"...Think of Alexei Rybnikov not as the Russian composer that he is. Think of him instead as a sculptor who carves away the darkness to reveal the only thing that separates us from being base brutes: the soul..

…Rybnikov expropriates sounds from wherever he can find them: the stern pounding of  judge’s gavel; trains rumbling on tracks; the ceaseless white noise of bureaucratic public address systems; the clear-voiced chants
of Russian Orthodox worship.

Add to this his symphonic sweeps – manipulated by him through electronic wizardry — that ripple through the air
at the same time that light and darkness rip across the stage.

.. His opera transcends language because Rybnikov carves not with words but with strong emotions..
Darkness is Rybnikov’s main material. Using lasers, smoke machines, colored lights and drapery, he parts the shadows as Rembrandt once did. For both Rembrandt and Rybnikov, the shadows meant a moral loss,
a blackness or loss of soul.

But when the darkness is pushed away, even ever so gently, the eternal light of hope peeks through. And that is what Rybnikov is saying so eloquently with his sound-and light show."

Rybnikov’s ‘Liturgy’ turns darkness into glorious light
Tampa Tribune

"You go home with the music in your head. This is not musical comedy, it’s opera. But not boring opera.
If you don’t speak Russian, doesn’t matter. The music is so strong."

Pierre Cardin about “Juno and Avos”

"... This brilliant musical drama is without doubt an artistic achievement at the highest level, unique in it’s masterful collaboration of music, libretto, and theatrical effects. The scope and depth of human emotions it expresses reached well beyond my expectations. Along with the remarkable music and drama, I think it delivers an important message that the world should hear."

Norman Rice
Vice President
Studio Manager Universal Studios

"Russian composer Alexei Rybnikov calls his Liturgy an “opera-mysteria”,  and that seems more or less right. However, the singing in Liturgy is not really operatic, unless your idea of an opera is Jesus Christ Superstar. Rybnikov’s recorded score is heavy on swelling synthesizer chords. It al falls under a category that might be called techno-Christian spectacle”.

“Liturgy’s impact was almost entirely visceral, with impressive technical effects reminiscent of those in an arena rock show by the likes of Pink Floyd or the psychedelic “trip” section of the movie 2001.

A recurring feature was an eerily shimmering orb one moment looking like the Earth from outer space, the next like a multicoloured amoeba. At the point in the second act, the stage was filled by a billowing, balloon like sculpture that resembled a giant lava lamp."

From Russia with intensity
St. Pet. Times

«Rybnikov’s work “Juno and Avos”, was put on trial in 1982 by the Russian cultural ministry; it eventually was approved. Later, it played to critical success in New York.

Rybnikov has scored documentaries and films, including two that played on American public television. In “Soviets”, which first aired in 1991, Rybnikov’s music from “Liturgy” underscored what critics called a brilliant five-part series on the turmoil of the post-Communist Soviet Union.

Rybnikov also participated in the documentary, and his comments bore at least a muted sense of hope for the nation, which was then just recognizing the challenges ahead.

“We have witnessed a series of warnings”, he said in the documentary. “We, as humans, have to be made to think about our existence, about why we are here on Earth, and what is our destiny… This need to understand our origins, our nature, our destiny cannot be done tomorrow; it has to be done right now… Then there would be hope for us.»

Russian puts modern opera on the stage
The Tampa Tribune

"Pour Alexis Rybnikov”, le compositeur il s’agit d’un opéra-rock. Il se dit avoir étè inspiré par Prokofiev et Stravinski et maintenant il essaie “de sortir de tous les cadres en en fusionnant tous les genres et en se rapprochant de la musique populaire spirituelle”.

Ce n’est pas une composition éclectique toute simple, c’est un nouveau style de musique. Rien à voir avec le rock traditionnel non plus. “Aujourd’hui, il aimerait “pouvoir utiliser la méthode de la musique méditative, afin  de créer un son. Un son où les spectateurs se sentiraient participants par l’intermediaire du son”. Le rock soviétique n’a pas grandchose à voir avec ce à quoi l’Occident est habitué. Et malgré les cassettes-pirates échangées sous cape, le rock n’a pas encore trouvé sa place. Pour Alexis Rybnikov: “L’equilibre organique entre la langue russe et la musique est difficile à trouver ce qui n’empeche nullement ce genre d’attirer le plus grand nombre de jeunes en Union sovietique”. En fait, il s’agit d’une composition associante la liturgie orthodoxe russe et une base de musique traditionnelle, sur lesquelles se superpose le rock contemporain."

Quotidien de Paris

"…According to composer Ribnikov, the term “rock-opera” isn’t well suited to Junon and Avos: “My desire was to follow the great Russian operatic tradition as well as to get closer to folkloric motifs by using today’s means of musical and scenographic expression”,  he says…"

Junon and Avos
Passion

"C’est comme une bombe glacée, plus on la déguste, mieux on l’apprécie. Peut-être la surprise  vient-elle de l’étiquette d’exportation “opera-rock” qu’on lui avait collée à Moscou.

Car en fait, Junon et Avos n’est ni l’un ni l’autre, mais une comédie musicale muscle où l’on retrouve la Russie de toujours, avec son lyrisme échevelé si particulier, à travers chants populaires, chœurs religieux et musiques electro-acoustiques renforcées d’effets sonores et chamber d’échos composes par Alexis Ribnikov.

Un spectacle plein de soufflé energique  qui éclate malgré l’exiguité de la scène  où se succèdent, dans une parfaite atmosphère  Romanesque, images naïves et tableaux  dramatiques admirablement réglés dans de savants éclairages".

Lyrique Junon et Avos
Le Parisien

"… Electric guitars obliterate the Gregorian chants of the choir. Drums crash out with a thumping pulse. The first Soviet rock opera to be seen in the West has begun.

… Alexei Ribnikov’s music is eclectic and exciting, a vast panoply ranging from chants to heavy metal rock to catchy tunes to lovely ballads — often on a Russian orthodox theme."

Rock Opera From Moscow
Newsweek

"Il étonne, ce spectacle, qui nous touche  d’abord  par l’oreille, parce qu’on ne s’attend pas à voir arriver de Moscow un pareil materiel sonore, dû au compositeur Ribnikov, … et aux bouquets des voix mystiques don’t la plus stupéest celle de la Vierge de Kazan..

Mais le plus étonnant est de voir des Parisiens sortir avec sur les lèvres les airs d’un “opera-rock” dont ils ignoraient tour la veille. Des airs qui ne vous lâchent plus."

“Junon et Avos”
France-Soir

"As a rock musical, "Junon and Avos" is full of familiar sounds and techniques, mixed with genuine surprises; the combination has an odd freshness. Alexis Ribnikov’s score includes some ear-blasting numbers, louder than anything you hear in any of the British rock musicals, full of the kind of electronic megasound that Andrew Lloyd Webber was only touching on it those crashing “Phantom” chords. But there is also Orthdox religious music, sung by a white-robed choir led by an onstage conductor in tailcoat and white gloves. A mournful, very Russian folk melody is sung by four naval officers, sitting side by side; one of the four provides accompaniment  on a lone acoustic guitar. (Later, louder, with a rock beat under it, this melody becomes the parting song of the lovers). A violin and a recorder provide music for the Spanish governor’s ball. It turns out that there are things about rock eclecticism that even Mr. Lloyd Webber doesn’t know."

Russian Rock Musical: A Corny, but Effective, Display
The New York Observer