Anne Frank returns to Moscow stage

A little-known opera based on the diary of Anne Frank is heading to the Moscow stage in a rare production.

Grigory Frid’s intimate mono-opera is no flamboyant theatrical spectacle: far from a cast of thousands it features just one soprano soloist and a chamber orchestra.

And the unusual score was tailor-made for Vladislav Bulakhov and the Vremena Goda chamber orchestra – the artists behind Monday’s show.

Anne Frank returns to Moscow stage

A little-known opera based on the diary of Anne Frank is heading to the Moscow stage in a rare production.

Grigory Frid’s intimate mono-opera is no flamboyant theatrical spectacle: far from a cast of thousands it features just one soprano soloist and a chamber orchestra.

And the unusual score was tailor-made for Vladislav Bulakhov and the Vremena Goda chamber orchestra – the artists behind Monday’s show.

“Our goal was to achieve the maximum possible effect using the minimum means,” Bukhalov told the Moscow News. The music itself is both expressive and economical in its form.

“The opera’s instrumentation is just perfect for us,” he said, adding that finding a perfect leading lady was more complicated.

Finally Viktoria Nosovskaya, an impressive young soprano with a strong track record at various international contests, was cast. “The voice party is very tricky, but I believe Nosovskaya will master it,” Bukhalov said.

The staging will combine documentary footage of the war years as production director Ivan Orlov tries to bring a sense of realism to proceedings.

Meanwhile the libretto is merely an edited study of Anne’s world-famous diary with no changes made by the composer.

Frid’s work was premiered here in Moscow in 1969, shortly before he switched his style from state-sponsored socialist realism to more modern serialism.

It was illegally smuggled beyond the Iron Curtain for performances in the US in 1978.

Its western European debut came in Anne’s native Netherlands later that year thanks to émigré violinist Mark Lubotsky.

But it’s taken time to get it back on stage in Moscow.

“We’ve been talking about it for the last 15 years,” Bulakhov said, ahead of Monday’s show at the Boris Pokrovsky Chamber Theatre.

Frid, 95, is not a household name, but while his work has not attracted the fame of Soviet titans such as Shostakovich, Prokofiev or more recently Schnittke and Gubaidulina, his reputation in music education is strong.

His music club for youngsters will return to Moscow’s Dom Kompositorov this autumn for its 46^th season, and Bulakhov hopes to stage “Anne Frank” there as well.

“Anne Frank” is one of two mono-operas he wrote, the other being based around the works of Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh.