Faust by Gounod, S 22 jan 2022, No (2021/2022), Režisēja Yuri Alexandrov, Tatyana Karpacheva, Natalya Chernikova, Darya Modzalevskaya,, Diriģents Maxim Valkov, Baron Fon Derviz Mansion (St Petersburg Chamber Opera), Saint Petersburg, Russia

Charles Gounod argued that an opera playwright should be a master of musical portraiture. In the opera Faust, based on the first part of Goethe's poem, he showed that he mastered this art to perfection. His portraits of the protagonists are so psychologically deep, so vividly colored with bright colors that they can awaken the most daring, even shocking images in the consciousness of a person of the twenty-first century ... The artistic director of the theater and the director of the play, Yuri Alexandrov, offers the St. Petersburg public a bold reading of the story of Faust, who sold his soul to the devil for his returned youth. In a modern expressive performance, Yuri Alexandrov raises eternal philosophical problems, reflects on the nature of love and the confrontation between hell and heaven. This production, which was awarded the Highest Theater Prize of St. Petersburg "Golden Soffit" in the nomination "Best Musical Performance", became one of the most poignant works of the director. “What is the Devil? No, this is not a fantastic character with red horns, but the evil that we accumulate in ourselves ... The most terrible thing in the modern world is indifference. Dostoevsky wrote that the tears of children are worse than any world catastrophe. However, today bombs, as well as hunger, disease and natural disasters, kill thousands of children every day. But does a person of the XXI century care about this? No, as long as he can serenely switch TV channels ... Over the past decades, we have witnessed many attempts at zombifying a person. Many world regimes tried to subjugate mind and soul. This is still happening to some extent. Various information is implanted into the consciousness of people. An invasion of the human mind, an attempt to create a new Frankenstein - this is what I saw in the history of Faust ... ”, - reflects Yuri Alexandrov.