This multimedia work — commissioned for The Kitchen's 25th anniversary — is inspired to the dreams of Russian immigrants in New York City, who are attempting to find alternate ways of living after the end of the Cold War and the Soviet Union. This opera is the result of the collective invention of composer Dave Soldier, libretist Maita di Niscemi, and Russian visual artist Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid and it presents historical and cultural figures ranging from Vladimir Lenin to Marcel Duchamp.

 

Directed by David Herskovits and with projections by Leah Singer, Naked Revolution features the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra conducted by Richard Auldon Clark, Russian countertenor Oleg Riabetes as Lenin, bass Robert Osborne as Washington, soprano Dina Emerson, tenor Tony Boutte, and baritone Jimmy Justice.