A fine art of opera direction akin the one of goldsmith. Brilliant shines only when every side is processed.

And opera directors really work like goldsmiths: they smooth thousands of things in order to create OPERA. Maestro Boris Pokrovsky wrote in his book “Stage Direction of Opera”: “Opera is immortal. Life is music, action, movement. Opera is the artistic harmony of all the elements of life”.

But what should a director do to prevent this stage “life” from being a set of clichés, but to make audience hold their breath feeling with the heroes?

Today Dmitry Bertman – a pupil of Pokrovsky and Georgy Ansimov – is one of the prominent opera directors. Brilliant erudite and Russian Institute of Theatre Arts (GITIS) professor, Bertman is also the founding father of famous Moscow music theatre “Helikon-Opera”, so he obviously knows how to stage an opera. Bertman was only 23, when he founded “Helikon”, and now, only 30 years later, the theatre is a part of the world opera history. Each and every production of “Helikon” proves that opera can be anything – thrilling, daring, cocky – but boring. “Future belongs to opera, for this genre unites all other genres”, believes director Dmitry Bertman, whose eclectic productions are THE real OPERA.

In his lecture “Not about opera only!” Bertman talks about his vision of a place of opera in the modern world; about the way a director should work with actors and music drama; about how an idea of a future spectacle occurs and evolves, as well as about many other interesting things.