The cast of Melbourne, Cheremushki

This Melbourne retelling of the witty Soviet-era operetta will feature the emerging artists of ‘VO Emerges,’ taking to the Arts Centre Melbourne stage for five performances of this innovative new production, from the mind of director Constantine Costi, Set Designer Dann Barber and Costume Designer Sabina Myers.

Conducted by Simon Bruckard, the sizzling cast features Matan Franco as Alexander Petrovich Bubentsov (Sasha), 2023 Dr Michael Stubbs & Malcolm Roberts Victorian Opera Prize recipients Syrah Torii, as Masha and Alastair Cooper-Golec as Fyodor Mikhailovich Fedya Drebednyov, and last years recipient, Michael Dimovski, as Sergey Seryozha Glushkov.

Also featured in this thought-provoking new production is tenor Douglas Kelly, well known to the Melbourne opera community, as Boris Borya Koretsky the brilliant soprano Teresa Ingrilli last seen in Victorian Opera’s 2022 production Il Mago di Oz, performing the role of Lidochka, and Eamon Dooley (Semyon Semyonovich Baburov), Leah Phillips (Lucy), Amanda Windred (Vava) and Nicholas Beecher (Afanasi Ivanovich Barabashkin) in their principal company debuts with Victorian Opera.

The chorus includes Maya Charles Sedergreen, Alisya Irawan, Leyland Jones, Yu-Tien Lin, Tiernan Maclaren, Elise Morton, Sidra Nissen, Phoebe Paine, Kate Pengelly, Caitlin Rowe, Noah Straughan, Wei Tang, Samuel Thomas-Holland, Anushka Tiwari and Michael Zuccala.

Finally, a special thank you goes to our covers for this production: Chloe James, Tiernan Maclaren, Shania Eliassen, Michael Edwards, Elizabeth Barrow and Wei Tang.

Melbourne, Cheremushki plays 22 – 25 March at Arts Centre Melbourne.