What do the rebellious students of May ’68 in Paris, Valerie Solanas shooting Andy Warhol in New York on 3rd June and Jan Palach immolating himself in Prague in January 1969 have in common? The same cry of defiance: each, in their own way, took radical action against the established order.

Kirill Serebrennikov weaves an invisible thread between these figures using the power of baroque music — a form that, in its day, also caused an artistic sensation and subverted existing norms.

Mining the great arias from Bach to Handel, Serebrennikov celebrates those who dare to contest the system, boldly moving from one epoch to the next. Much like Baroque artists, the Russian director embraces extravagance, emotion and contrast, delivering an all-encompassing, flamboyant show that mixes the beautiful and the kitsch, sorrow and yearning, laughter and despair, the fierce will to live and death.

Another central theme woven throughout the show is the artist as an instrument of resistance, vividly brought to life by a pianist playing one-handed, their other cuffed to a faceless officer. Even when shackled and plagued by doubt, this artist fights to make his vision heard, crying out the world’s beauty. This struggle for expression finds a powerful echo in the recurring image of fire, which recalls both sacrifice and violence, but also the intense, smouldering flame of hope and the possibility of a happy future.