Actors Len Cariou and Jay O. Sanders will portray Shostakovich and Stalin in the world premiere of Shostakovich and The Black Monk: A Russian Fantasy, featuring the Emerson String Quartet, on June 17 in Detroit. The work, weaving together theater and Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 14, is about Shostakovich’s 50-year obsessive quest to create an opera based on Anton Chekhov’s mystical tale The Black Monk. The premiere at the DIA Detroit Film Theatre is a part of the Black Monk Festival organized by the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival and the Wayne State University Russian program. The work is a co-commission among the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Festival (where it will be performed on July 19), and Princeton University Concerts (September 28). The piece was conceived by writer-director James Glossman and Emerson String Quartet violinist Philip Setzer.
Posted June 13, 2017
