Passionately beautiful: Theodor Currentzis brought Dusapin's opera to Moscow

The modern interpretation of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice by the French composer Pascal Dusapin was reborn into the opera Passion. Theodor Currentzis staged the composition first in Perm for the Diaghilev Festival, and a year later brought it to the capital. The performance is sold out on the stage of the Novaya Opera — you can't get tickets, but Izvestia attended the Moscow premiere of Passion.

Torn paintings

The premiere of the opera Passion, the musical director of which was the world-famous conductor Theodor Currentzis, seemed to be attended by the whole fashionable Moscow. Tickets to the stalls cost 35 thousand rubles and you can't get them. The immersion started with an exhibition. In the foyer of the theater, the audience was greeted by a huge painting in a massive baguette, which seemed to have been deliberately torn in half — a man on one side and a woman on the other. They look at each other and scream. Maybe that's why we're not together anymore.

"The exhibition is dedicated to the theme that is revealed in Dusapin's opera, relationships between people, uncontrollable passion that can be destructive," explains theater artist Alexei Tregubov. — The audience will see famous images in the works. Perhaps not everyone will recognize them, but they will feel that they know them from somewhere. This is what I wanted to achieve in my works, moving the famous work as if to another time, to another reality.

Several more separated couples are on display on three floors of the Novaya Opera. Some of the works were created using artificial intelligence. Technology intervened and formatted Vasily Pukirev's recognizable painting "Unequal Marriage" in its own way. In Alexey Tregubov's version, an old man in a nice wedding suit and with long hair, like a rocker. And the bride is somewhat reminiscent of Julia Roberts.

The exhibition is not only a bonus for the audience, but also the start of a collaboration between Novaya Opera and the Museum of Modern Art (MMOMA). The Museum at the Opera Project / Opera at the Museum" demonstrates a synthesis of the arts. The collaboration also became a kind of homage to the creator of the theater, maestro Evgeny Vladimirovich Kolobov. January 10 marks the 80th anniversary of the birth of the founder of this scene.

— Evgeny Kolobov wanted to make the opera house modern, so that there would be no perception of conservative, boring, tedious singing in the scenery, — said Anton Hetman, director of the theater. — Kolobov always tried to bring opera closer to life. To make a living modern art out of it. He was walking across. And we decided to follow his example and recreate the theater and the atmosphere, the audience reaction around it, which Kolobov would have liked. That's how the idea came to combine the exhibition project and Currentzis' "Passion". I think Evgeny Vladimirovich would be happy.

Theodor Currentzis showed "Passion" in jeans

The experimental production combines opera, ballet and drama theater. "Passion" tore down all the barriers between musicians and the audience. Even before the performance begins, the musicAeterna Dance dance troupe is already on stage, the artists are slowly moving through a space resembling two opposing staircases. The musicAeterna orchestra appears with the third bell. The musicians walk through the auditorium and take their seats in the pit, the curb of which has been removed. The choir was waiting for the performance to begin on the balcony. As soon as the lights went out, Theodor Currentzis himself walked across the hall to the conductor's desk. The flamboyant maestro was unexpectedly wearing simple skinny jeans and a sleeveless T-shirt. Many people come to the opera not to look at the stage, but at his hands.

Dusapin is considered one of France's leading contemporary composers. The work of the avant-garde student Olivier Messiaen and Yanis Xenakis, which Currentzis undertook, is not easy to understand. This is material for a trained music lover. The plot refers to the ancient myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. He (tenor Kirill Nifontov) and She (soprano Natalia Smirnova) are having a dialogue on the border of life and death, trying to prolong the farewell moment. Passion and suffering alternate. They don't seem to hear each other. She is drawn to the ghostly image, and He follows her. Attracted by her passions, She finds herself in the underworld. And when she reaches her goal, she realizes that she lacks a real voice, to which she was deaf. But that voice has now been silenced forever.

Monteverdi's "Orpheus" Baroque music became a reference point for the composer. The orchestra has solo parts at the harpsichord. There is in the work of Dusapin and cooled down to Debussy's "Pelleas". But it caught the savvy listener. The unprepared viewer began to feel sleepy at the beginning. At the peak of the action, the audience cheered up and closely watched what was happening on stage. If the arias in the opera were difficult to perceive, then the actors and the musicAeterna Dance troupe brought clarity to the action. Director Anna Guseva and choreographer Anastasia Peshkova offered to tell the story in body language.

While the main characters couldn't get together on the stairs, real life was going on in two glass cubes. There's a feast and women's tantrums, cheating and showdowns, murders and a cemetery. In the finale, children and their parents act out scenes in front of the audience, reminiscent of scenes from paintings by Renaissance artists. And what is happening ends with a fire that consumes all suffering. Only the charisma of Theodor Currentzis can make the audience come to The Passion. Nevertheless, one should not forget that one of the functions of the theater is educational, and the maestro is a true missionary in this.