Opera in five acts
Music by Sergei Prokofiev
Libretto by the composer,
after the historical novel by Valery Briusov
Musical direction : Valery Gergiev
Stage direction : David Freeman
Director : Yuri Laptev
Set design : David Roger
Light design: Steve Whitson, Vladimir Lukasevich
With the Orchestra and Chorus of the Mariinsky Theatre
Renata : Elena Stikhina
Ruprecht : Yevgeny Nikitin
Agrippa of Nettesheim : Andrei Popov
The Sorceress : Anna Kiknadze
Faust : Dmitry Grigoriev
Méphistophélèes : Yevgeny Akimov
The Inquisitor : Mikhail Petrenko
The opera The Fiery Angel after the eponymous novel by Valery Bryusov was written between 1919 and 1927. The premiere came only in 1955, in Venice - for a long time, theatres would not stage this work, which is steeped in passion and the occult.
At the time of writing The Fiery Angel, Prokofiev had his own experience of demons of the kind that pursued poor Renata. His acquaintance, the outstanding singer Nina Koshetz (who sang as the witch Fata Morgana in the Chicago premiere of The Love for Three Oranges) was drawn by the spiritualism and, like Renata, heard the “strange knocking”. Just how seriously the composer took his is a mystery. In any case, he was surprised to note that the romances, apparently dictated to by a spirit during séances, were strikingly different to other experiences of composition.
Stage Director David Freeman has forced the demons to materialise.
Running time : 125’
Filmed in February 2021 at Mariinsky Theatre
TV direction : Louise Narboni
Coproduction Telmondis, Mariinsky Theatre, Mezzo, CNC