“THE CATHEDRAL CLERGY. SCENES FROM RUSSIAN LIFE”

On February 5, 2024, the Main Stage of the Gogol Theatre hosted the premiere of the musical drama The Cathedral Clergy. Scenes from Russian Life. Based on the novel by Nikolay Leskov, the play is the result of a joint project of the V Winter International Arts Festival in Moscow and the Gogol Moscow Drama Theatre. Honored Artist of Russia Polina Agureeva is director for the play, and the Moscow Soloists chamber ensemble under the direction of People’s Artist of the USSR Yuri Bashmet is a full-fledged participant in the performance.

Leskov’s works depict beautiful and truthful pictures of Russian life. In search of his characters, Leskov turned to Old Russian literature, including hagiography, chronicles, and legends, which filled his works with authentic Russian imagery.

The Cathedral Clergy chronicle presents the diversity of human types. Leskov sees the Russian soul as capable of turning a sinner into a righteous person. Leskov’s righteous people are God’s fools; their holiness is a metaphysical phenomenon: they are those who are “waiting for the moving of the water,” for spiritual and bodily healing. According to the Gospel of John, Leskov’s characters are “impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered,” but thirsty for salvation. Creating colorful characters, Leskov dwelt on the connection between the present, the past, and the future, the meaning of human existence, and the unity of all living things. He posed eternal questions about the essence of truth and falsehood, good and evil, holiness and sin.

“During rehearsals for our recent joint production, The Living and the Dead, Polina Agureeva told me about Leskov’s terrific novel, The Cathedral Clergy. The idea seemed interesting to me, and we started looking into the material and thinking what we could do with it.” Yuri Bashmet

Director Polina Agureeva about the production:

“When we went on tour with the play The Living and the Dead, I told Yuri Bashmet and his director Dmitry Grinchenko a lot about Leskov’s novel The Cathedral Clergy, which I like a lot. They suggested that I do a performance based on this novel. This is our second joint project.

I have great respect for Yuri Bashmet’s work, and the idea of an orchestra taking part in the performance appeals to me. Composer Valery Voronov writes music for the production as we rehearse. It is a complicated but very interesting process.

The nineteenth-century works by Leskov ring strikingly modern today. With amazing acuteness, Leskov reflects on the themes that concern us today: liberalism, the relationship between the present and the past, and faith. Despite the “protracted” nature of our Russian problems, Leskov’s love for Russia is unconditional, and this is very important to me.

The Cathedral Clergy is not an easy novel, with its composition organized on the principle of a matryoshka doll. We wanted to preserve this mosaic in the stage form, so we gave the play the subtitle Scenes from Russian Life.

Leskov’s novel is an interweaving of different ornaments, which in the end add up to a picture of the Russian mentality, which is deep, contradictory, and sometimes tragicomic – that is, everything that is Russian. It is not without reason that Leskov was called a St. Basil’s Cathedral in words.
Leskov, in my view, gives a touch of the mystery of the Russian soul. It is interesting to dive into it together with him, attempting to understand, feel, and express.

The performance engages the actors from The Living and the Dead production. These are Ilya Shakunov, Alexey Vertkov, Maxim Litovchenko, and Varvara Nasonova. We share the same beliefs and aesthetics. We also invited the wonderful Natalia Egorova from the Moscow Art Theatre as well as actors from the Gogol Theatre. Our team unites us by a common mission and common values, and Leskov is our way of expressing them.”