Music and Libretto by Dave Malloy
Adapted from War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Directed by Rachel Chavkin
Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 is an electropop opera based on a scandalous slice of Tolstoy’s War & Peace. Young and impulsive, Natasha Rostova arrives in Moscow to await the return of her fiancé from the front lines. When she falls under the spell of the roguish Anatole, it is up to Pierre, a family friend in the middle of an existential crisis, to pick up the pieces of her shattered reputation. The libretto is a free adaptation of Tolstoy’s work, maintaining the epic scope and sound of the novel while modernizing Tolstoy’s language to suit the needs of contemporary rock and pop music. The show is performed in a raucously drunken Russian dinner club setting, with no stage; the audience sits at tables loaded with ice cold vodka and dumplings as the action unfolds throughout the space.