About the work
The Electrification of the Soviet Union is an opera in two acts by Nigel Osborne, with a libretto by Craig Raine based on Boris Pasternak's semi-autobiographical novella "The Last Summer" and his verse novel "Spektorsky"; Pasternak himself appears as a narrator figure. Jointly commissioned by Glyndebourne and the BBC, the opera was premiered on 31 October 1987 at the Apollo Theatre, Oxford, by Glyndebourne Touring Opera, directed by Peter Sellars.
Plot
Pasternak appears as narrator, guiding a plot drawn from his own semi-autobiographical writing; the titular electrification of the young Soviet Union stands for the social upheaval against which the story unfolds.
Cultural significance
A performance was recorded for television in 1987, and revivals followed at the Glyndebourne Festival and in Berlin in 1988. In 2002 Music Theatre Wales released a chamber version, staged at venues including the Cheltenham International Festival and the Buxton Festival.