This year marks the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution of 1917. This is one of the major events of the XX century, which had a huge impact on the development of Russia and the world. 1917 became a frontier, forever dividing the history of the country into two epochs - before and after. On November 7, a grand concert dedicated to this date will be performed at the Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre. The director of the concert is Daniil Dmitriev, the musical director and conductor is Honoured Artist of Russia Anatoliy Chepurnoy.

“In the history of our country there are examples of a fundamental shift in power.  The last event is the disintegration of the USSR and the emergence of the Russian Federation. That’s when citizens fell asleep in one country, and woke up in another”, says Daniil Dmitriev, “This event also prompted me to ask several questions:  how did this happen, what did we refuse and what did we get in return?  Comparing the Russian Empire and the USSR. I was shocked at how abruptly the human mind could change. This is exactly what the concert “Music of the Great Upheavals” will be about”.

The spectators will be able to get back 100 years ago, and to experience a drastic change of epochs and irreversibility of the dramatic events of that time. The foyer decoration will allow them to immerse themselves in that era and feel what it's like to wake up in another country.

Before the beginning of the concert, the audience will walk through the locations-performances, which create a realistic atmosphere of those times. Everything begins with Tsar’s Russia, when they gathered for tea in the evenings, read Pushkin's poems and listened to their favourite romances. There still are icons in every house, people still go to church. But there are already the first signs of tumultuous times: there is a volunteer’s recruitment for the World War One, revolutionary fly sheets are already circulating in a clandestine way... Each of you will be able to travel 100 years ago and see how history revives and develops right in front of your eyes.

Still, the main character in the performance this evening will be music, which was created by the greatest composers and poets responding to revolutionary events. It is the music what keeps and brings all the emotions to us, emotions and sentiments of that time.

In the first part of the concert, songs of pre-revolutionary times will be performed, which are replaced by revolutionary songs and marches. The second part is dedicated to the work with a powerful metaphorical plot - Georgy Sviridov's "Pathetic Oratorio", in which the music merges with the Mayakovsky’s verses. This monumental epic is about the revolution and the composer's underlying theme of the Motherland. Seven parts of the oratorio, created for the expanded orchestra’s instrumentation and the choir, are perceived as an overall picture and as a reflection on the Russia’s destiny, its past, present and future.