Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov

The Tsar’s Bride

Царская невеста

The production of 2013 was one of the most notable opera premieres of the decade: Daniel Barenboim, the musical director of the Berlin State Opera, was at the conductor's podium, Olga Peretyatko performed the leading role of Marfa Sobakina, whom the fearsome Tsar himself had set his sights on, Anita Rachvelishvili portrayed Lyubasha, who competes with Marfa for the heart of the oprichnik Gryaznoy.

The timeframe of the story has been radically updated: from the darkness of Russian history to a future built on computer technology. With their help, new oprichniks - 21st-century political technologists - simulate both the Tsar and a suitable bride for him. However, behind all the cynical modern games lies genuine pain, blood, and love.

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Actors

Vasily Stepanovich Sobakin, a Novgorod merchant

Anatoly Kotscherga

Marfa, his daughter

Olga Peretyatko

Grigory Grigorevich Gryaznoy, oprichnik

Johannes Martin Kränzle

Grigory Lukiyanovich Malyuta Skuratov, oprichnik

Tobias Schabel

Ivan Sergeyevich Lykov, boyar

Pavel Černoch

Lyubasha

Anita Rachvelishvili

Crew

Director

Dmitri Tcherniakov

Conductor

Daniel Barenboim

Set designer

Dmitri Tcherniakov

Costume Designer

Elena Zaiceva

Lighting Designer

Gleb Filshtinsky

About

The Berlin history of "The Tsar's Bride" began in 1922 when the opera gained popularity due to the first wave of Russian emigration. In 1948, it was staged here as a sign of strengthening Soviet-German friendship. Dmitry Chernyakov's production has nothing to do with interstate politics or ideological trends. The performance, which triumphantly opened the 2013/2014 season at the Staatsoper (which was still undergoing renovations to its main building on Unter den Linden and was temporarily housed in the Theater named after Schiller), was born out of the director's desire to reintroduce to Europeans a Russian masterpiece unjustly forgotten.

According to Chernyakov himself, it is "a very comprehensible work with a tight, logical dramaturgy, vividly portrayed characters, based on a well-crafted play, a melodrama." By transposing the 1899 opera (set in the autumn of 1572) into an ominously ironic futuristic setting, Chernyakov continues the development of his favorite theme: the collision of a counterfeit artificial world and scorchingly genuine emotions.