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A Dog's Heart (Sobač’e serdce)

Alexander Raskatov

New Production

Production De Nederlandse Opera, Amsterdam
In collaboration with Complicite, London

From 16 March to 3 April 2013

Running Time: 2 hours 50 minutes intermission included

Sung in Russian with electronic libretto in Italian, English

Notes on the performancesOpen: A modern opera and a well-oiled performance seen in Amsterdam and London which has already met with great success. The subject is drawn from the short satirical novel by Michail Bulgakov, who in 1928 portrayed an atrocious caricature of the newborn communist Russia.

A dog, to which a brilliant surgeon transplants a pituitary gland and testicles, transforms itself into a hybrid being in which all possible animal and human moral baseness coexists. Once a cat-catcher, he bears a terribly close resemblance to a member of Stalin’s secret police, the ones that used to come for opponents during the night. From a happy dog with a wagging tail he becomes a cowardly spy, a drunken blackmailer, a servile follower of political power and that ends up denouncing his very own creator, who is forced to take measures…

The music of Russian composer Alexander Raskatov, full of lyrical inventive and the grotesque, of creativity and effects, wittily follow the libretto - in Russian, and very loyal to the original – written and conceived by an Italian: Cesare Mazzonis.

Direction

Conductor: Martyn Brabbins
Staging: Simon McBurney
Sets: Michael Levine
Costumes: Christina Cunningham
Lights: Paul Anderson
Video: Finn Ross
Puppetry: Blind Summit Theatre - Mark Down, Nick Barnes
Choreographic movements: Toby Sedgwick

CAST

Filip Filippovich: Paulo Szot
Bormenthal: Ville Rusanen
Sharikov: Peter Hoare
Sharik (puppet-players): Mark Down, Robin Beer, Fin Cadwell, Josie Daxter
Darya / Sharik Unpleasant Voice: Elena Vassilieva
Zina: Nancy Allen Lundy
Shvonder: Vasily Efimov
Vjazemskaja / Sharik Pleasant Voice: Andrew Watts
The Big Boss / Fyodor / Newspaper Seller: Graeme Danby
Sharikov's fiancée: Sophie Desmars
Detective: Matthew Hargreaves
1st Patient / Provocateur: Brian Galliford
2nd Patient: Annett Andriesen
Four Proletarians: Sophie Desmars, Andrew Watts, Vasily Efimov, Evgeny Stanimirov

The time required to repair an element of the scenery meant that it was not possible to conduct the final two days of rehearsals, including the dress rehearsal, of the new opera A Dog's Heart in a satisfactory manner. In order to respect the artistic project of the show in every detail, the Management has hence decided that the first evening of 13 March shall be used to carry out the necessary dress rehearsal, and that the Premiere of A Dog's Heart shall take place at the second performance, on Saturday 16. 
Teatro alla Scala apologizes to all its season ticket holders and to the audience of the first performance, and commits itself to fulfilling any request to transfer tickets to the remaining dates (16, 21, 27 March, 3 April).
Refund methods can be found on our website.

Vocal Ensemble “Il canto di Orfeo"

Conductors Ruben Jais and Gianluca Capuano

ON STAGE

March 2013

April 2013

TICKETS

€ 13, € 24, € 42, € 66, € 85, € 110, € 165, € 210

SHIFTS

16/03 Series A21/03 Series C27/03 Series B03/04 Series E