The Fiery Angel

The enigmatic, mystical opera The Fiery Angel got its first Bolshoi Theatre production in 2004.
This opera which is second to none in terms of its shattering emotional intensity, was introduced to Moscow audiences by Bolshoi Theatre music director, Alexander Vedernikov. Sergei Prokofiev’s multidimensional music was given stage form by Francesca Zambello and Georgy Tsypin who, in 2002, had done a production of Turandot for the Bolshoi.

Zambello is known, not without reason, as an expert on Russian subject matter — she has directed Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov (twice) and Khovanshchina, Prokofiev’s War and Peace, Shostakovich’s The Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District and The Nose, Borodin’s Prince Igor, Tchaikovsky’s The Slippers. Francesca sees herself as an expert in working with Russian artists: “I know how to help them, where to direct their searches, how to boost their self-confidence”.

Zambello first came to Moscow in 1976, as a student, to study Russian literature and the language and, as she acknowledges, she fell in love with Russian culture. Georgy Tsypin, Zambello’s co-author on the production, is one of the most sought after of theatre designers. His productions — and he has worked at leading opera houses in Europe and America — have garnered many prestigious prizes and awards.

The Zambello-Tsypin production team has freed The Fiery Angel of its ’decorative’ medieval fetters and transferred the action to twentieth century Russia in the 20’s. The Bolshoi stage has been transformed into a sinister apartment block well, steeped in an atmosphere of mysticism and diabolical practices. It is in the bowels of this well that Renata’s drama is played out, obsessed as she is either by divine revelations or by diabolical delusions. It is the issue of the interrelationship between artist and the authorities that serves as the background for a detailed, psychological portrait of the opera’s heroine. “For me”, Francesca Zambello admits, “Renata’s passions are like those of the artist”.