Petr Sokolov

"The Queen of Spades" is considered Tchaikovsky's best creation by the world-famous conductor, People's Artist of the USSR Vladimir Ivanovich Fedoseev. He took over the leadership of the musical process of recreating the production at Helikon Opera. The original reading, modern stage language, love for Tchaikovsky's music, which became the hallmarks of Helikon's "Queen of Spades," are preserved in the new version. To this were added the thoughtful gaze of maestro Fedoseev, the stunning stage capabilities of the new hall and the artistic talent of the Helikon troupe.

Sergey Prokofiev's operatic tragedy The Fiery Angel was never performed in the composers lifetime the musics brittle energy, drama and eloquent lyrical tenderness would re-emerge in his Third Symphony. The narrative focuses relentlessly on Renata, who is haunted by an angel who turns out to be the devil. Director Emma Dante describes the opera as an explosive mix of fantastical realism and endless confusion of nightmares, madness, sexual impulses and cultural clashes, and this Teatro dellOpera di Roma production was acclaimed as a presentation of Prokofievs masterpiece which sparkles in all its grotesque glory (operawire.com)

In contrast with their granddaughters, babushkas (grandmothers) do not own a thing, but complaining is not in their nature. This generation of women was born during the Russian revolution, reached adulthood under Stalin, and now that they have come to the end of their lives, they establish that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics has fallen apart. American Rebecca Feig lived in Russia for two years and talked to farmers‘ wives, female party leaders and intellectuals about communism, femininity, love and work. ‘Women in the Soviet Union are horses,‘ an old metal worker says. ‘They do the most arduous work. The only fact that distinguishes them from men is their ability to bear children.‘ While the young people are playing sports, the babushkas are working. ‘It keeps us healthy‘, a former party leader thinks. Various witness reports about communist Russia, with a rigid standard as an echo from a closed era.