Premiered on the 22d of March 2018.

Gustave Flaubert (1821 – 1880) was a French novelist. Highly influential, he has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country.

Flaubert had been writing the novel ‘Madame Bovary’ (1857) for about 6 years. It was serialized in the ‘Revue de Paris’. There was a court processes against the publisher and author on the charge of immorality, but both were acquitted. When ‘Madame Bovary’ appeared in book form, it met with a warm reception.

The famous Russian writer Ivan Turgenev and Gustav Flaubert were friends; Turgenev translated Flaubert’s works into Russian. That’s why the French writer was early known and beloved in Russia. Modest Mussorgsky, a brilliant Russian composer, had been writing an opera after Flaubert’s historical novel ‘Salammbo’.

The novel ‘Madame Bovary’ is extremely popular. Though we’d like to remind several plot details.

Emma is married to a country doctor Charles Bovary, she is unhappy in her marriage. Emma dreams of more romantic, sophisticated, and passionate life. She desperately searches for someone special. Her love affairs are striking and absolutely unfortunate. Emma spends lots of money and she is secretly in debts. She has a hope that her lovers would help her. Finally, she takes poison – arsenic, a very popular poison of that time.

Olga Subbotina is a guest director, specially invited to the Vakhtangov Theatre to stage ‘Madame Bovary’. The cast is outstanding and consists of skillful Vakhtangov Theatre actors, who already gained success both in Russia and abroad.

Olga Subbotina used work as an assistant director with Peter Stein and Declan Donnellan. Theatregoers and professional critics usually appreciate her productions.

Director’s note: «We often imagine something romantic and old-fashioned when we speak about Flaubert. It’s wrong. If you consider precisely the circumstances of the novel ‘Madame Bovary’, you would discover a story full of action, humor (and even humor noir), grotesque characters and genius mise-en-scenes.

My performance is not about Emma and only Emma. Her husband, their daughter, even their province neighbors represent this word — BOVARY».