About

Yunona i Avos — one of the defining Russian rock operas of the 20th century — was written by Alexei Rybnikov (music) and Andrei Voznesensky (libretto), premiered at the Lenkom Theatre in Moscow in 1981 and toured widely ever since. The story is drawn from the true voyage of the Russian ships Junon and Avos to the Californian coast at the beginning of the 19th century, and centres on the love affair between the Russian ambassador Nikolai Rezanov and Concepción Argüello, daughter of the Spanish commandant of San Francisco. This concert-stage version foregrounds the score — the Aves at the centre of the piece are among the most widely recognised passages of Russian rock-opera writing — while retaining the dramatic structure of the original. At BKZ Oktyabrsky, central Petersburg. Russian-language libretto.