“Faust” was shown in Moscow. The Fourth Wall” – a version without Mephistopheles, but with a blogger

Opera and dramatic artists unite to debunk theatrical fetishes

The Cashmere Theater staged the “non-opera comedy” Faust. The Fourth Wall” based on Nikolai Evreinov’s 1915 buffoonery “The Fourth Wall”. This is a satire on the Stanislavsky system and the Moscow Art Theater of that time with its craving for total naturalism, a parody of the production of “Faust” at the Nezlobin Theater in 1912. Now the director of Helikon Opera, Ilya Ilyin, has brought the action from the past to the present day, gathering dramatic actors and opera soloists on one stage.

Before the performance and during intermission, a voice behind the stage encourages the audience to share their impressions of what they saw on social networks. For this reason, it is allowed to use phones and film what is happening on stage during the performance.

The director of the theater, who is also the chief director, according to Evreinov, and now just a clever manager with directorial ambitions (he was played by the artist of the Satyricon theater Georgy Lezhava) with a follower of the classics, a director of the old school (the wonderful actor Boris Kamorzin, does not often work in the theater, but is in demand cinema, a pianist who sacrificed his musical career for the sake of acting) are trying to stage the opera “Faust” by Gounod. In addition to creative ambitions, the first of them is driven by the desire to attract the public at any cost. They create a kind of immersive performance.

The modern viewer is introduced to behind-the-scenes life in all its beauty and moss. Evreinov’s remarks are reproduced almost literally. On the stage is Faust’s office with a giant desk and a throne-like chair. The artist performing the part of Faust – Ivan Semenovich not Kozlovsky, performed by the guest soloist of Helikon Opera David Posulikhin – spends the night in the scenery in the costume of his hero in order to breathe “with all his lungs in the atmosphere of medieval scholasticism.” Under his bed, as Evreinov bequeathed, is a “medieval vessel” for minor needs. But the artist constantly violates something, so they remind him: “This is the 16th century, my friend! After all, if you don’t merge with the role of Faust, don’t get used to it as your own, innate role, I tell you straight out, don’t expect success and don’t blame if your role is transferred to someone else.” But in addition to Faust, he will also have to sing for Mephistopheles. The tenor will become the bass. As revolutionary innovations progress, a fourth wall will be built, separating the artists from the audience.

They will bring Faust a cup of real poison, strychnine mixed with hydrocyanic acid. “You see what details we go to in order to give the artist the right mood! Real poison!.. – a sip, and you will no longer be alive,” Karl Antonovich will say to Boris Kamorzin. No falsification. Everything is for real. Faust is required to sing with his back and forget about the audience – “Sing as they sing in life!”

Mephistopheles appears, “dressed according to the latest data from historical research.” This is Platon Andreevich – one bass for the whole theater and the whole city. The role of Mephistopheles was performed by retired soloist of Helikon Opera Dmitry Skorikov. The hero does not yet know that his services are no longer needed. Mephistopheles is now one of the sides of Faust. In the end, you can convey the voice of Mephistopheles and cello. The authors of the play within the play reach the point of absurdity and erect a fourth wall between the audience and the actors for the sake of verisimilitude.

The performer of Faust does not like such innovations. Why did he spend the night on stage with the rats? Not for the sake of being hidden from public view. But the director knows better: no wall can hide sincere emotions.

It is no longer necessary to be able to sing. The performer of the role of Margarita – a famous blogger with hundreds of subscribers and the mistress of the theater director Margot – is only able to open her mouth. Opera diva Alisa Petrovna (soloist of Helikon Opera Inna Zvenyatskaya) sings for her.

Some are reforming the theater and individual opera, or they just think they are doing so. Others – the dead man, the prompter and the props, the humble workers of the stage – guide them like puppeteers.

The second act is left to a completely different element. The mossy scenery will disappear. The demiurges of the production will sit in the theater box. And we will see a completely different performance, not the one on which the director and director worked throughout the first act. Modern dances, sparkling costumes, the apotheosis of light, flickering squares in which singers appear…. The audience is happy.