Shostakovich - Moscow Cheryomushki - French Television, Dec. 2009Arte/Opera National 2010
Roman Burdenko (Boubentsov), Christina Daletska (Macha), Gennady Bezzubenkov (Babourov), Olga Peretyatko (Lidotchka), Nabil Suliman (Boris), Andrey Ilyushnikov (Sergueï), Elena Galitskaya (Lioussa), Mikael Babajanyan (Debredniov), Maria Gortsevskaya (Vava), Alexander Gerasimov (Barabachkine
Orchestre et Choeurs de l'Opéra de Lyon
Conductor Kirill Karabits
Staging : Macha Makeïeff, Jerome Deschamps
Time and Place: 1950s, the Cheryomushki housing estate in Moscow
Synopsis: The time is the late 1950s and new high-rise housing estates are appearing on the outskirts of Moscow, including one called Cheryomushki (‘Cherry-trees’). A motley group of friends and acquaintances are desperate to be re-housed in the smart new apartment blocks. There are the newly-weds Sasha and Masha Bubentsov, who are currently living in separate dormitories as they cannot find a home together. There is old Baburov, who is ambivalent about leaving his old Moscow haunts, and his bookish daughter Lidochka, who, like Sasha Bubentsov, is a museum guide. There is an explosives engineer, Boris, who soon becomes keen on Lidochka; and Boris’s friend, Sergei, who is a chauffeur for a local government boss. And Sergei’s on-off girlfriend, Lusya, who is a crane-driver on the Cheryomushki building-site. Unfortunately Sergei’s boss, Drebednyov, is corrupt. Together with the janitor Barabashkin, he is restricting access to the new apartments.
