For its first new production since May of last year, Helikon Opera chose to honor the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe with the premiere last Saturday of “Fallen from the Sky,” a operatic pastiche based on two war-related works by Sergei Prokofiev.
Sergei Prokofiev
Real-Life Hero
An assortment of patriotic music by Sergei Prokofiev is creatively staged in a new production at Helikon Opera.
By Raymond Stults [Moscow Times, 13 May 05]
For its first new production since May of last year, Helikon Opera chose to honor the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe with the premiere last Saturday of "Fallen from the Sky," a operatic pastiche based on two war-related works by Sergei Prokofiev.
Most of the music, as well as the story, of "Fallen from the Sky" comes from the last of Prokofiev's eight operas, "The Story of a Real Man." Interspersed in the drama are various choruses and the mournful mezzo-soprano solo from the composer's score for Sergei Eisenstein's epic film "Alexander Nevsky." The result is a worthy tribute to Soviet heroism, although one likely to find real resonance only among those who have lived their lives immersed in the lore of what Russians call the Great Patriotic War.