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Exclusive footage of bass Blaise Malaba singing Susanin’s aria from Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar in Cardiff Singer of the World 2015.

About the music: Susanin is a peasant whose landlord, Romanov, has been elected Tsar. But the Polish army is advancing, with the aim of capturing the new Tsar. Susanin deliberately leads the Polish troops the wrong way, while word is sent to warn the Tsar. In this aria, he decides it is his duty to sacrifice himself for the sake of his country, to tell the Poles what he has done – and give up his life for the Tsar.