Published on: 2026-09-17
Source: Moscow Government – Правительства Москвы –
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In Moscow State Academic Operetta Theater Very soon, one of the most grand and anticipated premieres of the season will take place — a musical thriller “Frankenstein’s Heart”. A story born more than two centuries ago from the dark imagination of Mary Shelley is gaining an entirely new sound, a unique technological form, and an unexpected emotional finale.
From Villa Diodati to a New Plot Twist
The story of Victor Frankenstein began in the summer of 1816 at the Swiss Villa Diodati. Poet George Byron, in the company of friends including the young Mary Godwin (later Shelley) and Percy Bysshe Shelley, reimagined the genre of the horror story due to prolonged rains. It was then that the idea for the novel “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus” was born, published in 1818 and becoming a classic of world literature.
On the stage of the Moscow Operetta Theatre, the audience is waiting for an original author’s interpretation of the work. Playwright Karen Kavalerian proposed a bold move: the creation that falls onto the scientist’s table is a circus prima named Label.
The score for the gothic story was written by the composer and Honored Artist of Russia Arkady Ukupnik — working in such a darkly romantic genre became a new creative challenge for him. The musical director was the theater’s chief conductor Konstantin Khvatynets, and the visual world of the production, along with the incredible costumes, was created by the People’s Artist of Russia Vyacheslav Okunev.
A year and a half of work and a technological maze
The production and choreography of the performance are directed by the Honored Artist of Russia Valery Arkhipov. According to him, the preparation of the project took about one and a half years — from the inception of the idea to the complex rehearsal work in the ballet studio and on stage.
“This is a technologically very complex performance — dramatically, musically, vocally, plastically,” says Valery Arkhipov. “It involves rapid changes of locations — a provincial courtyard, a tavern, an office, a circus arena, a secret laboratory, snowy Alpine peaks… The stage features numerous screens, visual effects, illusions, and even… lightning.”
The director emphasizes that the artists of the Operetta Theater have to demonstrate exquisite precision. They need not only to perform the most complex vocal parts and sustain dramatic intensity but also to hit the technical timings with second-by-second accuracy: the light beams, the movement of the scenery, and the video installations.
The official premiere will take place on October 1 and 2, but the theater began holding preview performances back in the summer. “The material is absolutely new, unconventional,” explains Valery Arkhipov. “It’s not “Mr. X” and not “The Queen of Czardas”, where everything is familiar. The initiative to play the blocks of pre-premiere performances belongs to the theatre’s general director Vladimir Tartakovsky. This gives us the opportunity to “rehearse” the play, feel the audience, see and correct any minor technical shortcomings, so that by October 1 and 2 we can deliver the premiere to the fullest.”
Victor Frankenstein: obsession and the path to oneself
The role of the scientist Victor Frankenstein in one of the casts is played by the soloist of the Moscow Operetta Theater, Vasily Remchukov. In his interpretation, Frankenstein is not just a mad experimenting genius, but a suffering and searching person.
“The main driving force of my hero is an obsession with his own ideas,” shares Vasily Remchukov. “It is precisely this aspiration that makes him who he is. But in our story, the hero undergoes an important internal evolution: he changes for the better and gradually overcomes his obsession.”
Unlike the relentlessly bleak original, the creators of the performance shift the emphasis: the musical includes moments of light sadness, humor, and touching scenes.
“The Female Hamlet”: a role on the edge of the limits of the human psyche
One of the vivid revelations of the play is the double role of the soloist Vasilisa Nikolaeva. In the first act, she appears on stage as the brilliant circus prima Labell, and in the second, she transforms into a creature.
“These are two completely opposite characters: one is a human, the other is not,” says Vasilisa Nikolaeva. “For an actress to play such a role is like for a male actor to play Hamlet. It’s a dream — to play something that simply cannot exist in the world.”
To find the inner truth of her inexplicable character, the actress turned to a long-standing passion — alternative psychology: “The creation is not just a character, it is a battlefield of human passions and emotions. It is initially zero, an absolute emptiness that suddenly begins to fill with feelings. We see how new life is born in an empty vessel, consisting of the entire human spectrum.”
According to the actress herself, one of the most emotional and beloved scenes in the play is the dialogue between the creation and its creator: “This is the moment when the creation comes to Frankenstein and asks to be accepted, recognized, and for him to create a mate for her. She understands that she will find no one among ordinary people and only her creator can give her a chance at happiness.”
Love that conquers
Despite the Gothic setting, the creators of the play are confident: “Frankenstein’s Heart” is, above all, a story about love, humanity, responsibility for one’s actions, and the inadmissibility of pride.
“We ended up with a story that is not purely gloomy,” Valery Arkhipov summarizes. “It is imbued with love, sometimes funny, sometimes very touching. Without the touching moments, theater cannot live today. And most importantly — in our story, love wins.”
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