The show, which premieres Monday at the DK Imenia Zuyeva, is based on an original score by composer Vladimir Sokolov and was partly funded by the Moscow city government. It tells the story of Ivan and Maria, a couple of young clubbers in present-day Moscow who find themselves transported back to a pastoral world where peasants perform music based on traditional songs and church liturgy.
At a Tuesday news conference, Sokolov said that the show didn't have a specifically Orthodox theme, although it includes scenes of a wedding and a funeral. "It's more about universal values," he said, adding that "Children of the Sun" is a mythological term for Slavs.
In the opening scene, performed at the dress rehearsal later that day, black-clad dancers at a nightclub smoked joints, and one slumped against the wall from a drug overdose. Meanwhile, a narrator in folk dress, the Old Man of Time, intoned: "Don't leave them in this empty, meaningless world. Give them a chance to change themselves."
This role was originally going to be performed by Sergei Starostin, a renowned folk musician, musicologist and nominee for a BBC Radio Three Award for World Music. He attended the news conference but said he didn't have time to take part in the first shows. So far, only two performances have been announced, for Monday and Tuesday.
In an interview after the news conference, Starostin said he had heard some of the music from the show. "It's not Shostakovich and it's not Prokofiev, but it doesn't have pretensions to be outstanding. It just aims to be music for a musical," he said, adding that he had not seen "Nord Ost" or any other musicals staged in Russia.
Starostin said he had agreed to take part because he liked the show's theme and because of his friendly relationship with its composer, Sokolov, who called the musician his "idol" at the news conference.
The composer also emphasized that the musical was not an attempt to "oppose two cultures." He said that he liked techno and trance music and that the show simply uses "aggressive" music to symbolize evil.
Although Sokolov declined to name the show's budget, he said funds from the city government had been supplemented by money from private investors. He said the show was aimed at "young people, from pupils in the senior classes at school to 35-year-olds."
Several of the performers in the show previously appeared in "Nord Ost," including Andrei Bogdanov, who will play the role of the Old Man of Time in the first shows.
"Children of the Sun" (Deti Solntsa) plays Mon. and Tues. at 7 p.m. at the DK Imeni Zuyeva, located at 18 Lesnaya Ulitsa.? Metro? Belorusskaya. www.ethno-musical.ru. Tel. 291-4311.
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