Alexander Gradsky's opera

February 9, 2010

Your webmaster got a copy - signed by the composer - of Alexander Borisovich Gradsky's opera The Master and Margerita. In March 1987 Gradsky started composing this opera on a libretto which Pavel Moysevich Grushko had written in 1979. But it would be September 2009 before the work was completed.

On September 8, 2009 Aleksander Gradsky finally announced that his opera The Master and Margarita was finished, and on September 23 he could be proud to offer his fine CD-boxes to the guests at the premiere in his half-finished theater.

The opinions about the opera are rather divided. The performances of the 57 different singers are unequal, and their casting is not always success-ful. In addition, you may wonder why they had to be so many. Because Gradsky sings no less than four roles himself: he is the Master, Yeshua, Woland and Behemoth.

In addition to the above mentioned libretto by Pavel Gushko, Gradsky used also original dialogues from The Master and Margarita. The music is a melting pot of classical, experimental, pop, gypsy music, folk, musical and some other music genres, where originality not always - I express myself mildly - appears to be Gradsky's main concern. More than once you recog-nize fragments and elements of other composers, both from classical music and from the musical genre: Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Rossini, Handel, Beethoven, Verdi, Strauss and Offenbach, and tunes from Chicago and Cabaret.

But one could consider this as an advantage. It brings variation, which could be necessary - for 3 hours and 5 minutes is a long, long time...

Read more about Gradsky and the genesis of the opera

The cd and the book

Alexander Gradsky - Libretto    Alexander Gradsky - CD