The article presents some results of the study of the musical-theatrical legacy of G.I. Banshchikov. <...> The author focuses his attention on the composer’s opera created on the plot of the famous comedy by A.S. Griboyedov. <...> The mastery of the author-playwright, unfolding the artistic and semantic contexts of a literary source by musical means, is demonstrated through analyzing the image of the work’s main character – Chatsky. <...> In 1979, G.I. Banshchikov, violating his own goal not to write without an order, addressed to one of the highly anticipated stories in the domestic musical theater that was the famous comedy Woe from Wit by A.S . <...> The composer’s opera, completed in 1984, organically integrated into the mainstream of the artistic processes taking place in the domestic musical theater of that period (Voitkevich, 2014). <...> Among them is a steady composer’s interest in the stories of Russian and foreign classics, which gave rise to a number of theatrical works of intellectual and philosophical direction, whose authors tried to make sense of the modern picture of the world, © Siberian Federal University. <...> G. Banshchikov also joined these spiritual quests in the opera Woe from Wit. <...> The emphasis on social and moral issues, philosophical and psychological reflection made this work the center of the intersection of the artistic quest of the composer in the field of musical theater (Kholodova, 2011: 8). <...> According to the author, the idea of the creation arose in high school, when at literature lessons he was learning Griboyedov’s play, ‘. after seeing Act 3 (the gossip about Chatsky, its development), and the tragic end, I felt that I badly wanted to take up the opera < .> I even started to write something . ‘ (Kholodova, 2014). <...> G. Banshchikov achieved his dream to Maria V. Kholodova. <...> The Image of Chatsky in the Opera “Woe from Wit” by G.I. Banshchikov write an opera about Chatsky nearly thirty years later. <...> Then all it favored the successful completion of the work, namely, enthusiasm for the chosen theme, maturity and songwriting skill acquired by the time, a happy possibility of a future theatrical production. <...> The libretto by G. Banshchikov (who did not trust anyone to work on the literary basis of his creation) can be considered a creative success. <...> All amendments, changes, proof did not violate the integrity of the drama, the inner <...>