Bolshoi's 'porn opera' upsets the Russians

[emad]

Telegraph
By Nick Allen in Moscow
(Filed: 24/03/2005)

The Bolshoi Theatre was surrounded by protesters and paramilitary police last night as it raised the curtain on a production that some Russians have branded a "porno-opera".

Placard-waving activists called for a ban on Rosenthal's Children, a contemporary look at Moscow's underworld of prostitution, alcoholism and violence.

The work is the first new opera to be commissioned by the state-funded theatre in 30 years. It tells a curious tale of Soviet-made clones of classical composers including Tchaikovsky and Verdi, turned out on the city's streets in 1991 to fend for themselves.

The musical geniuses busk at the city's filthiest railway stations to survive before being given poisoned vodka by a vengeful pimp. All die with the exception of young "Mozart", who winds up in intensive care.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/03/24/wbolsh24.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/03/24/ixworld.html

[leveymg]

1. The Nazis Didn't Like "Three-Penny Opera", Either

No clones in that one.