Tchaikovsky called the comic-fantastic Cherevichki his best opera. Years later it was considered unfunny and cumbersome, which is hardly fair. It is a grand opèra in form, with large ensembles and choirs, symphonic interludes and an obligatory ballet in the penultimate act. The composer does not seek to amuse; as in his other operas, melodies and pathos remain his most important themes, but comic intermissions unexpectedly manifest themselves and flicker at the junctions between them.

Cherevichki has not been performed at the Ural Opera for more than 70 years. The new production addressed to audiences of all ages is the operatic debut of Director Boris Pavlovich. He saw the village of Dikanka as a distant place of the empire, where eternal night reigns. For the morning to come and the cold to end, Vakula, a smith and an artist, has to take a challenge and go to hell, where the Devil came from. Where this inferno is located, Pavlovich, who comes from St. Petersburg, knows as firmly as Tchaikovsky and Gogol did.

According to the Director, Tchaikovsky's music ‘carries with it all that valuable that does not need to be edited but only heard again. The visual code gets updated faster than the auditory one, the music is more out of touch with the everyday context. Therefore, the scenery and costumes of our production are what today's people do.’