Moscow (AFP)

Director Dmitri Tcherniakov caused such a scandal with his contemporary vision of opera that he had not worked in Moscow for almost a decade. Here he is again at the Bolshoi, still eager to break away from the Russian clichés.

This return to the most famous of Russian scenes with a new version of "Sadko", a classic by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908), is made to please both proponents of modernity and more traditionalist audiences.

This last category of spectators and professionals undoubtedly still reproaches him for its stripped-down staging of "Eugène Oneéguine" by Tchaikovsky, a Russian opera of reference which is usually sumptuous.

Meeting journalists before this week's premiere of "Sadko", Tcherniakov does not say he is assagued by his long absence from the Bolshoi and hopes that his new opera "will inspire debate and discussion".

"This opera has the mistaken reputation of having to be epic, distant from us and from what we are," he said, sport jacket over his shoulders and tennis on his feet.

"We are trying to distance ourselves from this cliché," proclaims the 49-year-old director.

- Mastodon -

Rooted in Russian mythology, this 1895 opera tells the story of Sadko, a needy musician embarked on a fantastic epic in which he will marry Volkhova, the daughter of the king of waters and seas, before having to return to his life from before Lioubava's side, his wife on dry land.

In Tcherniakov's version, what remains of Russian imagery is fictitious: Sadko is represented there as a neurotic young contemporary man, in jeans and a sweater, when Volkhova is a powerful business woman seeking to reconnect with her passionate nature .

And their love story turns out to be only a simulation in a fun fair populated by a troop of Russian clones from the Middle Ages.

"Sadko" was a classic from the Bolshoi repertoire. Its monumental representation in 1936 reflected the cultural values ​​promoted by Stalin.

"It was an aesthetic of the victory of socialism that echoed the imperial style before," says specialist historian Mikhail Mouguinstein about this style of epic Russian operas.

"Sadko", on the other hand, has rarely been staged in the West and has lost popularity over the decades in his homeland. In 1984, the Bolshoi removed it from its repertoire.

"That the Bolshoi has decided to wind up this mastodon inspires respect", proclaims Mr. Mouguinstein, seeing in the return of this revisited classic "a major event in our cultural history".

Tcherniakov's staging has, unsurprisingly, aroused praise from some and nudges from others. "It's hard, four hours when there is so much deception and sham on stage," criticized Ekaterina Kretova in the Russian daily Moskovski Komsomolets.

- Lively and modern -

For Mouguinstein, however, with his innovative approach, Tcherniakov succeeded where most of his compatriots failed: to promote Russian opera beyond its borders.

"Only very rare Russian operas have been staged abroad, it is even difficult to imagine Rimsky-Korsakov there but Tcherniakov manages to stage it there", says the specialist historian.

Tcherniakov is indeed the only Russian to have received, as director, the prestigious "International Opera Award" (2013). His version of "Tale of Tsar Saltan", an unrecognized opera by Rimsky-Korsakov, is nominated for a new award this year.

General director of the Bolshoi, Vladimir Ourine has for his part promised to continue to educate his audience to show more openness when confronted with contemporary operas.

"The works of the 19th century can be completely re-imagined, we can try to speak in a modern language with these works and that is what (Tcherniakov) does", he explained in January on the air of the cultural channel Russian Koultoura.

"The Bolshoi Theater must be a living and modern theater".

© 2020 AFP