Evgeny Zamyatin

In a bleak and oppressive totalitarian society ruled by Big Brother, personal freedoms are nonexistent and surveillance is constant. Art is mocked and destroyed, and imagination is considered a serious illness. In this grim world, a brilliant mathematician engages in a forbidden romance with a colleague and learns about a secret resistance. He is faced with a choice - to join or betray it.

Inhabitants of a flophouse struggle to survive under the harsh treatment imposed by the landlord, Kostyleva. One resident, young thief Wasska Pepel, ends his affair with the landlord's wife, Vassilissa, and takes up with her sister, Natacha. Pepel also befriends the baron, a former nobleman fallen on hard times, but Pepel's attempts at happiness are complicated when he's accused of murder by a spiteful Vassilissa.

200 years have passed after The Great War. The remnants of humanity live in the perfect One State. Despite an authoritarian system of serial numbers, uniforms, glass houses, and scheduled sex, happiness and harmony reign in the society.

During the swimming training camp, coach Sofia and her husband, coach Trofim, take their niece, an orphan, to raise. Anya shows hope, but does not talk after the death of her parents, which becomes the subject of harassment among other athletes. By standing up for Dima, one of the guys on the team, she gets her first real friend. In parallel, a chain of irreversible consequences begins, which can destroy the relationship of Trofim and Sophia.

This is 1920: Sophia and Trofim Ivanytch have been living on Vassilievski Island, which is part of Petrograd, for thirteen years. In their house, which looks like a ship wreck, the atmosphere is gloomy. Sophia cannot have children and she is aware that, because of that, she is likely to lose her husband. That is why, when their neighbor dies, she asks Trofim to take in Ganka, his orphaned thirteen-year-old daughter. Trofim agrees and their new life begins...

Shostakovich’s satirical opera adapted from the classic short story by Nikolai Gogol. Baritone Eduard Akimov leads the cast as Kovalyov, the hapless bureaucrat whose nose has mysteriously gone missing.

In the 26th century the inhabitants of Utopia have so lost their individuality, which varies in number. They live in glass houses (this was written before the invention of television), which allows the political police, called “Keepers” can easily supervise them. They all wear the same uniform and usually turn to each other or as a ”cipher-so” or "UNIFEM" (uniform). They feed on artificial food and rest hour marching in fours in a row the anthem of the One State, pouring out of the loudspeakers. As they are allowed to put a break on the hour (known as the ”sexy time“), draw the curtains of their glass houses. At the head of the One State is one called The Benefactor, which are replaced every year the whole population, usually unanimously. The guiding principle of the State is that happiness and freedom are incompatible.

Acclaimed artist William Kentridge directed and designed this visually dazzling Met premiere production of Shostakovich’s satirical opera, adapted from the classic short story by Nikolai Gogol. Baritone Paulo Szot leads the cast as Kovalyov, the hapless bureaucrat whose nose has mysteriously gone missing. Alexander Lewis and Andrey Popov co-star, and Pavel Smelkov conducts.