ACT 4: WAR
Germans attack Moscow without warning, dragging Russia into the world war. Along with other cultural and scientific elite, Serge and Mira are sent to the country's interior to wait out the war. Back in postwar Moscow, Mira finally convinces Serge to marry her, and Lina tries vainly to escape to the West with their two sons. Losing the protection of being Serge's wife, Lina is soon after arrested on trumped up charges of being a spy, and sent to the Gulag for a sentence of 20 years. Hearing of her arrest from their two sons, Serge, in a panic, burns all papers and photographs linking him to the West and to Lina. Serge's music is blacklisted along with that of Dmitri Shostakovich. Several years later, chronically ill, Serge dies, briefly calling out for Lina, whom he had never tried to contact or help after her arrest.

Scene selections:

scene 4.1: surprise attack (June 22, 1941) (audio)
Germany's surprise air attack of Moscow forces Russia into war, and the cultural and scientific elite are sent to the country's interior for safety. As Mira and Serge hurriedly pack to leave on one of the evacuation trains, he calls Lina to offer her and their two sons tickets. Out of wounded pride, Lina refuses.

scene 4.3: reception at Moscow's French Embassy (December 4, 1944) (audio)
At the embassy reception for General de Gaulle, Serge admonishes Lina for pretending to still be a couple, and warns her to be more careful of her actions in public. Desperate to leave Russia with her sons, Lina implores Julien, an embassy attache, for help, but he refuses.

scene 4.4: a new chapter (Moscow, November 22, 1947) (audio)
Giving in to Mira's constant nagging, Serge finally applies for a divorce but discovers his marriage with Lina is invalid under Communist law. Mira is ecstatic.

scene 4.6: a composer's confession (February 16, 1948) (combined audio 4.6 - 4.7)
Too sick to have attended this meeting and in an effort to save his career, Serge writes a self- denunciating confession about his diseased esthetic tendencies and commitment to change his music.

scene 4.7: Lina's arrest (February 20, 1948) (combined audio 4.6 - 4.7)
No longer associated with Serge, in the public eye, Lina loses his political protection, and is arrested.

scene 4.8: an enemy of the people (Lubyanka prison, Moscow, November 1, 1948) (combined audio 4.8 - 4.11)
Charged with being a spy for the West, Lina is sentenced to twenty years of penal labor.

scene 4.9: "What have I done?" (February 21, 1948) (combined audio 4.8 - 4.11)
Oleg and Svyatoslav visit Serge to inform him about Lina's arrest.

scene 4.10: burning letters (February 21, 1948) (combined audio 4.8 - 4.11)
In great panic, Mira and Serge quickly burn all documents in foreign languages, in an effort to disassociate themselves from any traces of Lina and connections with the West.

scene 4.11: "a delicate flower" (Inta mining camp) (combined audio 4.8 - 4.11)
At the Inta mining camp, Lina talks to her cellmate Masha, and reminisces about life with Serge.

scene 4.12: scenes from daily life, a Moscow hospital, the Inta mining camp (audio)
Chronically ill and lying in a hospital bed, Serge dictates to Mira an article about his daily life as a happy and productive composer. Meanwhile, Lina writes to her sons about prison life at the Inta mining camp.

scene 4.13: "My soul hurts" (March 5, 1953) (audio)
At home, Serge wakes up with a foreboding of death and dies just hours later from a brain hemorrhage. Meanwhile, still in prison, Lina conducts inmates in a choir rehearsal of some of Serge's Soviet songs. Masha runs in to announce the radio broadcast of an obituary concert of Serge's music.

Recordings by soprano Helen Hassinger, mezzo-soprano Rebecca Printz, tenor Gregory Zavracky, baritone James Demler, and pianist Ketty Nez.

Photo by RIA Novosti archive, image #429 / Oleg Ignatovich / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16790863