Master i Margarita - 2014
Music Hall Saint-Petersburg
On August 8, 2014, the Russian TV channel NTV broadcast a report about the making of the musical Master i Margarita at the Music Hall theatre in Saint Petersburg.
NTV reporter Maria Sapozhnikova comments on the unique interactive technology which was used for the musical, while the actor Anton Avdeev, who plays the role of the master, argues that the music is so good that «every song could be a hit».
The musical director of the project was the Italian pianist and conductor Fabio Mastrangelo, who has been working in Russia for many years. The director was Timofey Zhalnin, assisted by Andrey Noskov and Sofya Sirakanyan. For the rest, the organisors used the sequence 6, 6, 66, 66, 666 to characterise the musical - a diabolical series of numbers which stood for 6 composers, 6 librettists, 66 actors, 66 sets and 666 costumes. To complete the list, we should mention one illusionist - Maksim Kretov and one choreographer - Dmitry Pimonov.
Originally, the leading actors of the musical would have been Anton Avdeev and Nicholas Timokhin (both for the role of the master), Ivan Ozhogin (as Woland), Vera Sveshnikova (Margarita) and Larisa Lusta (Hella). However, on August 22, less than a month before the premiere, Svesjnikova announced that, «for various reasons and circumstances», sha would no longer be part of the project. She was replaced by Natalya Martynov. And two weeks before the premiere, Larisa Lusta also said that she stopped her cooperation. She was replaced by Maria Lagatskaya and actress Anna Kovalchuk. Yes, the same Anna Kovalchuk who played the role of Margarita in the television series Master i Margarita, directed by Vladimir Bortko, of which you can find an English subtitled version in our webshop.
