How "anti-Soviet rock opera" became a cult in the USSR: Mysticism and magic of "Juno and Avos"

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

On October 27, the famous actor, People's Artist of the RSFSR Nikolai Karchentsov would have turned 76, but two years ago, the day before his 74th birthday, he passed away. He played dozens of striking roles in theater and cinema, and his most memorable work on stage was the main role in the legendary rock opera Juno and Avos. The fate of this performance was amazing: in the West it was called an "anti-Soviet rock opera", but at the same time it was not banned in the USSR and even allowed to tour abroad. True, this happened thanks to the intervention of Pierre Cardin …

Often "Juno and Avos" is called the first Soviet rock opera, although in fact the composer Alexei Rybnikov and director Mark Zakharov previously staged the rock opera The Star and Death of Joaquin Murieta in 1976. Two years later, Rybnikov showed Zakharov his improvisations based on Orthodox chants and offered to create a play based on The Lay of Igor's Campaign. The poet Andrei Voznesensky was not carried away by this idea, and he presented the director with another version of the plot - his poem "Perhaps!" The next day, the director decided to get to work.

Mark Zakharov was not sure of the success of this project - his previous rock opera was rejected by the commission 11 times. In what happened next, the director saw some kind of mysticism. Voznesensky told how they, together with Zakharov, went to the Yelokhovskaya church and lit candles at the icon of the Kazan Mother of God, which was mentioned in the poem. "Juno and Avos" was accepted the first time.

By that time, Nikolai Karachentsov had been performing on the stage of Lenkom for 11 years, since in 1967, immediately after graduating from the Moscow Art Theater School, he was admitted to the troupe of this theater. True, the first 6 years he got only secondary roles. In the cinema, his creative destiny developed in the same way - wide fame came to him only after 30 years, when he played the main role in the film "The Eldest Son", and 2 years later - in "The Dog in the Manger". But never once did Karachentsov think about leaving the theater, as if he knew: his finest hour was ahead. He said: "". Soon there was really a lot of such work for him, because Zakharov had no doubt that he would find a role for the actor in his new performance.

Composer Alexei Rybnikov said: "". After everyone heard Karachentsov's singing in the musical film "Dog in the Manger", no one had any doubts that he could perform all the vocal parts in the play on his own.

Although everything went very well and the actors brilliantly embodied the idea of the director, poet and composer, no one expected that the play would be immediately allowed to be shown. In his book "Perhaps" Nikolai Karachentsov recalled that at the closed premiere of the performance in front of the state commission, his knees trembled with excitement: "".

The excitement turned out to be in vain - thanks to a coincidence of happy circumstances or even mysticism, the state commission accepted the performance the first time, despite the provocative text and the prayers and rock music that sounded in it. Alexey Rybnikov recalled: "".

This production was then called a theatrical sensation - from the very first shows it became a cult. Alexander Abdulov recalled his tour in the 1980s. in Leningrad: "".

Even Mark Zakharov did not know how to explain the fact that the genre of rock opera, alien to Soviet art, appeared on the theater stage not only in the USSR, but also abroad. Pierre Cardin himself, who was friends with Voznesensky, insisted that the theater come on tour to Paris, where the premiere of Juno and Avos made a splash. The next morning, all foreign newspapers vied with each other about "nonsense": "a religious anti-Soviet rock opera with political overtones" was released in the USSR!

Surely everyone who has ever seen Nikolai Karachentsov on stage is unlikely to forget it. He did not even give 100 - 200 percent. During the performances, the actor was repeatedly injured, often not even noticing at what moments. In 1985, during a tour in Kuibyshev, he severely injured his knee, but played the production of "Juno and Avos" to the end. And later I found out that he had a rupture of the ligaments of the patella and meniscus. Even the doctors wondered how they could stay on their feet with such pain.

February 2005 divided the life of Nikolai Karachentsov into "before" and "after". He was involved in a serious car accident, suffered a head injury and was in a coma for almost a month. He was saved, but the actor struggled with the consequences of the accident for many years - he had to re-learn to walk and speak. At the same time, speech and motor activity could not be fully restored. By that time, the play "Juno and Avos" had been on the theater stage with unflagging success for almost 25 years. During this time, several actresses were replaced, performing the main female role, but it was simply impossible to imagine someone other than Karachentsov in the main male role. But the circumstances were such that he had to look for a replacement. 3 weeks after the accident, in the role of Count Rezanov, instead of Nikolai Karachentsov, Dmitry Pevtsov appeared, who had previously been involved in the extras of the play.

After this tragedy, Karachentsov did not give up, taking this incident as a lesson in fate: "".

Exactly 12 years after the first accident, in the same fatal February for him, the actor again got into an accident. This time he escaped with only a bruise, but six months later, doctors discovered a malignant tumor in his lung. His condition was aggravated by bilateral pneumonia, and on October 26, 2018, Nikolai Karachentsov passed away. Probably, then many recalled the words of his song from the rock opera: "I will never forget you, I will never see you." And everyone who heard the lines of the "Prayer of the 20th century" from "Juno and Avos" must have resurrected in his memory his voice, characteristic, with a hoarseness:

These heroes had real prototypes, although their relationship was very different from those sung by the poets: The true story of the prototypes of the rock opera "Juno and Avos".