Doctor Zhivago, one of the most beautiful and touching love stories in the world of art, is a famous novel by the Russian writer Boris Pasternak, for which he was awarded a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958. In his outstandingly personal and philosophical story the author also contemplates on different aspects of system and the impact of the Revolution on humans and their social devaluation – the themes that were of course rather inconvenient for the authorities in the then Soviet Union. Therefore, in the face of great pressure put upon him, the writer had to renounce the prestigious prize.

This performance is staged on the music by Dmitri Shostakovich, a famous Russian composer and pianist, and a great figure of the music world of the 20th century. The composer, who marked the period in music, following that of Prokofiev and Stravinsky, is known for his subtle amalgamation of music styles (Neoclassical and Post-Romantic). His magnificent music that encouraged the mankind to meditate on the questions of humanism is complemented by some other, equally exciting music pieces, conceived by such extraordinary composers as Rachmaninov, Myaskovsky, Vasks and Schnitke. All this resulted into a fusion of music, which is full of sharp contrasts and grotesque.

Text from www.opera.si