Photos: RACHIMANINOFF AND THE TSAR at Ensemble Theatre Company

Production photos have been released for the limited engagement of Rachmaninoff and the Tsar at Ensemble Theatre Company of Santa Barbara (ETC). Known throughout the world for his solo composer plays, for the first time, Hershey Felder appears opposite another actor, British-Italian Jonathan Silvestri, in the role of Tsar Nicholas II. Rachmaninoff and the Tsar opened on April 3 and will run through April 20, 2025. 

Having safely left Russia during the 1917 revolution, legendary pianist-composer Sergei
Rachmaninoff made his home in the United States. In 1942, at the age of 68, he applied for
American citizenship and bought a home in Beverly Hills, but his soul never left Russia. Six
months thereafter, a terminal illness brought forth the memory of an encounter with Russia’s
last Tsar, Nicholas II, and the Tsar’s daughter, the Grand Duchess Anastasia. This memory would haunt him until the end. Featuring Rachmaninoff’s most beautiful music including the Second Piano Concerto, the Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini, Preludes, Symphonic Selections and more, Rachmaninoff and the Tsar had its world premiere at the Eli and Edythe Broad Stage in Santa Monica followed by the Balboa Theatre in Santa Monica.

Photo Credit: Hershey Felder Presents