Rock opera "Juno and Avos": content and history

This was the first Soviet rock opera, which, however, because of the peculiarities of the regime, the creators - the author of the libretto Andrei Voznesensky and the author of music Alexei Rybnikov - were attributed to another genre, calling it the modern opera "Juno and Avos". Its content is based on real events. The plot is based on the tragic love story of the Russian Count and seafarer Nikolai Rezanov and the daughter of the Spanish governor of San Francisco, Conchita Arguello.

The history of the meeting is truthful and invented

The storyline is true in all its variants, it begins with the moment when, in 1806, two brigades - "Juno" and "Avos" - came to the coast of California under the flag of the Russian fleet and under the leadership of the Russian count and chamberlain of His Imperial Majesty. The content of the rest of the action allows for different, sometimes contradictory interpretations, because history has become the reason for creating numerous poems, operas, ballets and simply art criticism studies. And artistic creativity suggests a different degree of error before the truth, in which the author of the poem "Avos" Andrei Voznesensky admitted. And in the production of the theater Lenkom, in the creative collaboration of the author of the music of Alexei Rybnikov and the director Mark Zakharov, the work has acquired its permanent name - "Juno and Avos".

Brief contents of rock opera

A forty-two-year-old statesman and naval commander, a widower and father of two children, Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov, dreaming of swimming to the shores of North America, but receiving refusal for refusal, seeks intercession with the icon of the Mother of God and confesses to her in his unrighteous passion for her as a woman. The Mother of God forgives him and promises her protection. Soon he really receives from the imperial court the highest order to go to the coast of California, to deliver food to the Russian colonies in Alaska. And then the anchor in the Gulf of San Francisco, the Russian ships "Juno" and "Avos". The content of the action is developing rapidly. At the ball at Don Arguello in honor of the arriving Russian expedition, the count gets acquainted with the daughter of the host, the 16-year-old Conchita. Here he learns that the house of Arguello prepares for the wedding of the young Conchita and the young hidalgo Fernando. Enchanted by the beauty of the girl, Rezanov secretly enters her bedroom, prays for her and conquers her. The voice of the Virgin again descends to them, and in the soul of Conchita, a reciprocal love awakens.

But for his offense the count must pay an expensive price: the insulted Fernando challenges him and dies from his hand. The Russian expedition hastily left California. Rezanov secretly engaged with his beloved, but for the wedding he needed to obtain permission in St. Petersburg from the pope to marry a Catholic. However, they are not destined to see each other again. On the way, Rezanov is seriously ill and dies near Krasnoyarsk. Conchita refuses to believe the terrible news and waits for the beloved for more than thirty years, after which she is tonsured into a nun and ends her days with a recluse. This is the schematic content of the opera "Juno and Avos".

Embodiment on stage

In Lenkom the production had a surprisingly happy fate. She was missed at once unlike other, less acute performances. On the stages of many countries the performance "Juno and Avos" was shown, the content of each tour was invariably triumphal. Not the last, if not the first role played immeasurable talent, energy and charisma of the performers of the main roles. At different times, the role of Count Rezanov played Nikolai Karachentsov, Dmitry Pevtsov, you can see in this role Viktor Rakov and other famous actors. In the role of Conchita - Elena Shanina, Alla Yuganova. Other roles were occupied by Alexander Abdulov, Irina Alferova, Larisa Porgina and others. With all the merits of the subsequent compositions, the duet of Nikolai Karachentsov with actress Elena Shanina, according to the opinions of the majority of spectators, remained unsurpassed in its frenzied energy. No wonder the hit of the genre of the musical "I will never forget you" in this performance is still not losing its popularity.

Memory

Conchita Arguello (in the tonsure of Maria Domingo) died in 1857 and was buried in the monastery cemetery, from where her ashes were moved to the cemetery of St. Dominic.

Count Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov in 1807 was buried in the cemetery of the city's cathedral of Krasnoyarsk. Nearly two centuries later, in 2000, a white marble cross was mounted on his grave, on which, on the one hand, it reads: "I will never forget you," and on the other it says: "I'll never see you again."