The list below includes selected works.
EUGENE ONEGIN
ballet in four acts
Choreographer: Yuri Possokhov
Libretto by Valeriy Pecheykin
Sets Designer: Tom Pye
Costume Designer: Tim Yip
Lighting Designer: Jim French
Projection Designer: Finn Ross
January 23, 2026 – San Francisco Ballet, War Memorial Opera House; San Francisco, California
June 4, 2026 – The Joffrey Ballet, Lyric Opera House; Chicago, Illinois
This production of Eugene Onegin is a co-production of San Francisco Ballet and The Joffrey Ballet.
“…a wonderfully eclectic score by Ilya Demutsky that carries only trace elements of Tchaikovsky, along with those of Prokofiev, Kabalevsky, lush movie musicals, and more. What matters is how the music shifts and morphs to manifest the storyline and the characters’ emotional arcs ” – San Francisco Classical Voice (read here)
SALLE DE DANSE
ballet in one act
Choreography: Sol León and Paul Lightfoot
Designers: Sol León and Paul Lightfoot
Lighting Designers: Sol León and Paul Lightfoot
Conducted by Matthew Rowe
June 11, 2026 – The Royal Ballet, London
This production is a co-production of The Royal Ballet and The Norwegian National Ballet.
THEMIS IS TIRED
an opera-film
Screenwriter, Director & Composer: Ilya Demutsky
Producer: Maria Saprykina
On-Screen Performers: Yulia Graut, Boris Chistyakov, Olga Miroshnikova, Daria Voronina
Singing Performers: Maria Lupareva, Ilya Selivanov, Olga Pudova
Music Performed by: OPENSOUNDORCHESTRA
Conductor: Stanislav Malyshev
Director of Photography: Sergey Kostromin
Production Designers: Svetlana Loskutnikova, Elena Semina
Costume Designer: Sasha Ageeva
Key Makeup Artist: Natalia Maslennikova
“Themis is Tired” is an original opera written for the screen — not adapted, but born from cinema itself. It merges surrealism, satire, and music to tell a story about conscience, power, and justice. Characters sing instead of speak, but in everyday language, creating a world where music feels natural, not staged. Professional singers voice the roles, while actors embody them on screen — a fusion of operatic sound and cinematic intimacy. My goal is to make opera feel modern, alive, and accessible, even to those who never enter an opera house.
— Ilya Demutsky
ANNA KARENINA
ballet in two acts
Choreographer: Yuri Possokhov
Libretto by Valeriy Pecheykin
Costume and Sets Designer: Tom Pye
Music Director: Scott Speck
Joffrey Ballet of Chicago and Australian Ballet
The world premiere took place on February 13, 2019 at Auditorium Theater (Chicago, IL).
“This striking, steamy, seductive ballet is a masterpiece… The music composed by Ilya Demutsky, one of the most sought-after composers in the world, is a real star of the production” – The Guardian (read here)
“Demustky’s score… perfectly expresses the emotional turmoil of Tolstoy’s story …terrific score” – Dance Australia (read here)
“Movements are complemented beautifully by an original score for the work, composed by Ilya Demutsky. Throughout the performance, the ballet plays a delicate dance between modernism and classicism, love and loss, minimalism and opulence, the abstract and the familiar. It was mesmerizing, so much so that time moved quickly for a story that is more emotional than focused on a fast-paced plot” – ThirdCoastReview (read here)
NUREYEV
ballet in two acts
Choreographer: Yuri Possokhov
Libretto by Kirill Serebrennikov
Director and Designer: Kirill Serebrennikov
Costume Designer: Elena Zaitseva
Music Director: Anton Grishanin
Bolshoi Theatre (Moscow), Historic Stage
The world premiere took place on December 9, 2017.
THE SEAGULL
ballet in four acts
Choreographer: Yuri Possokhov
Libretto by Alexander Molochnikov
Director: Alexander Molochnikov
Designer: Tom Pye
Costume Designer: Emma Ryott
Light Designer: David Finn
Music Director: Anton Grishanin
Bolshoi Theatre (Moscow), New Stage
The world premiere took place on July 1, 2021.
GABRIELLE CHANEL
ballet in one act
Choreographer: Yuri Possokhov
Libretto and direction: Alexei Frandetti
Set design: Maria Tregubova
Costume Design: Chanel
Music Director: Pavel Klinichev
General Producer: Yuri Baranov
MuzArts Foundation
The world premiere took place on June 22, 2019 at Bolshoi Theatre (Moscow), Historic Stage
A HERO OF OUR TIME
ballet in three acts
Choreographer: Yuri Possokhov
Director, Designer and Author of Libretto: Kirill Serebrennikov
Costume Designers: Elena Zaitseva, Kirill Serebrennikov
Music Director: Anton Grishanin
Bolshoi Theatre (Moscow), New Stage
The world premiere took place on July 22, 2015.
BLACK SQUARE
opera in two acts
Idea by Igor Konyukhov
Libretto by Olga Maslova and Igor Konyukhov
The world premiere of 2-piano version took place on November 28, 2018 at New Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow), Music Director and Conductor: Ilya Demutsky
The world premiere of orchestrated version took place on April 2, 2024 at the Lyric Theatre @ Illinois (Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA), conductor: Michael Tiley, director: Nathan Gunn
“Black Square acknowledges artistic response to that era’s large-scale upheaval while allowing us to sense ongoing relevance. Demutsky evokes, in a contemporary way, some of the rhythmic incision and colorful flair of several well-known Soviet musicians. The libretto cautions against political manipulation, and contains much that is bizarre, leveraging ironic distance while suggesting that stable kinds of meaning are elusive”
— Katherine Syer, for Lyric Theatre quarterly newletter, January 2018
“ Black Square is an English-language, avant-garde opera, created first and foremost for American audiences: not a museum piece but a new work of theatre, intended to bring something of Kruchenykh and Malevich to life today, simultaneously moving and delighting contemporary audiences.”
— Jessica Hinds-Bond, for The Theatre Times, December 2017
“With music by Ilya Demutsky and libretto by Olga Maslova and Igor Konyukhov, the opera is a two-act futuristic tragicomedy that “mixes intellectual traditions of Russian avant-garde and fast pacing style of an action thriller.” The work is reportedly inspired by the 1913 opera “Victory over the Sun.””
— David Salazar for Opera Wire, November 2018
OPTIMISTIC TRAGEDY
ballet in one act
Choreographer: Yuri Possokhov
Sest Design: Alexander V. Nichols
Costume Designer: Mark Zappone
Music Director: Martin West
San Francisco Ballet
The world premiere took place on January 26, 2017
“Ilya Demutsky’s commissioned score, a gorgeous, soaring composition packed with emotion and soul” – San Francisco Chronicle (read here)
“Ilya Demutsky’s commissioned score, a gorgeous, soaring composition packed with emotion and soul” – Bachtrack.com (read here)
“…the haunting score by Russian composer Ilya Demutsky — that were the ballet’s true heroes” – The Mercury News (read here)
VIOLIN CONCERTO
Commissioned by Vadim Repin and Trans-Siberian Art Festival
Violin: Vadim Repin
Conductor: Alexey Rubin
Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra
The world premiere took place on March 21, 2022