Juno and Avos (opera)

Juno And Avos
Original Record, 1980
Music	Alexey Rybnikov
Lyrics	Andrei Voznesensky
Productions	1979 Original Version

Juno and Avos (Russian: Юнона и Авось, Junona I Avos') is a popular Russian-language rock opera written by Alexey Rybnikov, poetry by Andrei Voznesensky. It was first performed in 1981 in the Lenkom Theatre, Moscow, directed by Mark Zakharov. Main roles in the premiere performed by Soviet stars Nikolai Karachentsov and .

The opera is named after the two ships Juno and Avos that constituted the expedition headed by Russian explorer Nikolai Rezanov. The plot is based on the love story of Nikolai Rezanov and Concepción Argüello, a 15-year-old daughter of José Darío Argüello, the colonial governor of Spanish California.

The opera's first premiere abroad took place at Espace Cardin theater in Paris in 1983.

The libretto of Juno and Avos is based on Andrey Voznesensky's poem "Avos!" written in 1970. The poem is based on actual events of 1806 surrounding the love story of Nikolai Rezanov, a Russian nobleman, and Maria Concepción Argüello, the daughter of the Spanish governor of Alta California José Darío Argüello. Voznesensky was inspired by Rezanov's diary, George Alexander Lensen books about the Rezanov expeditions, the Bret Harte ballad "Conception de Arguello" and Piotr Tikhmenev's "A History of the Russian-American Company".