Shostakovich and The Black Monk: A Russian Fantasy

Sanders with the Emerson String Quartet, witness the trials and redemption of Dmitri Shostakovich’s obsessive quest to create an opera based on Anton Chekhov’s mystical tale: The Black Monk.

Join us for the world premiere of the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival’s most ambitious production to date. “Shostakovich and The Black Monk: A Russian Fantasy” comes from the minds of acclaimed theatrical director, James Glossman, and Emerson String Quartet member, Philip Setzer. Experience the world premiere production before a national tour with subsequent performances beginning at Tanglewood and Princeton University.

Dmitri Shostakovich dreamed of creating an opera based on Chekhov's mystical tale, The Black Monk. Decades of suffering under political attacks within an oppressive Soviet regime wreaked havoc on the composer’s life, leaving the work ultimately unfinished. Haunted by the looming aftermath of Stalin’s totalitarian reign, Shostakovich is left with a deteriorating body and mind, struggling to complete his life’s work. In a bold intersection of chamber music and theater, witness the trials and redemption of one man’s obsession as the Emerson String Quartet and a cast of actors tell this story through the eyes of Shostakovich himself.