Most audiences at home know that the Australian World Orchestra founder and Chief Conductor Alexander Briger is the nephew of the late Sir Charles Mackerras. What is less well known is that another branch of his family tree leads to the man who murdered Rasputin.

For the past three weeks, Briger has been at Moscow’s prestigious Helikon Theatre conducting the American composer Jay Reise’s opera about the so-called ‘Mad Monk’ whose behind-the-throne role as Svengali to the Russian Tsarina Alexandra led to his being eliminated on the eve of the Russian Revolution in 1917. Rasputin was commisioned by the New York City Opera in 1988 but it has really taken off in Russia where it has been staged several times – in Russian – over the last few years.

“In many ways, the style and difficulty of Rasputin reminds me of Nixon in China,” Briger told Limelight. “It was revived this year because it’s 100 years since Rasputin’s murder and therefore the Russian revolution!”

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was a Russian peasant and mystic, whose abilities as a faith healer led to him becoming a friend and confidant of the family of Nicholas...