double names in Russian literature that goes back to Nikolai Gogol's heroes Akakii Akakievich in "The Overcoat" and Pifagor Pifagorovich in "The Carriage". The name is also a satire on new naming conventions in the early Soviet Union. Nevertheless, the name was chosen following the Russian tradition of "consulting the calendar," with Poligraf's name day being March 4. The name Poligraf has many possible meanings, including a printing process used for calendars. The name of the donor of the human implants, an alcoholic and bum, is Chugunkin ("chugun" is cast iron) which can be seen as parody on the name of Stalin ("stal" is steel). Adaptations Film The story was filmed in Italian in 1976 as Cuore di cane and starred Max von Sydow as Preobrazhensky. A 1988 Soviet movie, Sobachye Serdtse, was made (in sepia) by Vladimir Bortko. A number of sequences in the movie were shot from an unusually low dog's point of view. Play In March 2011, Heart of a Dog was staged at the University of Leeds, directed by James Ahearne and Matthew Beaumont. Musical A new musical adaptation of Heart of a Dog was developed in Australia and was to premiere in May 2013, written by Jim McGrath, composed by Marc Robertson and directed by Nick Byrne. Opera A comic opera, The Murder of Comrade Sharik by William Bergsma (1973), is based on the plot of the story. In 2007, Guerilla Opera staged the premiere of Heart of a Dog, an opera by Rudolf Rojahn, directed by Sally Stunkel. In 2010, the second production was directed by Copeland Woodruff. In 2010 De Nederlandse Opera staged the premiere of A Dog's Heart, an opera composed by Alexander Raskatov, directed by Simon McBurney. This was staged again by the Opéra de Lyon in January 2014. See also 1925 in science fiction Bulgakov museum in Moscow Mikhail Bulgakov Museum The Master and Margarita Homo Sovieticus The Island of Doctor Moreau References External links Full text of Heart of a Dog in the original Russian The text has been removed from the library at the request of the copyright holder, only links to sites offering the purchase of the book remain available. Full text of Heart of a Dog translated into English (1990) Bulgakov Encyclopedia (in Russian) Guerilla Opera, Repertoire Bulgakov museum in Moscow. The Odd Flat Diary of Bulgakov museum in Moscow 1925 science fiction novels Biopunk novels