LOVE STORIES

“How love is born,.. one can take what view one likes of it. So far only one incontestable truth has been uttered about love: “This is a great mystery.” Everything else that has been written or said about love is not a conclusion, but only a statement of questions which have remained unanswered. The explanation, which would seem to fit one case, does not apply in a dozen others, and the very best thing, to my mind, would be to explain every case individually without attempting to generalize. We ought, as the doctors say, to individualize each case.”

(Anton Chekhov, About Love)

Accompanied by an orchestra, the actors read stories by authors whose works have played an important role for the Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre: Anton Chekhov, Maxim Gorky, Mikhail Bulgakov, Ivan Bunin, Alexander Kuprin, and Alexander Vampilov. Each story is that of love; there is a story of a first love, an unrequited love, a happy love, a holy love. Each story has its own music theme; the music for the performance was specially written by composer Kuzma Bodrov.