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A Dog's Heart

DNO
Amsterdam
7-29 Jul 2010
ENO
London
20 Nov - 4 Dec 2010
Video Designer Finn Ross
Animator Ian William Galloway
  Adam Young
Researcher Gerard Nijssen
  Adam Young
Programmer Jane Michelmore
Producer Dutch National Opera
  Complicite
Director Simon McBurney
Set Designer Michael Levine
Lighting Designer Paul Anderson
Costume Designer Christina Cunningham

Complicite's Simon McBurney directs his first opera, a co-production between Complicite and Dutch National Opera.  Dog's Heart is a new opera by Russian composer Sasha Raskatov, based on Mikhail Bulgakov's short story, The Heart of a Dog.  

Moscow, 1925, a Stray dog is taken from the street by seemingly respectable professors who turn him in to a literal and metaphorical monster that consumes everything, the story is seen as an allegory on post-revolutionary Soviet political and power structure. 

The video is a mixture of live and recorded footage with a great deal of stop frame animation that is used along with everything on stage to build by hand the world of the show.

Read the Financial Times 4 star review here

Read the New York times review here

See the highlights video of the show here