Moscow poster, October 23-29

Theater

"Woe from Wit", dir. Sergey Zhenovach

Anyone who calls this performance long-awaited will be right. Ever since one of the best Moscow directors, Sergei Zhenovach, was carefully rescued from the Theater on Malaya Bronnaya, the capital has been patiently waiting for his new performances. Zhenovach’s actors, tired of waiting, scattered to different theaters, and he himself was unexpectedly warmed up by the artistic director of Maly, Yuri Solomin. The release of "Woe from Wit" was delayed for almost a whole year, but the theater explains this by the scale of the production. Sergei Zhenovach and artist Alexander Borovsky abandoned detailed everyday decorations, and this seems to be the only timid deviation from the conservative rules of the Maly Theater. Otherwise, Zhenovach, for whom someone once coined the nickname “new conservative,” tries to follow the traditions of the imperial scene. By the way, Griboyedov’s play is being staged at the Maly Theater for the seventh time. The first Famusov 170 years ago was Shchepkin, the first Chatsky was Mochalov. Now Famusov will be played by Yuri Solomin. And 28-year-old Gleb Podgorodinsky , they say, will be the youngest Chatsky in the entire history of the Maly Theater.
Maly Theatre, October 26

"The Happy Prince", dir. Kama Ginkas

Oscar Wilde's sentimental fairy tale "The Happy Prince" seems at first to be a rather strange choice for the tough and sometimes cruel director Kama Ginkas. But this is only at the beginning. In the end, Ginkas stages all his performances only about death and love - Wilde also spoke about the same thing in his short literary experiments. Ginkas transformed a dozen pages of Wilde’s text into a two-hour “parable of love” - this is how the genre of the play is defined in the program. He invited choreographer Svetlana Voskresenskaya to work with him, who a couple of years ago invented a unique “ballet of hands” in Ginkas’s play “Pushkin. Duel. Death”. Together with Lyudmila Bakshi he staged a complex vocal performance to music by Piazzola. The Youth Theater assures that the “cruel talent” of Kama Ginkas will cause less shock in the audience than usual. In any case, it is allowed to sell tickets to evening performances to children starting from the age of 10.
Moscow Youth Theater. October 27, 28, 29

Music

English pianist Frederic Kempff is in favor with our listeners after the last Tchaikovsky competition. There he played the role of a public favorite who was bypassed the main award. Kempf is lyrical, diverse, and plays a lot of different music. This time - Liszt's Transcendental Etudes and Prokofiev's Seventh Sonata.
Great Hall of the Conservatory, October 23

Once our compatriot Vladimir Feltsman is also a favorite, although an older one. He left many years ago and now comes back every now and then. This time the program is for a small audience: Bach's well-tempered clavier, volume one. Nevertheless, Feltsman will play in a hall for 1,700 people.
Great Hall of the Conservatory, October 24

Exhibitions

The pompous exhibition opened at the Historical Museum, entitled “The Great Emperors of Europe: Napoleon and Alexander I ,” will certainly find its fans, especially among boys of all ages. Of course, the concept sucks, but things! The historical one pulled out from its storerooms dozens of general and officer uniforms, swords and pistols, orders and geographical maps, sets and thrones. There is even a cocked hat of the great usurper, which came from the Carnavalet Museum in Paris. There is a camp kitchen of Napoleon and busts of his relatives, sculpted by Canova and other wonderful masters. There is something to see!
Historical Museum, from October 19.

The House of Photography opened a small but high-quality exhibition of new acquisitions at the Moscow Arts Center for its fourth birthday. Lots of good pictures, mostly already exposed at various exhibitions. But a very pleasant and well-composed exhibition.
Moscow Arts Center, from October 20.

Museum of Architecture named after. Shchuseva continues the series of photo exhibitions "24" . This time they will hang 24 frames from a huge - life-long - romantic and mystical photo poem about the architecture of Boris Tombak. He is known in professional circles for his amazing property - he turns any architecture into a fantastic one. Even from the works of former secretaries of the Union of Architects. Very beautiful.
Museum of Architecture, from October 24.

Prepared by Gleb Sitkovsky, Petr Pospelov