Isaak Dunayevsky: The Red Mozart

Isaak Dunayevsky is a symbol of the Soviet era, the creator of the 'Soviet Broadway', who managed to forge the most delicate waltzes and hit marches from the crucible of the industrialization era: 'My Wide Country', 'Dear Capital', songs from... 'The Cheerful Fellows'. In reality, the life of the successful composer is far from Soviet clichés and is full of unexpected twists. Behind the facade of cheerfulness hid a man suffering from love for two, and sometimes three, women at the same time; in this book, his secret letters are published for the first time.

Was Dunayevsky a victim of the era or its hero? How did he compose his harmonies? The author, well-known playwright and theater figure Dmitry Minchonok, dissects the life of the genius through subtle slices of meetings with Shostakovich, Stalin, Chkalov, friendships with Lyubov Orlova, Leonid Utesov, and others, and derives a certain recipe for success for creative individuals, applicable to modernity. At the core of the book are many years of friendly conversations between the author and the sons of the composer, Evgeny and Maxim Dunayevsky, as well as with his daughter-in-law Rimma Dunayevskaya.