Russian-American film director Andrei Konchalovsky is set to stage a rock-opera version of Fyodor Dostoevsky's classic novel "Crime and Punishment" in Moscow.
A rock-opera of the same name written by composer Eduard Artemyev in 2009 will serve as the basis for the music, and the action will be set in a modern-day city, Mikhail Shvydkoi, art director of the Moscow Musical Theater where the musical will be staged, said Tuesday in comments to the TASS news agency.
The opera will be "harsh" and "without the sentimentality of the Dostoevsky novel of which Vladimir Nabokov was so disdainful," Shvydkoi was cited as saying.
The action will span the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, Konchalovsky said in the same report, adding that Dostoevsky himself would not be opposed to this.
"In Dostoevsky's opinion, the main thing was that the idea should remain," Konchalovsky was cited as saying.
The rock opera is expected to debut in 2015.
