The world premiere of Rustam Sagdiyev's opera The Palace Guards took place as part of the Hermitage Theater's project Opera in pictures. The opera tells the story of the Hermitage Guards, valiant cats on duty in the museum halls. A stray kitten, found on the street, joins their ranks to face the eternal enemies of the Guards — the basement rats.

The multimedia set of the performance is a specially created cartoon, combining recognizable Hermitage interiors and animated characters. Each show of the opera was preceded by an informative interlude from which the young spectators learned in the form of a game the history of the cats in the Hermitage from the times of Peter the Great to the present day.