Antonina miliukova biography of michael

After its 2022 Cannes premiere, director and writer Kirill Serebrennikov’s bio-drama about one of classical music’s most disastrous marriages has finally reached UK cinemas.

A new Serebrennikov is always cause for celebration; from his appropriately fevered PETROV’S FLU (2022) to his recent stage and opera productions across Europe – some directed remotely while he remained under house arrest in Russia on politically motivated charges – the Russian auteur’s work is characterised by sympathy for the exploited and anarchic, provocative interpretations of both classic works and original narratives.

On the surface, the unhappy marriage of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Antonina Miliukova, with a title prioritising the latter and production imagery closer to prestige drama than punk, feels a strange match for the director.

The plot of Tchaikovsky’s Wife approximates history. After following Tchaikovsky to the Moscow Conservatory of Music as an infatuated student, Miliukova wrote the unm