Damir Ismagilov / Avaliações

The performance by Alexander Titel and Vladimir Arefiev appeared in the repertoire eleven years ago, and disappeared from it four and a half years ago. And now, after several seasons, the theater decided to return to this version, positioning the renewal almost like a full-fledged premiere. In conditions of poverty, the events of the pandemic seasons (past and present) are a perfectly acceptable move. "The Barber" -2010 was replaced in the playbill of the theater by the legendary performance of Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky himself, which was staged, scary to say, in 1933, resumed several times and lived on this stage right up to the end of the 1990s. The work of the founding father of the theater has always been a success, many generations of artists of his theater sang in it. Alexander Titel "encroached" on the classics for the second time: in 2007, he offered his own version of "Eugene Onegin", which replaced the legendary performance of 1922, from which, in fact, the theater began. Alas, we will have to forget about Seville and the century of Beaumarchais in the performance of Titel: the action of the opera is transferred to Italy in the middle of the century of the past - the main characters are wearing jackets, raincoats, business suits instead of crinolines and wigs. The riot of colors of the south of the Pyrenees has been replaced by the everydayness of cinematic neorealism: the main decoration in the entire mirror of the stage and for both acts is a yellowish-gray, bulky and very dull building of a “profitable house”, with a courtyard fenced with a high lattice. Although this “Italy” is more reminiscent of Russia, judging by the weather conditions: it constantly snows from white confetti, which makes it cold and uncomfortable for either Rosina, who is shivering, or Figaro, who is carried away by Zozhev’s rubdowns with snow. And the playful "imprisonment" of the main character smacks of a real prison - the patio really looks like a camp. Well, what about gags and animating in a comic opera? Calm! - they are in place. Almaviva's friends ride around on motor scooters in the dreary space of the huge stage, in the finale of the first act the characters become numb not from the idiocy of their position (according to Beaumarchais and Sterbini), but due to fear from a hand grenade lying on the proscenium (which did “shoot”, that is, exploded!) , and throughout the performance, Ambrogio's servant, a ridiculous old man in his pants down, constantly chews spaghetti. Yes, and, of course, the win-win trump card is the little children, with whom four of the directors gave Rosina’s alter ego the maid Bertha, sitting on the proscenium in a row and under their mother’s couplets, sipping some kind of brew from bowls and even a chamber pot. However, all this is not news for a long time: the performance still sits well in the minds - it has by no means faded from memory after four years of absence from the stage. What speaks in his favor: with all doubts, he is certainly firmly “knitted together” - and if someone does not consider him an adornment of the current repertoire of the second Moscow Opera House, then he certainly is not the worst interpretation of Rossini's most popular opera. By the way, now almost every metropolitan opera house has its own "The Barber" - at least, except for "Stasik", even in the Bolshoi and the New Opera. The situation is almost similar to Soviet times, when almost every opera house in our large country had its own Barber. New people sing in the renewed production - only Roman Ulybin - Bartolo and Maria Pakhar - Berta remained from the old premiere line-up. The first now much more corresponds to the role of the venerable "old man" - obviously acquired over the years with significance and weight, while his vocals remained at the same, very good level - at least he copes with the most difficult aria and its final tongue twister perfectly well. The second one still brilliantly plays her comic number with the kids (to a single, uncomplicated aria, but with the presence of high soprano notes), but her vocals have somehow become more age-related and less stable. Liparit Avetisyan (Almaviva) and Dmitry Zuev (Figaro) please with many moments: they are still young, they are courageous and comedy boldly, provocatively, the characters of their characters are convex, expressive, it is interesting and pleasant to watch them. And they have fresh and beautiful voices! But, alas, both of them have a completely non-Rossinian manner: their thick, even fat (in the case of a tenor) voices literally get stuck in coloratura, everything is sung in a very approximate, wide and loud, massive sound, in which lightness and grace are completely absent. After we heard the standards of Rossini's singing from other vocalists, both domestic and foreign, including on this stage, this approach is perplexing: either the artists have not sufficiently trained their vocal apparatus, or they simply do not need to sing such music - especially since in a different repertoire they are more Dmitry Ulyanov as Basilio was indescribably effective. His only, but on the other hand, hit aria about slander, is done perfectly both in terms of singing technology and comedic expressiveness, especially since the number is staged by Titel excellently - with a lot of wonderful eccentricities. But in other scenes, where the hero of Ulyanov no longer dominates, he was by no means lost and remained one of the centers of attraction for the public's attention. Natalya Zimina is exceptionally good as Rozina: that's who Rossini's coloratura fit right in. Her plastic mezzo, without losing its timbre density, sounds accurate and confident in the passages, while maintaining the lightness and sharpness of the sound. And at the same time, she also plays superbly - her angular “nerd” heroine in black horn-rimmed glasses is hilarious and sweet at the same time. From the first notes of the overture, the orchestra conducted by Timur Zangiev is characterized by a quiet, soft, airy sound that is appropriate in Rossini's music, which was not observed in this performance before, and which cannot but rejoice. However, the synchronicity with the soloists and the choir, the filigree and precision so important for Rossini, were, alas, not absolute: to achieve perfect coherence is a task for growth.