There are only two Russian musicals I know so far to be of international quality.
The one by Alexey Rybnikov, “Juno and Avos” (“Юнона и Авось”), is pretty well-known, but the second one, by Aleksandr Žurbin and Jurij Dimitrin remains unknown to the wider audience, although it is much more profound as to the plot, poetry and music.
“Orphee and Euridice” (“Орфей и Эвридика”) sung by the “Singing Guitars” was almost immediately banned and could not develop its success. It’s actually closer to the genre of a rock opera than whatsoever.
The more I look closer at the Russian rock music, by the way, the more I realize that it’s deeply rooted in the professional poetry, unlike the Anglo-Saxon tradition: Boris Grebensikov (“Аквариум”, Борис Гребенщиков), Svetlana Surganova (СветланаСурганова, who, btw, made wonderful musical reprises on Brodsky’s texts), and even the earlier “Agata Kristi” (“Агата Кристи”), in their rebellious period, are worth paying attention to.
Not to forget, of course, that the same Aleksandr Žurbin did the best musical interpretation of Marina Tsvetayeva’s poems: his “Two Portraits” where almost ten of Marina Tsvetayeva’s texts are brought to one solo oratorio is beyond any description or analysis.
First published in the Levinarium Telegram Channel (now closed and deleted)