Rasputin: the opera

It's a story of violence, orgies, a protracted murder and death, vacillating and manipulated royals, and the collapse of an empire. The life of Grigori Rasputin has all the ingredients of a classic opera and now, for the first time, Russians have the chance to see the tale of the bushy-bearded, wild-eyed monk played out on the operatic stage.

The controversial legacy of the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, was dredged up earlier this year in commemorations to mark the 90th anniversary of the execution of Nicholas and his family by Bolshevik soldiers in 1918. The Orthodox Church regards Nicholas and his family as saints, and Nicolas briefly led a vote to find the greatest Russian of all time earlier this year. Others see him as an autocrat whose flawed leadership caused revolution.

Tonight, Russians will have the chance to revisit the story of the family's most infamous hanger-on, when Rasputin opens at Moscow's Helikon Opera. The lurid production features sex and violence, and portrays Nicholas II as a weak and incompetent ruler. Rasputin the opera is also liable to cause anger among religious conservatives who have protested before about plays and ballets which portrayed the last Tsar in a bad light.

But some are also suggesting that Rasputin story has more parallels in modern-day Russia than simply the last two syllables of the monk's name. Many analysts have criticised the regime of former president and current prime minister Vladimir Putin as relying on shadowy advisers in back halls of the Kremlin.

Dmitry Bertman, director of the Helikon Opera, said that the events surrounding Rasputin and the fall of tsarism were full of lessons for today's Russia. "I won't say too much because we're still waiting for our new theatre to be built," he said with a smile, after a preview of the opera earlier this week. A new theatre for the Helikon is under construction, after much delay, with funding from the Moscow city authorities. "You don't need to change all the costumes and make everyone look like modern Russian MPs to see the relevance of the events – it's all there on the stage already."

"It's important for me to show what the fate of whole peoples can depend on," Bertman added.

Rasputin was a Siberian holy man who travelled to St Petersburg in the early 1900s and gained fame and notoriety for his supposed healing powers and sexual exploits. Soon he gained the trust of Alexandra, the wife of Nicholas II, due to his ability to lessen the suffering of their child Alexei, who suffered from haemophilia.

After Russia entered the First World War, discontent grew, and the threat of revolution increased. In St Petersburg, the Tsar grew ever more out of touch with the people, and the influence of Rasputin grew. Rumours abounded that he was cavorting with various noblewomen, and some suspected that his relationship with Alexandra was carnal as well as spiritual. He was a heavy drinker and believed that salvation could come through conscious sinning. With Nicholas away at the front lines from 1915, it was Alexandra and Rasputin who were left in charge of Russia.

A group of disgruntled nobles, led by Felix Yusupov, conspired to murder Rasputin in late 1916. Allegedly Rasputin was fed enough poison for five men, and shot in the back, yet still survived, only dying when he was finally thrown into the icy Neva river. Much about Rasputin's life and death is shrouded in mystery and surrounded by legend, so it is impossible to ascertain the truth.

The opera, by the contemporary American composer Jay Reise, was first performed at New York City Opera in 1988, as the Soviet Union was nearing its end, and has been translated into Russian for its premiere two decades later in Moscow. The Helikon has a reputation for modern and controversial productions.

The curtain opens on Rasputin presiding over an orgy, preaching that salvation is achieved only through pain and mortal sin, and charts a course through events up to his death. The stage during the court scenes is filled with giant replicas of Fabergé eggs, the jewelled ornaments made for the tsars. In the final scene one of these eggs turns red and hatches Vladimir Lenin, the Bolshevik leader who came to power after the two revolutions of 1917.

"Although all the scenes in the opera are based on things that really happened, I was more interested in the legend of Rasputin than the actual historical facts," said Reise, who travelled to Moscow for the premiere.

Although many Russians will be instinctively critical of an opera about Rasputin written by a foreigner, Bertman said that Russians did not have proper access to all the documents from the tsarist times. He said: "A lot of things that are published in the West are simply unpublished here."

Nasty habits: The life of Rasputin

* Grigori Efimovich Rasputin born into a peasant family in Prokovskoe, Siberia in 1869

* Self-styled holy man arrives in St Petersburg and becomes a favourite of the Imperial family after apparently healing the son of Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra, Alexis, of haemophilia in 1905

* His power over the royal family is reinforced after he apparently awakens Empress's friend, Anya Vyrubova, from a coma caused by a train crash

* His drinking and womanising, and a rumoured affair with Alexandra, become the talk of Russia

* In 1916, Prince Felix Yussupov lures him to his palace on the Moika Canal. Rasputin's body is fished out of the freezing canal the next day