Régis Obadia, a famous French stage director and choreographer, is fairly well known in Russia. More than ten years ago he came to Moscow for the first time as a dancer and choreographer to show Muscovites his duo, called “Welcome to Paradise”, as well as several dancing-movies. In the spring of 2004 there took place the premiere of “The Sacred Spring”, staged by Régis Obadia at ‘Moskva’ Russky Kamernyi Balet (Moscow Russian Chamber Ballet Theatre) in collaboration with the Gosudarstvennyi Teatr Natzyi (State Theatre of Nations). His success was more than obvious: the production brought him a prestigious Golden Masque Prize. Further he also directed “Idiot” at Russki Akademicheski Malyi Teatr (RAMT), the comments that followed being very controversial: no one doubted Maestro’s talent, but the very idea of rendering the plot of F. Dostoyevsky’s great novel by means of modern dance called heated discussions. However, it was for that work that Régis Obadia was awarded Chaika Prize in Make a Step nomination. It happened in 2004.

Now we are eager to see another new work by this indefatigable master, ever looking for new ways in art. This time he is to work as a partner of Lisa Monde, a composer and a singer, as well as an author of two musicals, recently written by her and being still run at two theatres in Moscow. They are Songs of Fairy-Tales, staged at Teatr Kinoaktera theatre and Moscow-Paris. The third one is a rock-opera, called L.O.V.E, the music and libretto for which has been written by Lisa. In this musical a well-known genre of rock-opera is to be combined with modern dance and hip-hop. The performance is intended both for lovers and connoisseurs of modern dance as well as those of hip-hop, the latter being supervised in this project by another famous French choreographer, Fabris Labran, a world champion in hip-hop sport dance .

In the performance Russian actors are engaged: six vocalists and eight dancers. However, every participant has to dance in the musical, and it makes scenic life of the vocalists really tough. But the word ‘impossible’ just does not exist for Régis Obadia: he can make dance not only drama artists, but also singers, and there is no doubt for him that in May, when the first night takes place, dancing vocalists will be as good as the professionals.

The name of the musical is “L.O.V.E.”, which is an abbreviation for “Little Оdd Voyage of an Extraterrestrial”. It is so eloquent that little can be added to it. To put it shortly, the Earth is visited by an alien, whose mission is to understand what love is and appreciate its importance, for if it is of any use, then it could be preserved and used for further development of the interstellar civilisation which he represents. To learn peculiar features of terrestrial love he will need a lot of surveillance and field research. Of course, some personal expertise will be needed too.

Rehearsals have already been started, and films, that always support action in Régis Obadia’s stagings, are being worked on at the moment. In this musical their aim is to create a unique impression of cosmic flight. This work is supervised by Wojciech Staron (Poland), a noted cameraman, who became famous after he had been invited to become a member of a squad, working on films about Harry Potter. A lighting designer, working for the musical, is Jacques Châtelet (France).

The musical is an international one not only because of the stuff working on it. Libretto of the rock-opera is written in three languages: English, French and Russian.

‘I’m really happy to work with Régis,’ says Lisa Mond, ‘for it’s the first time in my life that I’ve met a director who is absolutely keen to understand so wonderfully my music, to feel it so utterly well, and in so many details, too. It is with his help that my music finds its incarnation in his most talented dances, in most stylish scenic images. I do believe that the performance will have a success, for all those who work on it are not only perfect professionals, but also very talented people, indeed.’