For three days, the International Theater Festival was filled with Latin American and Russian passions. The Argentinean tango and Chekhov's "Bear" were performed simultaneously in two halls to a full house. 

While the stars of the Argentine tango twirled unimaginable pirouettes and demonstrated mating rituals on the theme of "one step from love to hate" in the Big Hall of the Mariinsky Theater, in the Small Hall the performance went in a different direction.

Chekhov called his "Bear" a "cash cow. The play was a huge success and brought the author a considerable income. Over a century and a half the story was staged hundreds of times: a rude landlord demands an old debt from a inconsolable widow, the conflict turns into a duel, and ends in a declaration of love. But the main surprise of this production is that the actors sing "in character" and the musicians play.

A new genre, sound-drama, has been invented by Russian director Vladimir Pankov. His "Bear" is a vaudeville where Chekhov's joke is combined with classical arias and popular romances. Singers Nadezhda Meyer and Pyotr Markin sing the emotions of Elena Yakovleva and Alexander Feklistov’s characters in Russian and Italian.

新闻来源: www.vestiprim.ru