Moscow, Cheryomushki (Paradise Moscow)

When Dmitri Shostakovich composed his fastpaced and zany operetta Paradise Moscow in 1959, Stalin was dead and Khrushchev was in the process of re-building Moscow with the aid of corrupt architects and unscrupulous workmen. As high-rise concrete blocks mushroomed on the outskirts of towns, he promised a new paradise on Earth to everyone who until then had lived in cramped conditions in inner-city slums.

We meet a group of Muscovites who employ all manner of tricks to secure flats for themselves in the highly coveted new city district of Cheryomushki: the brazen female construction worker Lusya and her boyfriend Sergei, who works as a chauffeur for the high-ranking party official Drebednyov; Sasha and his wife Masha, who don’t live in the same flat and have to steal intimate moments together on street corners and in metro stations; and Sasha’s conscientious colleague Lidochka, who falls for the rogue Boris. All dream of paradise, and come to realise that it may not be where they think it is…

Paradise Moscow is Shostakovich’s forgotten operetta, a work that overflows with saucy songs, dance numbers and witty dialogue. This new production, translated by David Poutney, will be performed in English.

Tickets £33 £27 £20