The Nose

With a cast of 89 roles - spread among a no less gigantic of 33 singers – and a rhythmical action which is nearly cinematographic, The Nose is a huge challenge for any opera house because of its logistic complexities and an exhilarating “nightmare” for its Stage Director. Based on a story by Nikolai Gogol and premiered in Leningrad in 1930, the work was put out of circulation due to the attacks of the Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians. The opera was not seen on stage again until 1974, just a year before the composer’s death. The sarcasm -  bordering on  Theatre  of the Absurd – of its libretto and  the “ music without musical structure” score,  influenced  by the  biomechanics of Meyerhold, sustain a spectacle which  is as acid in content as it is wildly modern musically. 

The debut in the Teatro Real of this cult opera arrives with the acclaimed and irreverent production of Australian Barrie Kosky -  who staged the most recent Magic Flute at this theatre -,  who has been a fan of this work since his student years. The staging communicates the grotesque mishaps of a grey and pompously bureaucrat who is the  lead character.