Description of the attraction
In 1975, musicians and performers of the Singing Guitars vocal and instrumental ensemble in Leningrad founded the Rock Opera Theater. He was a kind of antipode to the classical opera house.
The Rock Opera Theater is the only musical theater in Russia whose target audience is the younger generation. For the audience, this is a theater - a friend, a theater - a contemporary, whose main task is not only to entertain, but also to make people think about universal values, to bring up a high level of spirituality in a person, speaking in the understandable language of modern music and dance.
Rock opera is a synthetic genre in which there is a place for rap, swing, rock and roll, and hard rock. It is in this unique style that the works staged in the theater are written, most of which were created exclusively for the theater troupe. There are performances to the music of Romuald Greenblatt, Andrey Petrov, Alexander Zhurbin and others.
The first production of the theater - the rock opera "Orpheus and Eurydice", was presented to the audience in 1975, its forerunner was the composition "Salaspils". The success of the performance was overwhelming. The opera was presented to the public as "zong-opera", since even the word "rock" was forbidden. They veiled the fatal style, turning to the drama of B. Brecht and writing zong songs, which are instructions and teachings, into the narrative outline. The show was without posters, for a very narrow circle of viewers.
The creative team of Singing Guitars, inspired by the first recognition, decided on new experimental productions, and in 1978 saw the light of the Flemish Legend about Thiel Ulenspiegel R. Greenblatt, and in 1980 - Races. The Legend turned out to be a completely non-grossing work, very difficult to perceive, and therefore it was filmed, the Races went on for three months, after which the performance was closed, because it was about something that allegedly did not exist in the USSR: currency fraud, the mafia, prostitution, drug addiction.
The history of the modern theater "Rock Opera" began in 1985 with the premiere of the mystery of A. Rybnikov and A. Voznesensky "Juno and Avos". Then the theater acquired its current name. Interestingly, during a trip to the United States in the 90s, Juno and Avos was played at Fort Ross, located near San Francisco, where the production took place.
In 1988, the premiere of the rock opera The Monarch, the Whore and the Monk (composer A. Zhurbin, libretto by P. Grushko) took place.
A real breakthrough in the history of the Rock Opera Theater was the 1990 premiere of the opera Jesus Christ Superstar by Andrew L. Webber and T. Rice. The play was blessed by the Church.
A new stage in the work of the Rock Opera troupe - performances for children. Wonderful rock fairy tales "The Ugly Duckling", "Jelsomino", "The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Heroes" attracted both adult spectators and kids to the halls.
In 1999, the theater staged the legendary opera Orpheus and Eurydice again in a new interpretation. The roles were performed by the actors who participated in the first productions of this performance - Bogdan Vivcharovsky, who played the role of Charon since 1975, whose name was entered in the Guinness Book of Records for the duration of this image, Natalya Uleiskaya, Vladimir Dyadenistov, Alla Kozhevnikova, Albert Asadullin.
Since 2003, the Rock Opera Theater has been collaborating with composer Andrei Petrov. The repertoire of the theater includes "Where are you heading, your honor?..", "Blue Bird", the Broadway musical "Captain's daughter", specially revised for the theater.
At the beginning of 2010, the state refused funding for the theater, and it was reorganized. However, the performances continue to run anyway. All opera arias are performed live.
