Birmingham Opera Company's production of The Khovansky Files: A National Enquiry is an official UK - Russia Year of Culture 2014 Event with performances on 22, 24, 28, 30 April and 2 May 2014 in Birmingham.
The powerful political drama about rebellion and revolution will be performed in a secret venue in Birmingham and I am thrilled to be working as a chorus mentor with such an innovative and exciting company on such a politically relevant operatic work.
The powerful political drama about rebellion and revolution will be performed in a secret venue in Birmingham and I am thrilled to be working as a chorus mentor with such an innovative and exciting company on such a politically relevant operatic work.
After having performed in the premiere of Jonathan Dove's Life is a Dream in 2012, I am delighted to have been asked back to work with Birmingham Opera Company on their latest project - The Khovansky Files: A National Enquiry, composed by Modest Musorgsky and directed by Graham Vick. The opera, in a new English version by Max Hoehn, raises strikingly modern parallels. The story takes place in a Russia divided by powerful conservative forces and growing Westernising influence. Musorgsky paints a devastating portrait of a nation on the brink of collapse; torn apart by state corruption, religious fanaticism, social inequality and ethnic cleansing. A Russia not all that dissimilar from the one we know today.
The latest song from Pussy Riot, 'Putin Will Teach You to Love the Motherland', released to coincide with the Winter Olympics in Sochi highlights the injustice in Russia in 2014 and attacks the President's human rights record. Much of the new video shows the women being manhandled by police, attacked with pepper spray and whipped by Cossack militia.
The latest song from Pussy Riot, 'Putin Will Teach You to Love the Motherland', released to coincide with the Winter Olympics in Sochi highlights the injustice in Russia in 2014 and attacks the President's human rights record. Much of the new video shows the women being manhandled by police, attacked with pepper spray and whipped by Cossack militia.
 | Alongside the protests at Sochi, shocking footage of the violent groups that target gay men and women in Russia has revealed the staggeringly dangerous levels of homophobia prevalent in the country. The Channel 4 documentary, Hunted, included video evidence of concerted intimidation and humiliation carried out by the anti-gay groups Parents of Russia and Occupy Paedophilia - all too reminiscent of the fanaticism of Musorgsky's Russia. |
Update:
Khovanskygate: A National Enquiry in Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham, received fantastic reviews across the board and was awarded four stars by both The Guardian and The Telegraph.
"The evening’s most impressive element is the huge amateur chorus embodying the people who are the ultimate victims of all the shenanigans...here, performing with passionate enthusiasm and commitment, they become the show’s motivating force" - Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph
"Musical standards and the quality of individual performances are both extraordinarily high." - Andrew Clements, The Guardian
Khovanskygate: A National Enquiry in Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham, received fantastic reviews across the board and was awarded four stars by both The Guardian and The Telegraph.
"The evening’s most impressive element is the huge amateur chorus embodying the people who are the ultimate victims of all the shenanigans...here, performing with passionate enthusiasm and commitment, they become the show’s motivating force" - Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph
"Musical standards and the quality of individual performances are both extraordinarily high." - Andrew Clements, The Guardian
