Dmitry Shostakovich’s two extravagant pieces give one of the possible answers to the question of what form opera should take in the wake of the end of Romanticism. All that has remained from the ambitious avant-garde opus Orango, about a human-ape, is an eloquent fragment.

The Antiformalist Rayok is the composer’s bitterly grotesque protest against the dunces controlling culture in the Soviet Union, and elsewhere too. The opera is staged in russian original language and czech and english surtitles are used in the performance.

Duration of the performance: 1 hour and 20 minutes, 1 intermission