January 7, 2012

Russian opera singers performed as choristers during the Christmas service at the Orthodox Church of All Saints in the Thai beach resort of Pattaya, RIA Novosti reports.

International prize-winners and Russkaya Opera Theatre soloists Nadezhda Nivinskaya and Alina Shakirova, Russian Bolshoi Theatre soloists Sergey Moskalkov and Yury Baranov, Russkaya Opera soloists Lyudmila Vorobyova and Yekaterina Kalagina as well as Japanese pianist Sidzuka Toritani were among those who had come to Thailand to participate in the holiday Christmas liturgy.

That was the 2nd time the same cast arrived in Thailand. Last year, they came to Pattaya to sing in the Easter service at the same church and gave a charity concert at the 5-star Royal Cliff Hotel.


“The most difficult about being a church choir singer is to learn Church Slavonic texts,” said Toritani to RIA Novosti in perfect Russian. The 27-year-old Japanese had her postgraduate studies at Moscow P.I. Tchaikovsky Conservatoire and is currently working as an official Russkaya Opera theatre concertmaster.

The trip to Thailand wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker Charitable Foundation that is the founder of the Russkaya Opera Theatre, said theatre general director and soloist Nadezhda Nivinskaya.

Father Superior of the St. Nicholas Church in Bangkok and representative of the Russian Orthodox Church in Thailand Archimandrite Oleg (Cherepanin) addressed the congregation of the Church of All Saints after the Christmas service was over.
He wished them a merry Christmas and spoke about the assistance the Russian Orthodox church in Thailand rendered to the victims of the Thailand’s worst flood in 50 years that hit the country in July-November last year. The Orthodox community raised a donation of 1,200,000 roubles for that purpose. The Archimandrite also called upon the believers to donate money to buy a piece of land for a new Orthodox church in Bangkok.

The Orthodox Church in the Kingdom of Thailand was established in 1999. Since then the monastery in the province of Ratchaburi as well as the churches in Pattaya and Phuket have been erected thanks to Archimandrite Oleg’s tireless efforts. The Church in Phuket with the height of more than 25 metres that was opened in December 2011 is the largest Orthodox church in Thailand. There are plans to erect a church on the island of Ko Samui and a second church in the beach resort of Pattaya.