New Stage

Libretto by Anastasia Bukreeva, lyrics by Mikhail Zagot

Music Director and conductor: Mikhail Pabuzin
Stage Director: Anastasia Negovora
Set Designer, Costume Designer: Sergei Novikov
Choreographer: Irina Lyakhovskaya
Lighting Designer: Ivan Vinogradov
Chorus Master: Elena Klinicheva
Media Designers: Igor Domashkevich, Vyacheslav Shestak

Sergei Esenin... Few have not heard this name, are not familiar with his amazing poems. The blue-eyed singer of Russian landscapes, the city hooligan, the foreign dandy, the heir and self-proclaimed rival of Pushkin, "God's pipe"... He acquired truly national fame during his lifetime, becoming an idol of millions. The figure of Yesenin is tragic, and his personality and literary heritage are addressed very often. The Rostov State Musical Theater also decided to touch upon the author's work, to try to understand the contradictory image and phenomenon of the master.

The musical "Esenin" is an exclusive performance, created especially for the theater and became special for the entire team. For three years, the creative team was looking for an approach to creating the plot of the performance, the troupe mastered the artistic techniques and technical innovations of the modern world musical. The author of the music is a composer, conductor, arranger, producer, laureate of the national theater award "Golden Mask", three-time winner of the award "Musical Heart of the Theater" Evgeny Zagot, the author of the lyrics is Mikhail Zagot, the author of the libretto is Anastasia Bukreeva.

The composer's music is multifaceted and multi-genre, - like the time in which Sergei Esenin lived, created, dreamed, doubted, overcame temptations and himself. The set design echoes the music - ardent Petrograd alternates with birch village Russia, a colorful cafe of the Imagist hipsters and a gloomy investigator's room alternate in a crazy kaleidoscope.

The performance of the Rostov State Musical Theater is a look at the work and fate of the poet, a look at the era in which he lived, and its main theme is the struggle between God and the devil inside a genius. The story of Esenin in the musical is told by Galina Benislavskaya - his friend, secretary, a woman who loved the poet selflessly and forgivingly, who could not come to terms with his death and shared his fate with her idol...
The poet's multifaceted and complex personality sets the tone for the rapidly changing scenes of life that flash by like frames of a film - impressions, events, meetings and people. From all this diversity a daring, dynamic and at the same time deep, thought-provoking musical is born. The finale of the production tries to answer the main mystery of Sergei Esenin - who or what caused his death.