The Master and Margarita

Sergey Slonimsky's remarkable work "Master and Margarita" awaited its moment for over half a century. Following the concert performance of the opera's first act in 1972 at the Leningrad House of Composers, conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky, authorities banned the piece the very next morning. Almost twenty years later, during Perestroika, Mikhail Yurovsky conducted both a concert version and a one-off stage performance at Moscow's soon-to-close Forum Theatre. He also directed this composition in Hanover, notably in German. In 2012 to mark the composer's 80th birthday Vladimir Yurovsky (Mikhail Yurovsky's son) conducted only the first act at the Mikhailovsky Theatre, directed by Vitaliy Fialkovsky. It's worth noting that the librettists of "Master and Margarita", Yuri Dimitrin and Vitaliy Fialkovsky, skillfully captured the spirit and core ideas of the novel, faithfully preserving Mikhail Bulgakov's words.
The current production by the Samara Opera and Ballet Theatre marks the first full-scale scenic realization of Slonimsky's opera in Russia. This production shines, thanks to the brilliant work of three Petersburg natives: director Yuri Alexandrov, conductor Evgeny Khokhlov, and performer of one of the lead roles, Sergey Leiferkus. Sergey Slonimsky often jokingly said his nationality was a Leningrader, a Petersburger. He could have equally considered himself a 'Samaritan', as Samara's stage hosted premieres of his operas Virinea, Mary Stuart, Hamlet, and Visions of Ivan the Terrible. Sergey would have been thrilled to share the success of his beloved work with his fellow Petersburgers. He deeply resonated with thoughts dear to Bulgakov: power should not be violence over people; one must not fear acting according to conscience; true love is a tremendous force capable of immortalizing a person; an artist's creativity, if honest and talented, can live on into the future...
Evgeny Khokhlov, the musical director and conductor of the play, comments, "We aimed to restore justice and bring this magnificent work back to the opera stage... Sergey invented a unique musical language for vocalists and solo instruments in Master and Margarita."