Life is strange and cyclical. How else to explain how an operetta written in and about 1950s Russia can have such strong ties and resonances to 2023 Melbourne?

Moscow, Cheryomushki, the only operetta written by Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, explored housing problems in the Soviet Union through a group of friends living in a residential complex. Sydney-based director Constantine Costi sensed an opportunity to bring it into the modern day, where similar issues are not only still playing out, but worsening.

Sydney-based director Constantine Costi.Credit:Joe Armao

“What could be more pressing than an operetta about the housing crisis? This is something that everybody in Australia is grappling with at the moment,” he says. “What was funny in adapting it from corrupt Soviet bureaucrats to greedy Melbourne landlords was that it was hilariously, disturbingly easy … The subject matter is aggressively contemporary.”

Melbourne, Cheremushki is a light-hearted exploration of a depressing reality: the majority of “normal income earners” in the city will never own property and are at the mercy of landlords. The heavy themes are offset by the show’s irreverence, made all the more absurd by a dose of magic realism: a truth-telling park bench, a magic garden where flowers bloom for the good of heart and wither for the bad.

“On the surface, it’s a bit of a deus ex machina – suddenly this magical garden solves their problems,” Costi says. “But it’s an ironic take on the whole thing: the situation is so bad and in this world, the only way they can get justice is through a magic garden. Unfortunately, there is no magic garden. I really like that sickly kind of irony.”

With a set by Dann Barber and costumes by Sabina Myers, Melbourne, Cheremushki taps into a grungy aesthetic that Costi describes as “Ren and Stimpy meets the Sex Pistols”. “We’re calling the whole thing a perverse love letter to Melbourne,” he says. “There’s a highly aestheticised approach – it’s like a sewer panto, or Melbourne on acid.”

The set for Victorian Opera’s production of Melbourne, Cheremushki.Credit:Sarah Jackson

The production features up-and-coming artists from the Victorian Opera’s VO Emerges program. Not only is it an opportunity to invigorate the scene with new voices, Costi says the younger cohort understands, with intimacy and immediacy, these themes.

“I got a phone call from someone who was like, ‘I can’t make rehearsal because I’m being surprise-evicted from my apartment’,” he says. “I couldn’t think of a more appropriate excuse to miss a rehearsal – it was art imitating life. That’s what we’re finding with our young cast: a lot of them have a lot to say about never owning a house or struggling to pay rent. I think this is really, really topical, and we’re not going to get that with an older, more established group of artists.”

Costi’s approach to opera isn’t what might normally be associated with the form. The director, who has a background in film, came to the medium almost accidentally, and sees a connection between the two worlds. “It’s all about having an eye for detail – the opera is about constructing things from minimal detail to form a gigantic and gorgeous picture,” he says.

Through his work, Costi – who directed a revival of Elijah Moshinsky’s 1994 production of La Traviata last year – hopes to “blow the cobwebs off opera”. After all, he was once a sceptic himself – though he had fallen in love with the music of opera at the age of 14, he didn’t come to the performance side of it until later in life.

Constantine Costi says the opera world is overdue for a shake-up.Credit:Sarah Jackson

“It was through studying directing at NIDA that I discovered the opera, and I was really reluctant – I was like, ‘this is elitist, snobby bullshit’,” he says. “But when I went up close and personal, I realised there’s an incredible emotional honesty and undeniable power to the medium, and I became completely intoxicated by it.”

The director says the opera world is overdue for a shake-up. “The opera has been bloated and resting on its laurels for too long,” he says. “There’s an audience hunger to see skilled performers with acting technique and range, and to be captivated by the story, which is told through this incredible medium.”

The production may not be conventional, but early responses to Melbourne, Cheremushki prove it’s a welcome change of pace. “We had a bunch of supporters of the Victorian Opera coming to watch a rehearsal – they saw the most cooked, insane scenes that we did, and they left with the biggest grins on their faces,” Costi says.

“If you’re in the opera purely for the music, I highly recommend that you stay at home and put on the CD and you’ll have a much better time – but if you want a theatrical experience that will hopefully make you feel something, this is the show for you.”

After all, if society is collapsing, why not have fun while we can? “This is a really comedic, funny production with a dark core,” Costi says. “People dance manically at the end of the world.”

Melbourne, Cheremushki is on at Arts Centre Melbourne from March 22-25.

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