ARTS
PETROGRAD - Do limits exist in opera -- stories too fanciful, concepts too abstract, ideas too radical to be told in song? Perhaps not, according to Victory Over the Sun which was performed last night in Luna Park with libretto by Aleksei Kruchenykh, music by Mikhail Matyushin and stage design by Kazimir Malevich.
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From exile in Switzerland, the composer remembers his iconic Rite of Spring that was first performed by the Ballets Russes almost four years ago.
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"The streets our brushes, the squares our palettes."
-Vladimir Mayakovsky
An intrusive red wedge, the Bolshevik color of audacity and rebellion, penetrates and defeats its opposing white circle, representative of patriotic traditionalism.
Avant-Garde Exhibit Exudes Energy of Revolution
NIZHNY - When Petrograd erupted in rebellion, curators considered scrapping all plans for their avant-garde exhibit that is set to premiere next week at the Shukhov Rotunda. How could one even begin to think of culture amid war, violence and revolt? Yet plans have gone forward because it will be "a statement" -- and with so much destruction, art may very well be the final chance to sustain what is left of Russian culture.