THREE MASKS OF THE KING - Yury Smekalove

The idea of the performance belongs to the St. Petersburg businessman and philanthropist, Doctor of Sciences Vyacheslav Zarenkov. Being a man of diverse interests, Zarenkov has made a name for himself not only in the scientific but also in the cultural fields. The socio-cultural project "Creating World", the charitable foundation of the same name and the Kilize Theater, founded by him, support large-scale cultural projects.

Zarenkov is also the author of literary works and ballet librettos, one of which formed the basis of "The Three Masks of the King".

Smekalov gave the original fairy-tale libretto a philosophical depth, emphasizing that people are forced to put on various "masks" in accordance with specific life circumstances. In essence, this is a given, something that accompanies each of us throughout our lives and without which it is impossible to imagine a person's existence in society. This is how the genre of the future performance was formed – a parable ballet, which has no specific time or geographical reference.

The performance presents many surprises to the audience. The dominant feature of its design is a huge mask. As the action progresses, it constantly transforms, changing its configuration, falling apart and essentially forming the habitat of the characters, who, in their makeup and costumes, resemble either the inhabitants of ancient Egypt or aliens.

Thanks to the balanced combination of the lighting score (lighting designer Irina Vtornikova) and the carefully developed video content of the performance – 3D projections (designer Victoria Zlotnikova), the stage action turned out to be bright and spectacular.

The sound of the orchestra is also unusual, with a layer of computer music superimposed on its performance (sound producer Vlad Zhukov). The orchestration was carried out by a young composer, a graduate student of the Hague Conservatory Daniil Pilchen. At the same time, maestro Evgeny Khokhlov managed to achieve an exceptionally balanced and synchronous combination of live orchestral sound and a computer soundtrack.