The opera Antiformalist Rayok is Shostakovich's only major work written to his own text. Created in 1948 as a reaction to an article entitled Сonfusion instead of Music, the opera was never performed during the composer's lifetime. This is not surprising, considering that the object of Shostakovich's satire was the Leader of the Peoples himself — Joseph Stalin.

Choosing this particular opera as my graduation work, I presented my own interpretation of Antiformalist Rayok at the Day of Russian Music festival in St. Petersburg. The open-air format and the set design by Yulia Goltsova made it possible to stylize the performance as a propaganda meeting in a Soviet culture and leisure park. A kind of intervention in the author's idea was the performance of the Caucasian dance group, which complemented the musical references to the Georgian song Suliko.