The first premiere of the Hvorostovsky Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre in 2023 will be the large-scale opera The Oprichnik by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. The shows will be held on January 21 and 22. The tickets are already on sale.

The director of the production is Sergei Novikov who previously staged Oprichnik at the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St. Petersburg (the premiere took place on May 18, 2021). Music director and conductor is Philip Selivanov, laureate of the Rachmaninov International Competition for Pianists, Composers, and Conductors (Moscow, 2022), conductor of the Moscow theatre Helikon-Opera.

Tchaikovsky's fame as an opera composer began with The Oprichnik opera. It is set in Ivan the Terrible's court during the oprichnina times (1565–1573). The plot revolves around the young boyar Andrei Morozov who wants to recover his family’s reputation and return his sweetheart. Having made a difficult choice, he joins the oprichnina, the personal guard of the tsar - and now at the wedding feast he finds himself next to the beautiful bride ... But the oath given to the tsar requires complete obedience to the will of the monarch who has his designs on Andrei's young wife.

“In the second half of the 16th century, Ivan the Terrible pursued the slaughterous policy of “eradicating treason” in Russia. For this purpose, oprichniks were chosen by the tsar. Oprich means “besides” the boyars and the well-born noble landowners that is zemstvo: the guardsmen were chosen from less aristocratic nobles and called “oprichniks” or “kromeshniks”. The tsar gave them exclusive powers to deal with any traitor, and their own word was enough to declare anyone as such - without charge or trial. A young boyar Andrei Morozov rushes between the Zemstvo and the Oprichnina. The family tree and the influence of his beloved mother strongly connect Andrei with the Zemstvo. But the thirst for revenge on Prince Zhemchuzhny, a traitor who deceived and impoverished the boyar and his mother, pushes Andrei to join the oprichnina,” Sergei Novikov explains the historical plot of the opera.

Tchaikovsky finished work on the score of The Oprichnik in the spring of 1872, but the world premiere only took place in St. Petersburg two years later. The show went down well both with the audience and the mass media. The opera was performed during three seasons, but the composer was still dissatisfied with The Oprichnik and forbade printing the score until he made a new edition.

Tchaikovsky was actively engaged in updating the opera in the last year of his life deleting entire pages from the score sometimes, but he still hadn’t enough time to complete his plans. Basing on these edits and notes, the creators of the production shortened the score removing redundant repetitions, and dramaturgically reconceived some of its fragments.