It may not look it, but by Bolshoi standards, this is apparently a cutting-edge production.
Director Dmitri Tcherniakov told reporters that his new Ruslan and Lyudmila, the first opera to be shown in the renovated theatre is "certainly modern in its theme. We are trying to bring the characters closer to reality so the viewer can believe that they are real and not made up."
Reuters explains further: "Large electronic screens will vie for the audience's attention with actors in full period costume, acrobats and jugglers. Naked women will dash across the stage and the cast will make sudden transitions into modern-day life. Protagonist Lyudmila, played by Russian soprano Albina Shagimuratova from Houston's Grand Opera, even receives a Thai massage from two young women while a brawny, tattooed admirer dances around her."
Obviously the naked women dashed just a little too quickly for the assembled photographers' lenses:
