Organization

Singer

Tenor

Georgy Faradzhev

Male chorus

Bogdan Volkov

Soprano

Ekaterina Petrova

Female chorus

Natalia Kreslina

Bass

Alexey Antonov

Collatinus

Maxim Kuzmin-Karavaev

Baritone

Boris Zhukov

Junius

Ilya Kuzmin

Artyom Garnov

Tarquinius

Dmitry Orlov

Contralto

Gayane Babajanyan

Lucretia

Maria Patrusheva

Anna Sinitsyna

Mezzo-soprano

Aleksandra Saulskaya-Shultyaeva

Bianca

Irina Romishevskaya

Anastasia Belukova

Lucia

Kristina Bikmaeva

Stage director

Ekaterina Odegova

Conductor

Jan Latham-Koenig

Alexander Zhilenkov

Lighting designer

Timofey Ermolin

Set designer

Etel Ioshpa

Dramaturge

Mikhail Muginstein

Novaya Opera

English

The Rape of Lucretia

Moscow

Russia

Novaya Opera Theatre

Public

Russian

Approved

The Rape of Lucretia Britten

The Novaya Opera presents the first staging of Benjamin Britten's outstanding opera The Desecration of Lucretia (1946) in the capital. The theater continues the "English line" of its repertoire: earlier on the stage of the Novaya Opera were the diptych DIDO (its second part is a masterpiece of the Baroque era, "Dido and Aeneas" by G. Purcell) and Britten's "Turn of the Screw".

The Desecration of Lucretia is a landmark work in the composer's work. He composed an amazing chamber opera - it features 8 singers and only 13 instruments in the orchestra! And although he had to turn to chamber opera rather for financial reasons, Britten greatly appreciated the genre: “She [chamber opera] provides an opportunity to focus on human psychology. But this has become the central theme of modern advanced art . " The libretto by Ronald Duncan is based on the drama of the same name by André Obet and the poem Lucretius by William Shakespeare.

Before us is a kind of parable, the deepest and at the same time refined study of human psychology. Lucrezia, the wife of the Roman military leader Lucius Collatinus, is an example of virtue and faithful love. Sextus Tarquinius, the son of King Tarquinius the Proud, tries to seduce her and, failing to succeed, rapes her. “The ancient Roman history of Lucretia is an important motif of European culture (one of the variations is a painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1529). Britten enlarges the theme by introducing two Storytellers, modeled on the old "passions" - a tribute to the Christian tradition. Intervening in the course of the drama, they emotionally comment on the action, act as the voice of the author, fate and even the inner voice of the characters, asserting the dominant morality on the basis of later, Christian values ​​”  (Mikhail Muginstein).

Exploring the depths of the subconscious, Britten emphasizes the elevation of man: rejecting violence, Lucretia, like the ancient Oedipus, punishes herself - this is the courage of true morality. This is how the entire spiritual path of mankind is reflected in the story of one woman.

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew