Organization

International Festival of Vocal Music "Opera Apriori"

Conductor

Pavel Klinichev

Stage director

Ivan Popovski

Set designer

Alexandra Scheiner

Sergey Choban

Choreographer

Mikhail Kolegov

Costume designer

Lyudmila Gaintseva

Chorus master

Alexander Rybnov (II)

Pavel Suchkov

Baritone

Yuri Syrov

Sascha Bubenzow

Mezzo-soprano

Natalia Soboleva

Masha

Bass

Viktor Borovkov

Semyon Semyonovich

Soprano

Anastasia Sorokina

Lidotschka

Tenor

Azamat Tsaliti

Boris Korezki

Valery Makarov

Sergej Gluschkow

Ekaterina Semenova

Liusia

Alexei Morozov

Irina Khruleva

Vava

German Yukavsky

Afanassi Iwanowitsch Barabaschkin

Kirill Filin

Kurotschkin

Singer

Irina Alekseenko

Kurotschkina

Sergej Ostroumov

Russian

Moscow, Cheryomushki, Op.105

Cheryomushki Shostakovich

Public

Private

Approved

The premiere of Dmitry Shostakovich's only operetta "Moscow, Cheryomushki" took place at the Moscow Operetta Theater on January 24, 1959. Performances soon followed in Rostov-on-Don, Odessa, Sverdlovsk, Bratislava, Prague, Magadan, Zagreb, various cities of the GDR and Czechoslovakia. And two years later, the film "Cheryomushki" (directed by Herbert Rappaport) was shot on the basis of the operetta. 

The composer's return to musical theater after the “anti-formalist campaign” of the 1930s and, moreover, his debut in the “light” genre was eagerly awaited. One of the founders and leading artist of the Moscow Operetta Theater Grigory Yaron wrote in his book of memoirs: “The announcement that Shostakovich is writing an operetta was met with great interest. How? The composer who wrote the Seventh Symphony, and recently the Eleventh, and suddenly composes an operetta ?! Wherever I appeared, the first question that I heard from people I knew and did not know, of various ages and professions: "What is Shostakovich's operetta?" The composer himself, regarding his “sensational” appeal to the genre of operetta, said: “I believe that a real composer should try his hand at all genres”.

The composer (a witty and sarcastic person by nature) sympathized with the music of light genres, including the classical operetta - Offenbach, Johann Strauss, Lehar, Kalman. He began writing his own opus in this genre in September 1957 "at the persistent, urgent requests" of the chief conductor of the Moscow Operetta Theater Grigory Stolyarov and completed work on it in October 1958.

Bright, cheerful music captured the sound atmosphere of the 1950s - in this the composer was alien to any kind of rigorism. The operetta was filled with the usual rhythms of waltz, gallop, polka, and the unexpected appearance of familiar melodies - "Songs of the Counter" by Shostakovich himself, popular folk songs "Fried Chicken", "In the Garden, in the Garden", "Moscow Nights" by Solovyov-Sedoy and others - creates a special comic effect.

The plot was chosen to be extremely topical. The libretto by Vladimir Mass and Mikhail Chervinsky is based on comic twists and turns associated with the massive resettlement from old communal apartments to new residential quarters. Then the "housing issue" was especially relevant, and not only for Muscovites. It has not lost its relevance even now, at the time of renovation - the resettlement of the Khrushchev settlements, in which Shostakovich's heroes happily settled.

Today, more than sixty years after the premiere, the operetta "Moscow, Cheryomushki" sounds in a new way: with a light "note" of sadness for the idyllic life of Moscow new settlers in the 1950s, for the time of youth and hopes of the post-war generation. The stage director, Ivan Popovski, strove to preserve the "playful and light nature", the special atmosphere of those times, "when it seemed that it became a little easier to breathe, although internal contradictions in people still remained." A bright performance reminiscent of Soviet comedy films created by his production team - conductor Pavel Klinichev, set designers Sergei Choban and Alexandra Scheiner and others - fully corresponds to this feeling

English

Moscow, Cheryomushki, Op.105 by Shostakovich, From (2021/2021), Directed by Ivan Popovski,, Conductor Pavel Klinichev

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Programme, About & Synopsis

Videos

Photos

Further reading

Performance Dates & Venues

Venues