There’s a legend that the twenty-year-old poet, during his “Southern Exile,” spent about a month traveling with a Gypsy camp across the boundless steppes of Bessarabia, where he fell in love with the beauty of the Gypsy Zemfira. This beautiful, albeit somewhat controversial legend, inspired the renowned St. Petersburg poet and playwright A. Kozyrev, in collaboration with the brilliant composer and maestro of Russian musicals, Alexander Baraev, to create the musical “Pushkin.” It’s quite symbolic that the musical premiered at the “Aleko” theater, considering the name of the main character in Pushkin’s “Gypsies.” However, there’s no need to draw any other parallels between these two works—they simply don’t exist!

Except perhaps for the name of the Gypsy Zemfira, which wasn’t invented by A. Pushkin himself but was a real name. Audiences will have the chance to immerse themselves in the life of Bessarabian Gypsies through touching and bright poetry, living one life with them, dancing fiery dances, and listening—or perhaps even singing—beautiful songs and romances.