# Director Dmitry Chernyakov turns three Rachmaninoff operas into one story of Pushkin’s Miserly Knight at the Zurich Opera

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/director-dmitry-chernyakov-turns-three-rachmaninoff-operas-into-one-story-of-pushkins-miserly-knight-at-the-zurich-opera/
- Published: 2026-11-10T20:23:41+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-10T21:36:19+00:00
- Original publisher: Meduza
- Original article: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2026/11/10/director-dmitry-chernyakov-turns-three-rachmaninoff-operas-into-one-story-of-pushkin-s-miserly-knight-at-the-zurich-opera
- Topics: World

## Key points

- Chernyakov connects three unrelated Rachmaninoff operas through Pushkin’s Miserly Knight.
- All three stories unfold in an upscale retirement home.
- Dark comedy recasts tragic scenes as role-play.

## Summary

Dmitry Chernyakov’s new production at Zurich Opera brings together Rachmaninoff’s three one-act operas, which the composer never intended as a trilogy. It links their separate stories through Pushkin’s “The Miserly Knight”, placing them all in an upscale retirement home and using dark comedy to challenge the works’ romantic and tragic tone.

The operas, “Aleko”, “The Miserly Knight” and “Francesca da Rimini”, each last about an hour and share little beyond their composer and Russian language. Conductor Gianandrea Noseda’s musical interpretation and the cast were praised, while young lead singers Elena Stikhina and Bekhzod Davronov were transformed with realistic ageing make-up and costumes. The production turns scenes of love, death and folk dancing into role-play and comic spectacle, with tragedy beneath the farce.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.