Novaya Opera / Recensioni

Экспрессии буйства красок декораций (Надежда Швец) и роскошных костюмов (Сергей Чепур) логично сопутствовала экспрессия звуковая. Все было мощно, крупно, и очень ярко, можно даже сказать «богато». Еще раз повторю – в воплощении именно этой музыки стремительный, ошеломляющий звуковой поток, «крупный мазок» уместен, он буквально захватывает.

Звездное небо, разинувший огромную пасть дракон, из чрева которого выходит жестокосердная принцесса, пестрые попугаичьи костюмы что знати, что простолюдинов, много золота и вообще всего блестящего. Несмотря на визуальную приторность, сценографию Надежды Швец и костюмы Сергея Чепура (оба мастера из Харькова) не назовешь безвкусными: их ориентальная избыточность прекрасно сочетается со столь же колоритной музыкой Пуччини, полной контрастов, выпуклой мелодики и пряных гармоний.

The Toy Seller is a family show. Not only in the sense that you can come to it with children. But also because it can become an excellent occasion to talk, speculate, debate on the topic of human values. For example, about what a person needs more - money or love? And at the same time about the syntax: about the fact that in this opposition the connecting union "I" is impossible. And only the separating "OR".

The line between the world of toys and people, between fantasy and reality is illusory. Toys suffer from betrayal as people, and people are actually toys in the hands of fate, not always withstanding its tests. It is no coincidence that people in the performance look like toys, and toys look like people. Shelygin's music is cinematic, full of charm, although eclectic and variegated just like the world she depicts. The composer, who, according to him, is in constant dialogue with opera of the last three centuries, boldly mixes styles and genres: in his music the intonations of Soviet songs, and French chanson, and dramatic arias are melted down, you can hear the reliance on the musical traditions of Prokofiev, Massenet, Debussy ... He approached work in the theater in a differentiated manner - for different cast of performers he provided different versions of the parties.

Two Mimis, the fashionable art gallery of Marseille, the bohemian heroes who became bourgeois - such was the performance of Giacomo Puccini's opera directed by the artistic director of the Sats Theater Georgy Isahakyan. The production of La Boheme at the Novaya Opera was designed by the Austrian artist Hartmut Schorghofer. Musical director - Fabio Mastrangelo. Puccini's score is a kind of homage to people of art, artists and their muses, inspiration and torments of creativity, crises and creations that are impossible without love stories. That is why "Bohemia" is full of explosive love passions, melodramaticism, ambitiousness of the creators, it ends with the sad death of the rejected beloved and catharsis triumphant over everything, even at the cost of life and love. At the same time - a verist musical strain, Puccini's rolls and "fainting" of sound, exciting arias - everything that created a "hit" from this score for all time. But what La Bohème needs on stage is strong dramatic voices. And the directors took this fact into account: they carefully filtered the line-ups of the singers, and invited the "stars" to perform at the premiere screenings - baritone Vasily Ladyuk (Marseille) and soprano Irina Lunga (Mimi). But it should be noted that tenor Alexei Tatarintsev in the part of Rudolph was at a height in such an ensemble - artistically passionate, leading the part with a frenzied temperament and a full set of tenor means - beautiful high notes, "sobs", etc. Marcel looked "macho" in Ladyuk's work - a tough, harsh, exciting chased handwriting of vocal and acting work. And Mimi Lungu is a lyrical heroine who has preserved to the end the ingenuous, pure image of the "dream girl". breathtaking chased handwriting of vocal and acting work. And Mimi Lungu is a lyrical heroine who has preserved to the end the ingenuous, pure image of the "dream girl". breathtaking chased handwriting of vocal and acting work. And Mimi Lungu is a lyrical heroine who has preserved to the end the ingenuous, pure image of the "dream girl". The directors succeeded in the play and another task - to present "La Boheme" in a polysemantic context that expanded its history and even the genre itself. The result is a parable - with symbolism, with metaphors, with implications, with complex changes from psychological truth to the complete conventionality of what is happening. Suffice it to say that the entrance to each scene was not musical, but sound panoramas of Paris - with footsteps, the rumble of trams, snatches of speeches and "mute" views of the Parisian sky and pavement (metaphors of inspiration and decay). The scenography combines everyday texture - tables, chairs, a stove, and gigantic metaphorical backdrops that encode time itself: a dial with Roman numerals and frozen hands - the moment that Rudolph and Mimi meet at a standstill. The view of the Eiffel Tower from the inside, reminiscent of a tunnel into another dimension, a blue disc in a golden hoop - the image of eternity, into which the deceased Mimi entered. Metaphors worked in parallel with a psychologically true story, where young ambitious Parisians - the poet Rudolph, the artist Marcel, the philosopher Collen (Yevgeny Stavinsky) and the musician Schonard (Artem Garnov) - have fun, create, sing love, but then it turns out that friends are interfering with their careers, they they are not perfect, do not correspond to the ideal of the muses, are too superficial (Musetta performed by Irina Bozhenko) or too sick (Mimi). And cheerful young people abandoned them. Isahakyan illustrates this discord between living love and idealization, creativity and pragmatism in the bifurcation of the image of Mimi, who has a silent shadow - a twin girl. The contours of this symbolism will become clearer in the finale. But the director built the action itself with careful psychological motivation - here are the themes of "male brotherhood", French courtesy with its cult of "beautiful ladies", the rage of emotions - attacks of Marcel's jealousy, Rudolph's passion and his horror of responsibility before Mimi's illness, here - brilliantly lined choral and crowd scenes - with a Christmas procession, Santa Claus flying in balloons, street musicians dressed up under Napoleonic soldiers. The action of the opera from Balzac's Paris was transferred to the era of post-war Europe in the 40s - with its electrified atmosphere of life, which had just gone through a total shock. That is why the melodrama takes on a degree of anguish, and the love of Rudolph and Mimi, Marcel and Musetta burns with passions and intensity of emotions. The final of the performance was decided unexpectedly. The director shows the heroes thirty years later - who have achieved success, bourgeois, regalia: the famous artist Marseille in his own gallery, surrounded by a meaningless bohemian get-together and his formless creations, reminiscent of blocks of ice. Here are his friends in expensive suits: the famous poet Rudolph, the philosopher Collen - assistant minister, composer Schonard. The four of them stay, brag to each other, and dance with each other, without ladies, by the way, they also remember the old times. At this moment, Musetta brings not Mimi to Rudolph, but her "shadow" - to die. The scene is complex, speculative - Mimi-Lungu, the poet's muse, emerging "from the circle of" eternity ", sings about his love, and Rudolph is left alone not with her, but with the body of the" shadow. "But such a denouement has an iron meaning: who betrayed love , will not do. His muse is dead.

Georgy Isahakyan staged Puccini's La Bohème at the Novaya Opera. Conductor Fabio Mastrangelo and artist Hartmut Schorgofer were his partners in a very unusual interpretation of this delightful score. The performance is filled with remarkable vocal works of wonderful soloists. And the director's decision, intriguing at first, literally blew up the brain of the MK observer in the finale with its daring and unexpectedness ... The scenography of Hartmut Schorgofer, a renowned Austrian artist, is inventive and expressive. She works for the idea and spirit of music and becomes part of a holistic artistic image - this is what distinguishes the art of an artist from the work of a designer. At first glance, the first scene in the attic is solved quite usually: a poor room, into which a trapdoor leads, a "potbelly stove", wretched interior items. But there is a detail that turns this attic into a fantastic space: a huge transparent dial through which you can see Paris.with its wide boulevards and the Eiffel Tower. All this is dull, gray, wintry, but still beautiful and exciting. In the second picture, the artist moves his characters into a hectic crowd, where everyone is puzzled by Christmas shopping. Schorgofer cleverly plays with space: the action takes place under the Eiffel Tower, she herself goes into the backdrop of the stage in perspective, but the effect is as if you are looking at it from the bottom up. And this is not just an optical trick: an everyday, quite realistic situation acquires an additional metaphysical color. After all, the opera is not about everyday life. It's about death. Act 2 is well thought out. There is no outpost there, but there is a huge house in which Marseille is painting. Here again, the artist plays with measurements by placing tables and chairs on a vertical wall. Let's go back to the first scene though. Mimi (the wonderful vocal and acting work of Irina Lungu) does not appear in the attic alone. She has a silent double (Zhanna Averina), quite literal, appearing from a hatch in the floor, fainting and performing other actions described in the directions. The real - singing - Mimi appears from outside the window. That is, literally from the gray Parisian sky, like a guest from the future in a strange white knitted swinger and leggings. Schorgofer's costumes are very important in this performance, as they clearly refer the audience to a specific time - the director moved the opera to the end of the 40s of the 20th century. Alexey Tatarintsev as Rudolph is another vocal success of the performance. The most beautiful timbre, perfectly taken "C", emotionality and charm. Vasily Ladyuk is also wonderful in the role of Marcel. And Irina Bozhenko is absolutely charming and vocal flawless in the part of Musetta. The soloists showed themselves excellently not only in solo, but also in ensembles, which are so interesting for La Boheme and in which, along with the readiness to listen and hear partners, it is necessary to maintain the character of their character. Much more questions were raised by the work of maestro Mastrangelo. Puccini's orchestra is full of sound, there is a lot of copper, a lot of tutti. But this does not mean at all that the singers should be condemned to shouting down the orchestra. I wanted more contrasts, nuances, delicacy, especially when the orchestral tutti is replaced by the chamber sounds of instrumental ensembles that are characteristic of the composer. The strange phenomenon of Mimi's double, proposed by Georgy Isahakyan at the very beginning of the opera, combined with Shorgofer's surrealistic spatial tricks, determined the director's train of thought: we will not see everyday melodrama here. The final picture, which takes place 30 years later, should have been the clue, but in fact it destroyed the plot logic of this story. So, about 1979. Paris, the vernissage of the successful avant-garde artist Marseille, who shocks the audience with cellophane installations. Rudolph is here - he is also rich, fashionably dressed, champagne flows like a river. And then - everything according to the libretto: the appearance of Musetta, who reports that the viscount has abandoned Mimi and that she is dying. That is, it turns out that the terminally ill with consumption Mimi lived for another 30 years, and at the same time she was so wow, that she had a connection with the Viscount ... Then the arrival of Shonard and Collin, who are babbling something about "an old shabby coat." Then the conversation about selling Musetta's earrings to buy medicine, although Musetta of the late 70s is dressed so richly that she hardly needs to trade earrings for the sake of a sick friend ... In short, a terrible falsehood begins. And now it is characteristic: the artists who have been organic and truthful until now also begin to out of tune and sing worse. Because the task is not clear. The situation is false. The image is lost. also begin to out of tune and sing worse. Because the task is not clear. The situation is false. The image is lost. also begin to out of tune and sing worse. Because the task is not clear. The situation is false. The image is lost. Perhaps the director wanted to interpret this whole story as a memory. And Mimi passed away, as planned, thirty years ago. Hence the curvature of space and time. But, alas, this was not read in the final. And I read an annoyingly annoying situation when the director's decision (albeit the most ingenious!) Enters into a clinch with the text of the libretto (even the most mediocre!). But the text is what it is. And he is desperately fighting for his copyrights, with music on his side. And not on the director's side ...

Moscow is gradually flooded with operas by Benjamin Britten; however, they just as smoothly flow out of it. But we remember The Turn of the Screw in The New Opera, where the devil tempted an immature boyish soul. In the opera "A Midsummer Night's Dream", staged at the Musical Theater. Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko, children were tempted with sex scenes between a forest fairy and a donkey man. The idea of ​​intraspecific pairing was explored in "Noah's Ark", which found a pier at the Sats Theater. In Billy Budd, directed by the Bolshoi Theater, children were brutally flogged in the ship's kitchen, and grown men were filled with feelings of lust, extermination and endless guilt for each other. And so, in the Novaya Opera, "The Desecration of Lucretia" appeared, where at last they were talking about women. Faithful wife Once, in the era of Etruscan rule, Roman soldiers decided to surprise them from going home to check whether their wives were loyal to them. They slowly swam across the Tiber (as it is sung in the opera, we say the Tiber) and found out that all the wives fell into total fornication - and only one Lukrish (Lucretia) sits at home, spins yarn and waits for her Collatinus. There would be no warriors to punish their wives, and to set Lucretia as an example - it was her loyalty that turned out to be a deviation from the norm in corrupted Rome. The son of the Etruscan tyrant, Tarquinius, was filled with lust and desired to take possession of the virtuous matron, despite the fighting prowess of her husband. The plot of the abused Lucretia inspired the masterpieces of Ovid, Dante, Shakespeare, Rembrandt, Titian and Cranach the Elder. The plot was not suitable for the theater, but Handel wrote a cantata. Britten's opera appeared in 1946. Ronald Duncan's libretto has such a feature that is completely optional for the genre as a high literary quality. There is nothing to say about Britten's music: as in his other operas, it tells about something immeasurably more complex, subtle and implicit than the deeds of some brutal Romans and even the mental anguish of a disgraced righteous woman. Successor In the orchestra pit there are only 12 musicians - a string quintet, a wind quintet, percussion and harp. However, the sound of the chamber ensemble fills the hall almost richer than if a full symphony orchestra was sitting in the same place. 12 instrumental soloists set off or duplicate vocal parts, very flexible, melodious and expressive, no less successfully. The thirteenth orchestra member is the conductor Jan Latham-Koenig himself, sometimes playing recitative on the electric piano. As a boy, the conductor sang in the choir under the direction of Britten himself, but now he is staging not the first opera of his great compatriot in the Moscow theater. This is just one of the chains, symbolizing the continuity, that stretch to the premiere of The Desecration of Lucretia. Another chain connects her with Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas, staged at the Novaya Opera in 2014. At the moment when it becomes clear that Lucrezia has decided to take her own life, the ancient chaconne sounds, clearly referring to Dido's farewell Lamento. Gayane Babajanyan, who appears in the title role in the first line-up, sings in a thick and sensual mezzo-soprano. Around her are only basses and baritones: the noble husband Collatin performed by the kind giant Alexei Antonov, his hysterical colleague Junius - Boris Zhukov and the brightest of all - the tyrant's son Tarquinius, accustomed to impunity. His part is performed by the stately baritone Artem Garnov. The director of the play Yekaterina Odegova and the artist Ethel Ioshpa have already brought this artist to the stage half-naked in the first performance; but if in "Salome" by Richard Strauss his beautiful torso belonged to the prophet Jokanaan and inspired the sinful passion of the Jewish princess, then in "The Desecration of Lucretia" the couple is formed in the opposite way - an innocent victim and an unbridled rapist. Hi Woody Allen From the key mise-en-scène, however, it is clear that Lucrezia, although she resisted Tarquinius, but not until the very end. This is already a director's interpretation, and it adds another layer of reflection to what is already contained in Britten's opera. Dramatically, the most interesting thing in the opera is the participation of the chorus. The chorus explains and comments on the action, compensating for the lack of crowd scenes, but consists of only two soloists. For the entire male choir - one tenor Georgy Faradzhev, for the entire female choir - one soprano Ekaterina Petrova. Sometimes they sing in an octave, which is very beautiful. Sometimes they sing along with the characters, participating in mise-en-scènes - they can even bring a bowl of wine to a sweaty Etruscan who descended from a horse. This is very similar to Woody Allen's Roman Adventures, which is set in the same Eternal City. There, too, in the same frame with the heroes, there are some life-wise characters, whom the heroes for some reason do not notice. A common "Roman technique" for the composer and filmmaker arises: commentators speak from the height of later experience and even try to influence the course of events. No truce Britten's commentators are newcomers from our era: they know that the Etruscan era in Rome is not a very important time. But they know that centuries will pass, Christ will be crucified and even more tears will be shed. They probably know everything that will happen to humanity later. Further - the area of ​​interpretation of Odegova: the war of the sexes, sophisticated by modern knowledge, people still cannot overcome. It even comes to a fight: the male choir fully shares the passion of the male Tarquinius for Lucretia and himself solicits her no less openly; he is only hindered by the chorus woman, who must be appeased in a feasible way, so that she does not stop the predetermined development of events. Did Lucretia really exist, was she really mocked, and was it true that her suicide provoked the Roman revolt against the Etruscans, which Britten's opera is hinted at by the energetic ensemble under the slogan “Rome for the Romans!”? Should we believe the historian Titus Livy, should we believe the poets and artists? One thing is clear: the plot about love-hate between men and women has not sunk into Tiber, it continues to this day, it contains excellent material for creative reflection and it is interesting to throw more and more new firewood into it. It would seem that Britten clearly placed the history of pagan times in a strictly Christian coordinate system. But in his music something else sounds, otherwise poor Lukrish would not have been escorted to the rape by the charming and most tender "Good Night", which Gershwin and Bernstein might envy. Director Ekaterina Odegova and playwright Mikhail Muginstein added self-mockery, and in a very serious way. Their performance at the Novaya Opera was a success, despite its low budget visible to the naked eye, and it should be regarded as one of the most successful opera events of the season.

The Novaya Opera turned to the early opera The Desecration of Lucretia by the English classic Benjamin Britten. If you believe the authoritative historian Titus Livy, it was the rape of the matron Lucretia by the son of King Tarquinius the Proud, also Tarquinius, that became the last straw that overflowed the patience of the freedom-loving inhabitants of Latius - an uprising arose, the king was expelled along with his Etruscan entourage, and in the Eternal City it was established for five centuries republican rule. Composer Benjamin Britten offers to look at the history of the Roman-Etruscan confrontation and the plot with Lucretia from the height of the experience of Christian civilization experienced by Europe. An original view, and if you remember that the world premiere of the opera took place in Glyndebourne immediately after the war (1946), the theme of cruelty, sometimes a cave-like animal, unjustified, the theme of violence against the person worried the composer. It is no coincidence that it runs like a red thread in many of his works. Britten's work came to our country a long time ago, back in Soviet times: the composer was a friend of the USSR, he came here more than once, his operas were staged here and symphonic opuses were performed. Few contemporary Western composers are so fortunate. In recent years, his works have again become in demand with us. True, they do not linger in the repertoire for long. The reasons for this are both economic and legal (some of the productions were coproductions and therefore had limited distribution) and aesthetic, - as before, this musical language is not for everyone, but mostly for connoisseurs and gourmets. The presentation in "Desecration", in contrast to Britten's large canvases such as "Peter Grimes", is extremely strict and ascetic. Only in the second scene, where Lucrezia, the maid Lucius and the nurse Bianca indulge in dreams, is the luxury of light lyricism allowed. But even this scene seems to be pregnant with tragedy: the girlfriends sing a tender lullaby to the future victim, without knowing it, actually sending her to the scaffold. The other three paintings are dominated by archaic harmonies, stylization of ancient music and a rather gloomy flavor. Photo: D. Kochetkov / novayaopera.ruThe staging tandem of director Yekaterina Odegova and set designer Eteli Ioshpa managed to hear this asceticism and lapidarity and did not violate it in any way. Ioshpa bluntly says that "the material itself struck me so hard that I wanted to be practically invisible in it." That is why there is a totally dark scene, the atmosphere of darkness and fog is only occasionally disturbed by the play of the streaming light of Timofey Yermolin. Gloomy geometric shapes - huge cubes, personifying the hard masculine world of the Etruscans, are contrasted with unsteady water ripples that flicker on the backdrop and speak of tender femininity. The costumes are amazing, in which a variety of motives are intertwined - epochs and styles, brutality and purity, farce and tragedy. This is all the merit of the set designer. The merit of the director is the non-vanity of what is happening on the stage. The opera is staged very simply, almost in concert, exactly what Britten wrote about. No parallel story, no search for hidden meanings, a black cat in a dark room, which is what almost all directors are now doing. Simplicity and obviousness fascinate and draw attention to the artists on stage and to the music. Even the most problematic fragment - the rape itself - is solved without naturalism, almost aesthetically. The only thing that is not quite clear is the ending: Lucretia resists Tarquinius, but in the end she wraps her arms and legs around his powerful naked torso. Photo: D. Kochetkov / novayaopera.ruJan Latham-Koenig, brought up as a child on the music of Britten, sang under the composer's direction, is the ideal medium for the composer's ideas. He makes the Purcellian-Handel refinement of the score airy and mysterious, at the same time tangible and elusive. The instrumental ensemble under his leadership sounds perfect. No less impression from the vocalists: all their own, staff members, but who have felt this music so deeply that there is not the slightest hint of a compromise. Gayane Babajanyan's dark and juicy mezzo is absolutely justified in the title role - after all, Britten wrote it for the legendary contralto Kathleen Ferrier. It is set off by the skillful mezzo of Alexandra Saulskaya-Shulyatyeva (Bianca) and the chirping coloratura of Anastasia Belukova (Lucia). Three low male voices - Alexey Antonov (Collatin),

Wagner was not represented in Moscow for a long time. Historians will tell you the dates, they are, apparently, the reasons. I am not afraid to suggest that one of these is the composer's passion for the builder of “Europe of Regions”, whose project was temporarily postponed by the military defeat of 1945. However, since the times of the Hohenstaufens, Europe has been aware of its commonality, and “regional globalization” for it is a constant idea. In this sense, both Napoleon and Hitler are Europeans. Whereas de Gaulle is just a Frenchman. A united Europe of the 21st century is a subject of history with its own long-standing interests. Not always close to us, often directly hostile, but they have their own logic, which would be nice to understand. Then Wagner will have something to do with it. Wagner's name is almost a spell for the modern Western European intellectual. Both left and ultra-right: both extremes converge on the issue of “Europe from Vladivostok to Dublin” (J. Thiriard). Therefore, it is not surprising that "Lohengrin" for the capital undertook to "represent" Kasper Holten, a director from Denmark. What did he do? We will consider this in detail, but for now let's touch on what Richard Wagner has there. John Pierce (Lohengrin) and Natalia Kreslina (Elsa)The composer is simple. The Holy Grail Knight Lohengrin responds to specific injustices against her Lordship Elsa, Princess of Brabant. On a swan, he descends to the unrighteous judges, accusing the girl of fratricide, and affirms justice. Please note, anonymously. Anonymously, he marries Elsa. Refuses to participate in the military campaign of his earthly overlord, Heinrich Ptitselov. Defeated by female curiosity, he opens incognito. Then (according to the agreement) he is forced to leave his beloved. He leaves, leaving the swan - Elsa's brother, heir to the Brabant throne. What is it about? Secondly, it is a romantic tale of faith and fidelity. Last but not least, the drama of the rejected. But first, this is a story about Faith, about the peace of God, about the Lord Himself, whose works are done through His faithful. In particular, we are reminded that the world by the time of Richard Wagner's life had lost its mechanical determinateness of Sir Isaac Newton. Which remained for a very limited range of tasks. That is, the intervention remained permissible only in the case of complete certainty: the collision of two "particles" (Count Friedrich von Telramund versus Elsa of Brabant). Whereas the movement of "ensembles" (regiments and divisions) allows, with general progress, a partial deviation to the side, and sometimes even back. The world obeying the laws of thermodynamics becomes different. And the interference in his affairs is less obvious and - obviously - more subtle. This is me for the fact that Wagner has always been attached to the most advanced intellectual achievements of our time. Even after physical death. What did we see at Novaya Opera? The satyr minister of agriculture Evelyn Waugh, condescending to aristocratic "old Europe". An official par excellence. The bearer of the supra-European idea of ​​globalization. Spetsnaz of the world "American". He is in white. Not in a camouflage coat (then it would have been an Alpine shooter from some "Edelweiss") - in a suit. It is as if he is descending the ladder of an airliner (an American "commando" would have descended to third world countries by parachute) - the old lady is being captured respectably. Fortunately, in the traditional Old World there are always sprouts of youth - it is they who "politely ask" (in the person of the director) Lohengrin to leave. In general, at this level, there seems to be no ideological disagreement with Wagner. The composer, I think, would today be a singer in Europe and an enemy of the United States. Disagreements, as always, are in nuances. Nevertheless, Wagner turned to the mystery of the Grail - one of the central ones for the European Christianized consciousness. Holten refused to trust the Grail. No wonder: the Dane is young, hot, impudent in a European way. However, Holten lost to the Grail in the end. Is the performance good? To incredible! The orchestra, led at the premiere by Jan Latham-König, played as if it had set itself the goal of filling the emotional emptiness of the "five-year plans without Wagner." Music needs no justification at all. The soloists of "Novaya" Natalia Kreslina (Elsa), Andrzej Beletsky (von Telramund), Elena Popovskaya (Ortruda, Friedrich's wife) are delightful without the slightest addiction to them. Not only vocally, but also artistically skillfully and firmly the “named persons” lead their roles. True, the drawing of their parts was skilfully drawn by the director and - most importantly! - justified. The scene, decorated in the style of German Expressionism, well known to the general public from Fritz Lang's film "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", appeals to Lang's gloom and asceticism. Beletsky, Popovskaya, Kreslina - all are organic in the world of the ancient gods - Freya and Wotan. But as soon as Lohengrin appears on the stage - a disaster! Not that the performer of his role, John Pearce (USA), sang badly or was weak as an actor. Not! - but his American ego does not seem to understand the director's intention and falls out of the drawing. True, it must be said that Wagner himself opposes Kasper Holten. Not to mention the powerful energy of the Grail. And so it turns out: an opera about Lohengrin, but in the play he is completely deheroized. Only a European can look at things this way! And only in strictly defined epochs of the existence of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in any guise. You and I (for sure!), Most likely, would not have had enough Christian generalization, even an inflatable, but - a swan, knightly nobility. Our Europe, beloved by the novels of Walter Scott, Sir Thomas Malory's Arthur cycle. Where will this white-clad knight of the Holy Grail go now? I mean the fate of the stage in a single “New Opera”. It seems reasonable that the anti-globalization project, read by Holten and good in itself, will not hold up in this stage version. The Christian universalism of the Grail will triumph. He, of course, should have been taken as an allies, but how is a question to which everyone has the right to give his own practical answer. It seems most likely that Lohengrin's visual-plastic image will change - it is too far-fetched today. A discreet suit, the habits of an official and a businessman, a bourgeoisness that causes nausea - it is useful to show this, but not in the image of Lohengrin. I believe that his chivalry will take its toll and soon we will see the character of Chesterton - "Don Quixote returned" or Napoleon of Nottinghill. That is, a warrior who has a fervent faith even under a civilian suit. Lohengrin's costume will find a "place of residence" in the semantic space of the stage action. But then the performance will be different. He will lose, albeit artificially grafted to him, an important European component. Useful, by the way, for our attention. However, this change is too obvious to be mandatory. The harmonious combination of all (!) European aspirations by the title performer can serve as a panacea for Lohengrin. Not only political, but also cultural. For a moment - Christian. To a large extent - positivist. The potential for this old opera is enormous. The potential of the "Novaya Opera" is also not weak. Therefore, I am convinced that there will be a continuation, and "Lohengrin" will have amazing adventures.

Richard Wagner is a rather rare guest in Moscow, if we mean the stage embodiment of his operas, and not the performance of fragments from them in concerts. We can say that, unlike in St. Petersburg, he never really took root here, appearing on the stages of the capital mainly performed by guest performers. The current premiere of the Novaya Opera is only the fourth appeal to Wagner in Moscow for the entire post-war period. As for Lohengrin specifically, this opera is the only one, by the way, in connection with which we can talk about the Moscow tradition, has not been staged here for more than seventy years. And now it has appeared in completely different times and in a different context. Today, the greatness of Wagner as a playwright and the usefulness of his so-called "reform" are more and more questionable, in contrast to the composer's genius, thanks to which Richard the First retains, despite everything, his attractiveness for theaters and the public. The question is, what exactly do we want and expect from him? Are you still ready to believe him, like Lohengrin, without asking anything and turning a blind eye to various unattractive things like anti-Semitism or outright male chauvinism? In theatrical practice, two diametrically opposite approaches to the embodiment of Wagner's operas prevail today. One consists in more or less literal adherence to the text - literary and musical - and the complete absence of any doubts. The other is the creation on stage of a different, parallel reality, arbitrarily imposed on Wagner's operas. It would seem that the former is still preferable, but almost nothing living on this path has appeared for many years. If you blindly believe and don't ask, it will most likely turn out to be a stilted, boring and meaningless spectacle, which can only be saved by super-energetic conductors - for example, Hergiev's. Whereas in all sorts of radical experiments, no, no, yes, and some rational seeds hatch. There is, however, a third way, instead of blind faith or pure arbitrariness, it offers a dialogue with Wagner, even a dispute that raises questions on the merits, even if not very convenient. The main thing is that the polemic should be conducted on its territory. This, in fact, is what happens in the performance of the New Opera, staged by the Dane Kasper Holten. Like Wagner, there is a dark Middle Ages here, and the title character is indeed a messenger of another world in white robes. But which one? If you watch the play without knowing anything about the director's intentions (outlined at the press conference and in the "Hanger" newspaper published by Novaya Opera), at first it may seem that we are facing almost a traditional production. The action has not been transferred anywhere, on the stage, indeed, the Middle Ages. At the same time, Steffen Aarfing (scenography and costumes) by no means erects huge castles in all their coarse and visible materiality. Gothic vaults are given in the form of projections, The Middle Ages, however, were not only in costumes and decoration. It is in the general atmosphere, spirit and morals. So, Elsa, accused of murdering her brother, is taken to the stage in the first act in an iron cage, while Telramund, mocking, also spits at her. The latter may seem like some director's overkill, but only at first. Because in the second act, when these spitting boomerangs come back to Telramund himself - now he and Ortruda are placed in the same cells as punishment for false accusation, But back to the first act. At that moment, when the crowd is ready to deal with the unfortunate Elsa, to the music known as the "leitmotif of the Grail", "a man from the future" enters the stage, in the words of the director. In this case - from our time with you. Of course, he is not a "knight", but either a politician or a businessman, in a slightly rumpled white suit, with a beard and with a half-head bald spot. Where is the swan? He will be there too. With a little sleight of hand, this Lohengrin will build it right before our eyes, like a children's boat, made of a sheet of paper. Who this "hero" really is, we still do not know to the end. The director does not believe the legend about the messenger of the Grail and exposes it in full, leaving the audience to make their own hypotheses. For example, that he is an American who came to this country, which was delayed in the Middle Ages, to establish his own order, as in some Iraq. Or - a functionary of some closed organization, such as a Masonic one. And if at first it may seem that he really came to help the triumph of justice and punish evil, then gradually the illusion dissipates. The director spares no poison, making full use of Brechtian recipes in depicting this character. Holten fully outplayed this very "different world" of Lohengrin and the rest of the characters. If the handshake and salutes are quickly adopted by the natives, then other attributes of a person from another era are constantly "firing" here and there (including in the most literal sense, when in the last act Lohengrin kills Telramund who attacked him with a pistol shot, which carries in his jacket pocket). Many moments evoke understanding laughter in the audience. For instance, A separate performance is the duet of Elsa and Lohengrin in the third act, which often looks so fake and parody on stage. In Holten's work, the whole scene as a whole and literally every moment separately are masterfully developed in action here. Unlike most Lohengrins, who seem to have no sex and do not even think about anything carnal, this seriousness of intentions demonstrates from the very beginning of the duet and, getting ready to start fulfilling marital duties, busily unbuttons his jacket, takes off his tie, and then quietly unties Elsa's laces and tries to lure her onto the bed. Elsa, however, slips out of his embrace every time, forcing him to continue the conversation. At some point, our Lohengrin begins to look impatiently at the clock, and when the heroine too "gets" him with forbidden questions, nervously takes out a cigarette and tries to smoke. Things are not going according to plan. And then Telramund and his associates attack, finally burying the hopes for the wedding night ... In the next scene, when Lohengrin takes a cheat sheet out of his pocket and, clearing his throat, begins "forcing" the gullible crowd about the Grail, then in a few moments we see everyone (except Elsa) kneeling in reverential ecstasy, which gives rise to unambiguous associations with totalitarian sects. But the main surprise is in store at the end, when Lohengrin unexpectedly brings Elsa's rescued brother Gottfried out to the people - in a jacket with a tie, mechanically raised in a salute with his right hand and a zombie face. Naturally, the very first reaction: it is across Wagner. Yes, as far as the title character is concerned, of course. But it is also true that Lohengrin has always been perceived by many as a very dubious character. And it is not surprising: Wagner, who had a very specific relationship with all kinds of moral categories, meant himself here: a missionary artist who came to benefit the public by showing her true art, and she, ungrateful, does not want to understand this, and even asks all sorts of questions. In order for us to believe this hero, to recognize his right to such conditions, we need a performer like Sobinov or Kozlovsky who followed the same course (here it is, the Moscow tradition of Lohengrin, which I mentioned at the beginning), with a timbre and appearance that really resembles heavenly messenger and at the same time looking so vulnerable. When, according to German tradition, the Lohengrins appear in the guise of straightforward supermen, they perceive them accordingly. Wagner's concept is based on the presumption of guilt of Elsa, who violated the ban and was punished for it. But what to do if today (as, by the way, yesterday) many Wagnerian heroes are perceived not quite the way, or even not at all the way he intended them, and the theaters, together with the audience, are not ready to see the ideal in the dumb Siegfried, who does not know not only fear, but much more, the blessed Parsifal or the overly rigorous Lohengrin? violated the ban and was punished for it. But what to do if today (as, by the way, yesterday) many Wagnerian heroes are perceived not quite the way, or even not at all the way he intended them, and the theaters, together with the audience, are not ready to see the ideal in the dumb Siegfried, who does not know not only fear, but much more, the blessed Parsifal or the overly rigorous Lohengrin? violated the ban and was punished for it. But what to do if today (as, by the way, yesterday) many Wagnerian heroes are perceived not quite the way, or even not at all the way he intended them, and the theaters, together with the audience, are not ready to see the ideal in the dumb Siegfried, who does not know not only fear, but much more, the blessed Parsifal or the overly rigorous Lohengrin? Holten simply turned the Wagnerian myth inside out. Lohengrin does come from another world, but it's a dystopian world. And his confrontation with Ortruda and Telramund is by no means a fight between good and evil, but simply a struggle for power. That's all. What about music? After all, it would seem that it is very clearly spelled out where is good and where is evil. But it is not for nothing that Holten (which was discussed at the press conference) knows by heart every bar of the score. He knows how to make music his ally. And the "theme of the Grail" in the play relates rather to the knight that appeared to Elsa in her dreams. And this Mr. Lohengrin is just cleverly taking it over. It is no coincidence, by the way, that at the moment of his appearance Elsa was blindfolded. Lohengrin himself will remove the blindfold later, and Elsa will recoil at first: too striking a discrepancy. But in the end he saved her life, and Elsa tries to convince herself that this is the hero of her dreams. And the performance ultimately turns out to be about what self-deception leads to when the desired is passed off as reality. Elsa here is the only subject of the drama, the drama of lost illusions. when the desired is passed off as valid. Elsa here is the only subject of the drama, the drama of lost illusions. when the desired is passed off as valid. Elsa here is the only subject of the drama, the drama of lost illusions. The concept of the Danish director, for all its controversy and paradoxicality in relation to this particular material, turned out to be quite convincing on the whole. And where it is completely opposite to the author's, the method of "director's perpendicular", discovered by Boris Pokrovsky, works. Kasper Holten, like many of his colleagues, does not stop at a simple declaration of this or that thesis, but works through everything to the smallest detail. And in the end, everything grows together - both with each other and with the music. Actually, there was no reason to doubt that the musical quality at the Novaya Opera will be at the proper level. The chief conductor, Eri Klas, began to prepare the orchestra for the production of an entire Wagnerian opera ahead of time and was quite successful in this. True, in the process of direct work on "Lohengrin" the maestro suffered a hypertensive crisis, and he dropped out of it. And so, at that moment when the fate of the performance was in jeopardy, the theater managed to get an excellent world-renowned conductor, Jan Latham-König, for the premiere performances. Of course, he set to work on the already well-prepared soil. Yet the results were amazing. In less than a week, Latham-König achieved a fundamentally different quality of play - a truly European and truly Wagnerian at the same time, at the same time a very soft, smooth and melodious sound, which you rarely hear in Wagner, as, incidentally, and such an almost perfect balance with the singers. Well, the fact that at the premiere the trumpeters had occasional failures (there were practically none of them on the second performance until the third act), then, as we know, even the main Mariinsky Orchestra in Wagner is not immune from this. And, of course, as always, the work of the Novaya Opera choir deserves the best words. even our main Wagner orchestra is the Mariinsky Orchestra. And, of course, as always, the work of the Novaya Opera choir deserves the best words. even our main Wagner orchestra is the Mariinsky Orchestra. And, of course, as always, the work of the Novaya Opera choir deserves the best words. The troupe also found their own singers for Wagner. At the premiere performances, only the title role was performed by a guest soloist - American John Pearce, a strong professional specializing in such a repertoire. It was professionalism that allowed him, being frankly out of shape at the second performance (and even letting in a few "cocks" in a duet), to get together and bring the party to the end without too visible disruptions. All other performers were Novaya Opera's own soloists.

The premiere of Rigoletto, prepared with great fanfare, finally took place. The "bullied" prices bite, tickets remained at the box office, advertisements in newspapers and on the radio went into action - everyone instantly knew how to have a good evening at the opera! No worse than a club or sauna. Before the start of the performance, there was excitement, he even had to be delayed for half an hour. Automobile Moscow was standing, cell phones were ringing, the guards were nervous, the "cool" people were late (sorry, they were late). But now, all the excitement is over, and maestro Yevgeny Kolobov stands at the conductor's stand. Sitting comfortably in an easy chair, we plunge into this wonderful world called Verdi's opera. After a few minutes you realize that you have come to a good-quality performance with very high-quality vocals, a good orchestra and respect for the original. However, you do not feel an emotional upsurge, as if something is interfering. For a long time I could not understand the reason, but, suddenly, it dawned on me: a slight boredom and a kind of Scandinavian cold blows from the scenography (artist Lennart Mörk from Sweden). And this is not a metaphor. Whitish lines, symbolizing tree branches, as if covered with frost, are combined with some kind of brown shade of gnarled plastic decorations, reminiscent of a sculpture from tree roots at the "Nature and Fantasy" exhibitions. All this creates an atmosphere of inappropriate fabulousness - it seems that the heroes of Selma Lagerlöf or the Brothers Grimm are about to come out from behind the scenes. In addition, in "Rigoletto" The dark Renaissance costumes of the courtiers oppose the gloom of the design, but they do not add convincingness to the visual color scheme. However, soon you get used to this reality and completely surrender to the music. Kolobov's bright orchestra and good singing make you forget about the set design failures. Of course, everyone was looking forward to Hvorostovsky. Expectations that are too high often create a somewhat frustrating effect. Hvorostovsky is certainly good, very good, this is a star! The wonderful timbre of his voice is mesmerizing. But the texture of the singer's voice (and even his appearance) does not correspond to the image of Rigoletto (if you could see him in Don Juan!). However, this cannot be blamed on the artist. Rigoletto is generally difficult and thankless material. Completely worn out melodies - they should only be performed brilliantly. And the plot! Why is it always difficult to play Shakespearean plays? Because it is incredibly difficult to convincingly embody this jumble of passions and the drama of collisions. The libretto, based on Hugo's drama, is replete with the same qualities, with the exception of one - it's not Shakespeare! But a pleasant surprise awaited everyone where it was difficult to foresee. The opening, in my opinion, was the debut of the young Ekaterina Syurina in the role of Gilda. A beautiful voice, freshness, sincerity, good school and musicality are all excellent prerequisites for the birth of a new talent. And even overly accurate intonation, the elements of schooling in this case are not scary. This is natural for a debutante. Mikhail Gubsky (Duke) also looked quite confident. An experienced soloist of the Samara Opera House, with a rather strong voice of a pleasant (albeit somewhat harsh) timbre, played the role of the Mantuan conqueror of women's hearts well, and several breakdowns (one of which is especially annoying in the third act) almost did not affect the impression of the role. The Bujor (Sparafucile) method turned out to be somewhat weaker than the others in vocal terms, but the image created a convincing one. Natalia Kreslina (Maddalena) sang rather expressionlessly. It was interesting for everyone to look at the new darling of Hvorostovsky, Flores Illy. But can the role of Countess Ceprano provide such an opportunity (apart from, of course, a purely external impression)? The orchestra deserves a separate discussion, as always with Kolobov. The annoying mistake in the first bars of the introduction was quickly forgotten, but in general, the orchestral sound, the maestro's ability to enhance the dramatic situation with sound energy always make an unforgettable impression. Only once did the conductor's sense of proportion change, but this was the main episode of the opera - Rigoletto's aria "Courtesans". The orchestral bursts in the vocal pauses were overly emotional and the aria "swayed". Sometimes the undercurrent of restraint creates greater tension and an atmosphere of despair than the sobbing that the orchestra allowed itself. By the way, Hvorostovsky's singing in the first part of the aria was, perhaps, too declamatory. Although this is purely my subjective feeling. The moment of truth in the performance came in the third act during the famous quartet (Duke, Maddalena, Rigoletto, Gilda), performed with such skill and feeling that the audience burst into thunderous applause. You can still talk about some nuances of singing, a rather spineless direction (Ralph Lyangbaka from Finland), expressed only in a competent layout, etc. But these will already be details. The main thing is that the classical opera is alive and there is a theater that is able to bring it to life. After rereading the review, I felt that it came out somewhat academic. Apparently, the Scandinavians infected me with their northern calmness.

From the rich heritage of the hero of the day G. Verdi, his famous opera "triad" of the 1850s is the most popular and often performed in the world. But La Traviata - a record for the number of performances in all countries - has never disappeared from the repertoire of Moscow opera houses, and now it goes right on three stages of the capital, gathering full halls (not counting studio and student performances). The Troubadour, staged at the Bolshoi in the 70s, survived until the 90s and was successfully presented by Novaya Opera last season. For a long time in Moscow, " Rigoletto " was unjustly consigned to oblivion. Without explaning the reason. Because there were always enough high-quality strong baritones for the title role and light mobile sopranos for Gilda. I remember the eerie story of a music literature teacher, how in the mid-70s she got to see the much dilapidated production of Rigoletto, which was transferred from the Bolshoi to the stage of the Kremlin Palace of Congresses. Gilda was sung by a lady of pre-retirement age and so oversized that in the final she simply did not fit into a fake bag! So thick legs in red tights stuck out from there, causing the audience to laugh. True, at the very end of the 1980s, on the same stage of the Kremlin Palace, unloved by all the singers, several performances of the new production of Rigoletto took place almost unnoticed by the press, which is remembered only for the masterful performance of the title role by Yuri Antonovich Mazurok. Few remember the "dark" story with the production of "Rigoletto" at the Stanislavsky Musical Theater at the turn of the 90s, still directed by E. V. Kolobov. The premiere brought to orchestral runs was canceled! The official version is the ideological differences between the conductor and the invited foreign directors, the excessive vulgarity of what they proposed. (That was the time!) Backstage rumors - financial problems, a common thing for that period. Rehabilitation of the masterpiece took place in 2000 under the guidance of the same maestro Kolobov in the newly built building of the New Opera in the Hermitage garden. The resounding success of the premiere was facilitated by the invitation, or rather even the stake on Dmitry Hvorostovsky in the title role of Rigoletto. Simultaneously with the debut of Hvorostovsky, which, according to everyone's opinion, was only an application, a test for the role, which was fully revealed a few years later on the stage of Covent Garden, the bright star of Ekaterina Syurina - Gilda, ascended. In general, for the current mobile opera world, a performance that has been running regularly for the 14th year is a long-liver. The careers of many now famous singers began with him; such aces as Roberto Frontali or Franz Grundheber acted as guest performers in the tragic role of a jester. I don’t think it is appropriate to analyze the direction of Ralph Lyangback and the set design of Lennart Merck over and over again. I agree with my colleagues, there is nothing unusual. But after the perversions, pardon the delights of the "rezopery" at such performances, you truly rest your soul! When the declared 16th century, albeit conditionally, is visible in costumes, when everything on stage is clear, elegant and colorful, and there is no need to solve director's puzzles in parallel with music. Unlike fans of innovative productions, I dream that the first medical commandment: "do no harm!" a fiery "valtazar" line would knock into the minds of modern directors. In Rigoletto, this commandment is fully observed. And one more argument in defense of the traditional conservative solution. It is no secret that some worthy modern opera productions, designed for a certain bright acting personality, fade and crumble, become boring when the line-ups change. And, on the contrary, soundly made seemingly banal "layout", with the arrival of fresh performers only wins, acquires new colors. It happened this time too. Russian baritone Boris Statsenko, who has lived in Germany for many years, considers Rigoletto's part to be one of the most dear and beloved for a reason. In this image, he has been seen about 200 times on various European stages. And now, finally, for the first time - in Moscow. Fortunately, everything coincided - the weather, the singer's well-being, partners, the orchestra, the atmosphere in the hall. Explicit singing and acting luck. And another proof that an experienced master, whose image has been achieved through suffering and made over many years, does not need obsessive directing. It is always surprising when a medium-sized singer, as in the old days they wrote "graceful addition", opening his mouth, expels an avalanche of sound from himself, as if a mixer was added even in comparison with partners. No, where necessary - there was a piano, and filing, and subtlety of nuances. But Statsenko has such a baritone, not a softly insinuating cello, but like the noble copper of a French horn, even a trombone in the lower register. Perhaps somewhat unexpected, but accepted immediately and without a doubt, was the interpretation of the role. Both the text and the music provoke pathos here, an affectation that has not been seen at all ... Was there a hump? Some in the audience doubted, something neat "superfluous" seemed on the back of the jester's neck. Here it is - the power of reincarnation! Straight, athletic Boris, of course, did not glue or put anything on. His Rigoletto is not a hunchback from birth, he is terribly stooped, constrained due to age-related or poverty-related ailments like arthritis, scoliosis, etc. Dragging gait, skewed body. I don’t know, maybe a professional physician would have smelled a trick, I, as a child, during the entire first act suspected the artist of real ill health from the musculoskeletal system. Minimum makeup, no wig. Only "to work" in the palace Rigoletto puts on a red cap with bells and a short jacket. In the rest of the scenes, it is the actor's face that is thoroughbred, tired and shabby. Gilda's line, “We've been here for the second month already,” explains a lot. Not "poor Yorick" who was born, raised and aged in the same castle as a serf serf, but a free wandering artist, hiring now to the court of an aristocrat, or amusing the crowd in a booth at a fair. That eternal "actor-actor" who went into this dangerous witchcraft craft at the call of his heart, in spite of everything, knowing that he could not even be buried in consecrated ground. By the way, for the historical Duke of Mantua, Claudio Monteverdi, the father and creator of the opera, also worked as the head of the court chapel for a long time. Rigoletto's first appearance at the Duke's ball, performed by Statsenko, is by no means a disgusting "corvee", he is clearly basking in his ability to deliver stinging remarks, to improvise truthful harshness to noble gentlemen under the hood of a jester. It is important to stop in time, but here Rigoletto is mistaken, insulting Monterone. A moment of curse and epiphany at the same time. In a duet with Gilda in the second picture, Rigoletto is rather restrained in his fatherly feelings. As if a slight surprise, how quickly and suddenly the daughter grew up, transformed, how differently it is now necessary to communicate with her. The most vulnerable moment of the libretto is the involuntary complicity of the father in the abduction of Gilda. Well, what rag will close your eyes and ears enough not to recognize your home? And here again acting helps out - let the excitement for the daughter gnaw, why not fool around once again? "Ah, it's not difficult to deceive me, I myself am glad to be deceived!" A close-up of Father's frozen face when realizing his mistake is worthy of an HD screen. The appearance of Rigoletto in the Duke's chambers, where Gilda is hidden, is a "bomb" - the famous aria "Cortigiani vil razza dannata". A very agile tempo, violin passages at the limit of virtuosity (but clean and smooth!), Vocally - don't find fault, in your own way, without looking back at the interpretations of the great baritones of the past. Fire and pain from within, the same in plastic. And, perhaps, the acting culmination - the subsequent duet of Rigoletto and Gilda. Of course, each of us reads something of our own in Verdi's images, something closer (in contrast to Wagner's archetypes, which are not transferable to ourselves). I was struck by the absolute tiredness, the stopper of the Father, who learned about what had happened. The main pain and annoyance at himself, bad and careless, who believed that near the nest of debauchery he would be able to keep the girl's purity. The combination of external restraint with internal fury, buying plastic, mesmerizing subtext, not flashiness. I am not afraid of comparison with the even half-forgotten, but incomparable acting standard. Search the net for some of Gian Maria Volonte's later films: Open Doors (Porte aperte), Cronaca di una morte annunciata (Chronicle of a Death Announced), and especially L'opera al nero - L ' Œuvre au noir) based on the novel by Yursenar - you will understand what I mean. I would very much like Boris Statsenko's performance in Rigoletto to be repeated again, this level of performance will be a gift to many Moscow music lovers. The part of Gilda is insidious in that it requires excellent vocal technique, but provokes the search for young and slender singers. Among Verdi's lyric heroines, she is, perhaps, the most "girlish". That Juliet is only 13 years old - remember, how old is Gilda? Since the era is neighboring (and the scene), it is hardly much older. A 14-15 year old bride is a common thing in Italy in the 16th century. The soloist of the Novaya Opera Galina Koroleva has been on the professional stage for more than ten years, but even from a close row of the stalls, thanks to her miniature figure, she looks like a teenager. And already in the finals, in a man's suit - the dream of any Youth Theater. But her voice, carefully controlled, practically flawless intonation, is small, and very glassy sharp. The combination with the pope's mighty voice (Statsenko), no matter how hard he tried to tidy up the volume, reminded of a duet of piccolo flute and French horn. Not the most harmonious, let's say, fusion. As for the image, in Gilda it is understandably difficult to find the depths of Violetta Valerie or Elizabeth of Valois. There are two main ways: a romanticized dreamer like Assol (also the result of the upbringing of a single father) or a half-child singing about a handsome young man, and she probably has a doll under her pillow! Galina Koroleva is just such a child, an opening bud, in whom sensuality awakened before reason. Not original, but organic. But the Duke of Mantua just matched his chosen one completely. Nurlan Bekmukhambetov's voice is also somewhat harsh and open. But many people like these tenors the most. Nurlan copes with all the vocal difficulties of the almost bel cantal part easily, clearly enjoying the very process of singing. Voiced top notes were given to him without problems. As a wish, there is almost a lack of European polish in Italian. Young, handsome, with beautiful legs, what else? A colleague who attended the tenor's debut in the Duke's role two years ago remarked: "there is not enough impudence." And it is not necessary! Born in nobility and wealth, spoiled from childhood to the utmost, in adolescence who knew all the joys of the flesh, this Duke is not at all angry and not cynical. Rather, he is a beast, bursting with healthy epicureanism, accustomed to taking whatever he wants from life. Morality, conscience? He doesn't even know such words! Damn charming, in an Asian way, in our case, but this taste of the primordially polygamous, harem oriental gives a piquancy to the image. From the first intimacy, instilling in a naive girl not fear or disgust (Gilda did not resist the kidnappers, and easily went to the Duke's bedroom herself, and did not cry at all after what had happened!), But love, up to self-sacrifice, can only be an extraordinarily talented lover. The look of Gilda Herzog leaving the alcove (screens) was like a “doctor” after a successful “procedure”. And the seasoned "professional" Maddalena, for sure, did not get the first handsome man, but only this she wanted to regret and save. And Maddalena is good at Agunda Kulaeva! For the mezzo that brilliantly copes with Cinderella Rossini and Martha in Khovanshchina (for now in a concert version) to sing the only picture in the finale of Rigoletto, though with the famous quartet, is almost a joke. Out of the era, the costume - a black guipure bodice, a skirt with a bold slit, looks great on a spectacular chiseled Agunda, helping to imagine her enchanting Carmen. The huge volumetric texture of Vitaly Efanov successfully suited the "killer" Sparafucile, and his bass was remembered for the chic low notes in the ensembles. As always, the Novaya Opera choir was at its best, purely male in Rigoletto. The courtiers parted a little with the orchestra at the beginning of the second act, telling the Duke about the abduction of the stranger, but hellish spirits howled great in the final Thunderstorm. The guest conductor, who had already received the good nickname “Russian Italian” Fabio Mastrangelo, was at the console that evening on October 25th. The main thing is that the maestro feels the singers, knows how to catch the soloist, even if something suddenly went wrong. The orchestra sounded harmoniously, brightly, although sometimes of high quality, without kiks, as if brass horns were outweighed by excess seething energy, or suddenly an extra accent was given out by the timpani. The cello divisions were faked in the duet of Rigoletto and Sparafucile in the first act, the strings were fuzzy when Gilda appeared. Perhaps the most annoying thing is the openly low solo oboe in the introduction to Gilda's Aria "Tutte le feste al tempio mentre pregava Iddio". But in general, these are trifles, nit-picking, so that the review is not absolutely complimentary. To summarize, the 77th Rigoletto at the Novaya Opera has so far become the only performance that has been seen live for the eventful year of the 200th anniversary of the beloved classic, which in every sense would not be ashamed to show to the greatest Verdi.

"Summer Opera Festival in Tyumen!" The posters informed us ahead of time about the second, five years later, the arrival in our city of the Moscow theater "New Opera" them. E. Kolobova with a repertoire for every taste. To moderate radicals - "The Barber of Seville" by G. Rossini, a three-year-old experiment directed by E. Moshinski, where there is neither Seville nor the 18th century, but there is a time and space for comedy ... For fans of extreme recreation - the Tobolsk Kremlin with Glinka's "Ruslan" the lengths of which are squeezed to a completely bearable (on the street and into the microphone) two-hour composition. "Prince Igor" by Borodin and "Boris Godunov" by Mussorgsky composed a kind of opera discourse about power and people, unhurried and thorough in Russian. I was among the admirers of these, perhaps, the strangest compositions of not only domestic but also world opera. What's so strange? In "Prince Igor" - everything! And the fact that V. Stasov had a plan for the opera literally overnight. And the fact that A. Borodin, enthusiastically taking up its creation and conjuring over it for nearly 18 years, suddenly died, never seeing his brainchild on stage. Isn't it strange that Russian musical culture inherited not only about 6 thousand bars of Igor's music, written by Borodin, but also five (!) Author's concepts of the opera, not counting the variants of individual pictures and numbers? Obviously, in this situation, "fulfilling the will of the deceased" seemed to be a very difficult task. Therefore, immediately after the death of Borodin, a precedent arose that influenced the entire further stage life of the opera - the reaction of A. Glazunov and N. Rimsky-Korsakov. The composer's friends, having created a dramatically completed stage version of the opera, fulfilled a historic mission: they performed the premiere of Prince Igor and completed the work of the life of their untimely deceased friend. The world premiere in 1890 confirmed this version as an archetype. The next step was taken half a century later by the Soviet scientist P. Lamm. He put the manuscripts in order and created the combined clavier "Igor", which included all the materials written by Borodin, as well as fragments recreated by the first editors. The road was open for the next generations of interpreters. So one of the main "oddities" of Borodino's opus is the way of its existence: in various musical editions, and sometimes radically opposite ones. It is clear that the “Kolobovites” have put forward (I am citing a press release) “their own musical version of the opera, which is based on the concept of the St. Petersburg director Yury Aleksandrov, People's Artist of Russia, in step with the times. The play changes the traditional sequence of some scenes ... " What happened on the stage? From a musical point of view, the familiar version of Glazunov - Korsakov is from childhood, with the difference that the overture sounded after the prologue (!). The third act was traditionally omitted, and the fourth act was left with "horns and legs": Yaroslavna's lament, a duet with the prince and the choir of the villagers. But all this sounded in the performance of a magnificent ensemble of soloists, an excellent choir (leaders - N. Popovich, M. Vasilkova, V. Kurutaev) and the orchestra under the direction of the talented conductor E. Samoilov. The impression is colossal! I will not exaggerate if I say that more than one music lover in the hall shed "rare tears" after hearing the stately, noble remarks of the protagonist (S. Artamonov), magic calls in Yaroslavna's lament (E. Popovskaya), massive fortissimo of choral praises and the quietest filigree the weaving of voices in the choir of the villagers. As for the "video sequence" that embodied the director's concept, there are two sharp dissonances not only with musical drama, but also with the nature of Russian opera as a whole. The choir was made to move very actively: each choral scene turned into a pantomime, a theatrical performance. But the cumbersome, sedentary choral crowd on stage is, if you will, the brand of Russian opera, which has centuries-old traditions. External statics here are compensated by the most complex musical architectonics, a variety of choral musical fabric. The rhythmic stomp and other active body movements of the choir, combined with such musical richness, look like an attempt to translate the great and mighty into some kind of "Albanian". The second dissonance was the stage solution of the image of the protagonist and the Polovtsian dances. According to Borodin, Igor is an integral personality, a real “hagiographic icon”, one of the main “supporting” constructions of the opera. Such an image naturally grows out of the noble, lofty intonation structure of the entire vocal part, the complex architectonics of the hero's detailed monologue in the second act. In this regard, it is understandable that involuntary respect that the formidable Konchak imbued with the defeated prince: "Ah, I would not like to be your enemy, but your ally, friend, brother ..." According to Y. Aleksandrov's plan, the main character is burdened with the vice of drunkenness and a tendency to unmotivated actions - qualities that have no confirmation in the musical drama of the opera. Therefore, at the behest of the director, immediately after the woeful monologue "No sleep, no rest for an exhausted soul", he gets drunk at the suggestion of the nomads to such an extent that he starts dancing with them, in a dressing gown and malakhai, carefully worn by Konchak ... Here is such an enchanting hangover in someone else's feast the director came up with for Prince Igor Svyatoslavich! In Polovtsian dances, as in a kaleidoscope, one group replaces another, then the movements accelerate and the groups of dancers mix in a common bacchanalia. The image of a dancing enemy, beautiful, seductive, was invented not by Fokin and not even by Borodin. Long before them it was carefully prescribed by M. Glinka in the opera A Life for the Tsar. Abandon this paradigm of Russian opera, Yu.Aleksandrov return forces again to move the choir, overload scene lurid details, sometimes reminiscent of "costume klubnyak" ... In short, warned at a press conference glavrezh "New Opera" V.Raku, Polovtsian Dances came out "not in Fokin style". Yes, and "not in Borodino". In a letter from 1876, the composer noted: "In my opinion, in the opera, as in the scenery, small forms should not take place, everything should be written in large strokes ..." A dumb question hung in the finale of the opera as well. After a long separation, Prince Igor and Princess Yaroslavna meet. Either in a cemetery surrounded by people-crosses, or already in eternity ... But not in Putivl for sure. Their duet smoothly passes into the finale of the opera - the choir of the villagers, "the quietest and most beautiful music", according to the stage director. But this music has words (in the original version, the villagers pick up Yaroslavna's cry). If you remember them, it becomes clear that the ending of the epic is somehow strange, to put it mildly: "Oh, it was not a violent wind howling, it brought grief, Khan Gzak fought us ..." But what is surprising if the famous Russian chemist Borodin and Co. have written such a strange opera? "Boris Godunov" in the first edition of M. Mussorgsky "Kolobovites" brought last time, but the opera was on at the 1st festival "Summer in the Tobolsk Kremlin". Five years later, residents of Tyumen had the opportunity to slowly, without weather and technical vicissitudes, appreciate the masterpiece, completed by Mussorgsky in 1869. The work was immediately rejected by the opera committee and staged only in 1929 in Moscow. The libretto was composed by the composer after Pushkin's drama. Both works, by the way, have a difficult stage fate, their own history of distortions, cuts, adaptations due to their seeming "anti-stage". V. Belyakovich's production perfectly embodies Mussorgsky's plan, focusing on the image of the protagonist. The spectacular side of the opera is minimized, and this tangible absence of the director's “I” is perceived as a gesture of deepest trust in the listener, composer and his work. The greater the responsibility falls on the shoulders of the soloists, chorus, orchestra. V. Efanov played the game of Boris somewhat wearily. His "opponents" - Shuisky (M. Gareev), Grigory Otrepiev (A. Skvarko), Pimen (V. Kudashev), the Fool (A. Bogdanov) - are pushing him from all sides of the Russian myth about the tsarist power, Russian sacred history. Perhaps this is a sign of the onset of the Great Troubles with its chaos and the loss of a sense of the sacred nature of the Tsar. I remember a scene in a tavern on the Lithuanian border, some authentically reproduced "music of life" with drunken acclaim, jokes, screams, whistling whispers ... The "choirs behind the stage" sounded in relief and weighty, playing an extremely important role in the drama of the opera, since they determine the fate of the tsar and the future false tsar in eternity. This work of the artists of the "New Opera" left an impression of integrity, self-sufficiency and some kind of burning charm for the personality of Musorgsky - a mystic, a prophet ... "Boris Godunov" in the first edition of M. Mussorgsky "Kolobovites" brought last time, but the opera was on at the 1st festival "Summer in the Tobolsk Kremlin". Five years later, residents of Tyumen had the opportunity to slowly, without weather and technical vicissitudes, appreciate the masterpiece, completed by Mussorgsky in 1869.

Although this performance was staged back in 1998, I ventured to put a story about it in this section, because I simply could not find another place. I wonder why the opera "Boris Godunov" is so rare in NO? Then a good line-up with three openings came together and I decided to go and listen, and not just one, but with my workmates. And it was on March 15, the day of a great weather cataclysm. We went out to the Garden Ring, and there - you couldn't see anything, as they say, a good owner ... and so on ... The snow was falling like a wall, but we held hands tightly, formed a chain and thus got to Karetny Ryad, despite our attempts wind to scatter us! In general, a dog sled and sledges would be most useful to us, as among the representatives of the northern peoples. But even without the sleds it was impossible to stop us, for the craving for art is invincible! Moreover, the theater was warm, quiet, dry and the buffet worked! Belyakovich's production turned out to be quite curious, but, perhaps, still somewhat gloomy. I remember that Kolobov at one time at the MAMT SND conducted a somewhat different production, but if I am not mistaken, according to the same first author's version of the opera, then Olga Ivanova was the director. And I saw this performance for the first time on Friday. The decorations on the stage are a minimum, they are such gilded arches that turn into gates, then into frames for icons, then into vaults for attaching bells ... The introduction immediately plunged into an alarming atmosphere of anticipation, and then the bailiff came on the stage with a whip (or a whip?) and it became quite scary. For Oleg Shagotsky got used to the role so much, shouted so terribly, flicked the whip so loudly that he got the full impression that he was not so much addressing the choir on stage, how many people in the hall, and at some point it seemed to me that now he can quite whack us with this whip, if he swings better, I even opened my mouth to obediently pull on "Who are you leaving us ...", just while I was thinking , in what key, the moment was already missed ... But the scene was very strong! The chorus NO sounded now pitiful, now menacing, it was impressive. Meanwhile, after the choir, the Duma clerk Shchelkalov, performed by Artyom Garnov and the rest of the boyars, appeared on the stage. And in the second picture, after a very effective bell ringing and a corresponding announcement by Shuisky, Boris Godunov himself, performed by Vladimir Kudashev, finally appeared on the stage. Perhaps, at first, in the first monologue "The Soul Grieves," his voice sounded somewhat muffled and loose. The prologue ended with a very beautiful bell ringing and a spectacular fortissimo chorus tutti. and at some point it seemed to me that now he can quite whack us with this whip, if he swings better, I even opened my mouth to obediently tighten "Who are you leaving us with ...", only while I was thinking in what tone, moment was already missed ... But the scene was very strong! The chorus NO sounded now pitiful, now menacing, it was impressive. Meanwhile, after the choir, the Duma clerk Shchelkalov, performed by Artyom Garnov and the rest of the boyars, appeared on the stage. And in the second picture, after a very effective bell ringing and a corresponding announcement by Shuisky, Boris Godunov himself, performed by Vladimir Kudashev, finally appeared on the stage. Perhaps, at first, in the first monologue "The Soul Grieves," his voice sounded somewhat muffled and loose. The prologue ended with a very beautiful bell ringing and a spectacular fortissimo chorus tutti. and at some point it seemed to me that now he can quite whack us with this whip, if he swings better, I even opened my mouth to obediently tighten "Who are you leaving us with ...", only while I was thinking in what tone, moment was already missed ... But the scene was very strong! The chorus NO sounded now pitiful, now menacing, it was impressive. Meanwhile, after the choir, the Duma clerk Shchelkalov, performed by Artyom Garnov and the rest of the boyars, appeared on the stage. And in the second picture, after a very effective bell ringing and a corresponding announcement by Shuisky, Boris Godunov himself, performed by Vladimir Kudashev, finally appeared on the stage. Perhaps, at first, in the first monologue "The Soul Grieves," his voice sounded somewhat muffled and loose. The prologue ended with a very beautiful bell ringing and a spectacular fortissimo chorus tutti. And then the scene began in the cell of the Chudov Monastery. Maxim Kuzmin-Karavaev played for the first time in the role of Pimen. It is always very interesting to listen to him. True, I was worried if his voice would fit this very specific part. But my fears were in vain! Maxim sang very well! The voice sounded beautiful - even, sonorous, full, noble. Each phrase was very weighty and significant. And the singer's makeup was well chosen, only the overly white beard looked beautiful, but a little unnatural, and even, it seems, slightly interfered with the pronunciation of the hissing ones. Then Grigory Otrepiev woke up, whose part (also for the first time) was sung by Georgy Vasiliev. Here I noticed that in this version Otrepiev's part is slightly different from the generally accepted version of the opera, by the way, in Yekaterinburg, after all, the first author's version was also performed, but there I did not notice these differences (and the differences in the part of the chorus in the very first picture) ... However, it does not matter, the main thing is that Vasiliev sang his part very clearly, expressively and brightly. Moreover, along the way, he added all the time, as, incidentally, did Kuzmin-Karavaev. I just haven't talked about yet another feature of this production: there the characters often, after singing, repeat lines in the form of melodeclamation or, most often, such a loud expressive whisper. At first, I was already jumping up and down on the spot from these "additional" unusual remarks, but then I was limited only by a start. Meanwhile, Kuzmin-Karavaev sounded just great - such a rich timbre with numerous overtones, the most dramatic story about the events in Uglich sounded just super expressive. True, I noticed that due to the minimalist design of the scene during this story, Otrepyev had absolutely nothing to do, and he staggered back and forth around the stage (apparently, in search of a good director?). In the final phrases of Otrepiev in this picture, it seemed to me, at first there was some haste, but the ending was clearly successful. Vasiliev's strong, beautiful voice sounded promising and weighty. And then there was a wonderful scene in a tavern on the Lithuanian border, in the first author's edition, unfortunately, beginning with the words "What should I treat you, honest guests?" Unfortunately, because the innkeeper was sung by the wonderful singer Margarita Nekrasova, I really love to listen to her beautiful voice, but here it is not enough for her to sing. On the other hand, Varlaam's party hardly dwindled. Sergey Artamonov performed very well in it. The sound was just exceptionally good! Huge volume, exceptional brightness and fullness, I have never heard this! And he played very effectively, artistically, but at the same time with a sense of proportion and taste. But, in fact, in the scene in the tavern it was necessary to listen to Artamonov, Nekrasova and Vasiliev, but it was necessary to look all the time at Maxim Ostroukhov, who had almost nothing to sing in his part of Misail, but to play ... It was then that he turned to the fullest! Honestly, it was impossible to take your eyes off him: he danced, and drank, and hid the bundle, and shook with a string, in short, he played out absolutely everything! Indeed, why disfigure Vasiliev's very spectacular Mediterranean appearance with Otrepiev's traditional characteristic make-up ("red hair", "a wart on the nose, another on the forehead") if Misail-Ostroukhov played all these special features of him in full? Including both warts! And where, in what other opera house is there an artist who can even play warts? Meanwhile, Shagotsky just continued to swim in the role of the Bailiff (not otherwise, he got it! Why was it necessary to disfigure Vasiliev's very spectacular Mediterranean appearance with the traditional characteristic Otrepiev's make-up ("red hair", "there is a wart on the nose, another on the forehead"), if Misail-Ostroukhov played all these special features in full? Including both warts! And where, in what other opera house is there an artist who can even play warts? Meanwhile, Shagotsky just continued to swim in the role of the Bailiff (not otherwise, he got it! Why was it necessary to disfigure Vasiliev's very spectacular Mediterranean appearance with the traditional characteristic Otrepiev's make-up ("red hair", "there is a wart on the nose, another on the forehead"), if Misail-Ostroukhov played all these special features of his in full? Including both warts! And where, in what other opera house is there an artist who can even play warts? Meanwhile, Shagotsky just continued to swim in the role of the Bailiff (not otherwise, he got it!:)), and Artamonov - in the role of Varlaam, the reading of the decree turned into a wonderful vaudeville with a detective tinge. Well, actually - one of the best scenes turned out! Then there was a scene in the mansion, where at first Ksenia - Victoria Shevtsova sounded her small role. It seemed to me that her voice sounded a little dull. And Yulia Abakumovskaya, who sang Mamka Ksenia, I heard many, many times in the 80s in the first parts. But, alas, now the sound is not enough for her. At first, Boris's voice also seemed a little "wadded" when he appeared. But after the words "How good, my son ..." (Natalya Borozdina sang a small part of Fyodor) Kudashev's voice finally sounded the way it should - juicy, wide, bright, overtone and with a lot of dynamic shades. Listening to the monologue "I have reached the highest power" was excitingly interesting! Then came the scene with Shuisky, whose role was played very interestingly by Sergei Polyakov. And his voice came up in timbre, and his manner blended very well. Well, really, there were some rough edges at the top with vocals, it seemed to me, but the image turned out to be very solid: Shuisky was smart, far-sighted, prudent, cunning and dangerous. And then Boris's monologue "Wow, it's hard, let me take my breath away" sounded from Kudashev simply heartbreaking, such an intensity of passions! And on this the first action ended, so, completely imperceptibly, no less than an hour and forty flew by. And in the second act there were only two pictures - the scene at the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed and the scene of the death of Boris. At the beginning of the first scene, the New Opera choir flashed again. And then it was the turn of the third debutant - Yaroslav Abaimov in the role of the Fool. I didn't recognize him in makeup! It is felt. that he worked for a long time on this difficult role. In general, the Fool in this production appeared in the first two films, and his appearances there were not accidental, but there was no musical material for him. And here the voice of the Holy Fool sounded at first very detached and detached, which gave his words a universal and generalizing character. In the scene with the boys (who, in my opinion, were played by the girls from the choir), the voice sounded with such naive purity and sincerity that the heart was breaking, like a child's hand raised to offend a blessed one! And when addressing Boris, the words of the Holy Fool acquired a very specific character and even a somewhat caustic shade, they say, we know, we know all your secrets! And in the words “No, no, Boris, you cannot pray for the Tsar-Herod, the Mother of God does not command,” such naivety appeared again, they say, how can you not know that you cannot pray for such a king? And in the subsequent prophecy there was already a bitter generalization, and pain for the Russian land and humility in front of future misfortunes ... I tried to convey as accurately as possible my impressions of Abaimov's performance of the role of the Fool. It seemed to me that this was not only interesting, but also quite deep interpretation. I don’t know if I understood it correctly ... again such naivety appeared, they say, how can you not know that it is impossible to pray for such a king? And in the subsequent prophecy there was already a bitter generalization, and pain for the Russian land and humility in front of future misfortunes ... I tried to convey as accurately as possible my impressions of Abaimov's performance of the role of the Fool. It seemed to me that this was not only interesting, but also quite deep interpretation. I don’t know if I understood it correctly ... again such naivety appeared, they say, how can you not know that it is impossible to pray for such a king? And in the subsequent prophecy there was already a bitter generalization, and pain for the Russian land and humility in front of future misfortunes ... I tried to convey as accurately as possible my impressions of Abaimov's performance of the role of the Fool. It seemed to me that this was not only interesting, but also quite deep interpretation. I don’t know if I understood it correctly ... but also a fairly deep interpretation. I don’t know if I understood it correctly ... but also a fairly deep interpretation. I don’t know if I understood it correctly ... And then there was a scene in the Boyar Duma, the beginning of which was also slightly different from the "canonical version" of the opera and therefore was of particular interest. This is a fragment where the boyars make a decision on the "Pretender's case." Again the chorus had a place to show itself. Then the bright appearance of Shuisky with his picturesque story about Boris, and then of Boris himself with a scene of madness, and then of Pimen with his unfinished monologue. Still, Kuzmin-Karavaev sounded just wonderful. The voice was full of dignity and inner conviction. It sounded unhurried and very expressive. The accents were placed very well. Moreover, in this production, Shuisky foresaw in advance what impression this story would make on Boris, and it is he who kicks out Pimen in this production. And after Boris's words, “All go away,” he does not leave, but remains on the stage, however, like all boyars. Kudashev spent the final monologue and the scene of Boris' death almost entirely on the piano, but very dramatically. Therefore, the tragedy of Tsar Boris's pangs of conscience touched all spectators. They applauded for a long time both Kudashev and all the other artists. Indeed, it was a successful performance, it was not in vain that we broke through to it through the blizzard! Particularly pleased were Artamonov, three debutants - Kuzmin-Karavaev, Vasiliev and Abaimov, Nekrasova and, of course, Kudashev, because without Boris the performance would never have happened! Thanks everyone! Vasiliev and Abaimov, Nekrasova and, of course, Kudashev, because without Boris the performance would never have happened! Thanks everyone! Vasiliev and Abaimov, Nekrasova and, of course, Kudashev, because without Boris the performance would never have happened! Thanks everyone!

Strange as it may seem, this was the first time I gathered for the play, which Kolobov himself produced in 1999, but which is now running infrequently (the next performance is already scheduled for March 24), for the first time - sometime I had to get there, but then I was attracted by the cast of performers. However, Tatyana Pechnikova's voice is completely shattered, she dramatically builds the role of Violetta very well, but with vocals everything is not so smooth. Especially next to the evenly singing Alexander Skvarko-Alfredomi, with Ekaterina Kichigina in a small part of Annina and, of course, with Vasily Ladyuk-Germont. Of all the singers officially promoted to "stars" in recent years, Ladyuk more than anyone, if not the only one, justifies the status assigned to him. The father, whitened by artificial gray hair, is either demonically aggressive, or parentally gentle, and to the "fallen", and not to the stupid son, to whom he even gives a slap in the face at the end of the first act - intermission, by the way, follows not after Violetta's escape, but after a quarrel at a party. Evgeny Kolobov's editors, in addition to quantitative cuts (as a result, the performance lasts less than two hours with a break, but there is no feeling that something significant has been lost), also touched on the score itself - primarily in the first act of Verdi, where some of the symphonic episodes were reworked for a chamber band with a soloist piano located on the raised part of the stage. Nevertheless, conceptually, the production is built around the image of Violetta, who at the beginning does not just die in the music of the overture, as in the relatively recent "La Traviata" by Zambella at the Bolshoi, where Ladyuk also participated: http://users.livejournal.com/_arlekin_/2386648. html Here, at Sigalova's, she is already dead, and Alfred mourns her, and with him the orchestra. But even from the first episode, Violetta's illness is constantly emphasized, very clearly - a love fever combines with a painful fever, one turns into another. All this in an entourage (set designer Ernst Heidebrecht, costumes of Maria Danilova), which today just looks good, but for its time it was probably unusual and could shock: black and white costumes, metal and transparent plastic of the scenery, the main elements of which are the bar counter (when she drives off, in the first act, Violetta climbs onto her, sings a "table" literally like a "tabletop") and a folding rotating frame chandelier, plus a bicycle, indirectly hinting that the action time is at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries (now such transfer is a common place for opera, and for dramatic productions, and 15 years ago, again, passed for an innovative solution) and very well integrated into the picture, unlike the birds and horses in the aforementioned Zambella. And yet - Violetta soars her legs, is ill, suffers, but does not choke on a cough, like the heroine in Zambella's play or like the audience in the hall - that's where the tuberculosis dispensary is, but it's not only at La Traviata, it's everywhere and always.

La Traviata - in Italian "fallen", "lost". I mean that I came from the Novaya Opera Theater with La Traviata”And climbed to look, and why, in fact, the opera is so called, because this word is never mentioned in it and none of the characters is called that. You will say that it was necessary to inquire in advance, and at the same time read the libretto. Of course, it is necessary, but it so happened that I went to a new theater for myself for a new work for myself and for completely unfamiliar actors. Everything from scratch (well, not counting the acquaintance with the original source, "Lady with the Camellias", but that was a long time ago). Not to mention the fact that I generally went to the opera - a genre in which I do not understand anything, because I watched few operas and it was a very long time ago. Realizing this to myself, I chose La Traviata from the suggestion, because the theater's website says that this is a SPECTACLE based on the opera. Excellent, I thought. There will be a gradual immersion, and I will get to know the New Opera Theater, Yeah, of course. No, I, of course, to put it mildly, am not an expert, but it seems to me that it was still opera. For everyone sang, no one spoke)). Yes, the sets and costumes are modern, so what? This does not change the genre. They sang in Italian, but with Russian subtitles, this made me very happy, it simplifies the viewer's task hundreds of times. The scenography is laconic, but at the same time, in my opinion, it is absolutely sufficient. Black dominates both on stage and in the life of the main character. The complex lamp in the focus of the audience's attention fully reflects the state of mind of Violetta. I like it. But the devil is in the details. Tell me why in Paris in the 19th century (well, even in the modern one, if the director wanted to) Alfredo throws ... dollars in Violetta's face? !!! Was it difficult to draw the Franks, or what was there, louis? Well, then I would have thrown the euro, or something ... In general, I did not see the performance. Well, in the sense in which I perceive dramatic performances. But the opera - yes. And I liked her. Wonderful music by Giuseppe Verdi, fascinating, exciting, deep. And two amazing voices. The singer, who played the main role of Violetta, Maria Buinosova. How beautiful she sang, I wanted to listen and listen. It was not for nothing that I called him an actor, for he is the only one who played on this stage in such a way that he believed. I liked it very much. And the voice is beautiful, the best of those that I heard today (in the sense that I liked it most of all, and from the point of view of professionalism - not for me to judge, but I am delighted), and acting skills are at their best. No wonder he was the only man who received flowers at the bow. Deservedly. Bravo! I would like him to play Alfred, because the singer who performed the main part, Nurlan Bekmukhambetov, disliked me catastrophically. How could you give the main role in the play to such a person completely devoid of acting skills! And his voice seemed to me weaker than all the others. But that's okay, I'd rather keep quiet about this, because I don't understand anything in the voices, I judge by the principle "I liked it - I didn't like it", I didn't like it in this case. But I can still appreciate the acting skills. For it's easier. Either I believe the character or I don't. And here he sings about love, about happiness or suffering, and his body directly shouts to the audience: "He's lying, he doesn't care at all." Awful plastic, completely inconsistent with what is happening. Suffering falls on the hero - the actor leaves the stage almost in a leap, goodbye grabbing the scenery and going around it halfway, holding on to his hand. Getting off the bus. After parting, he meets with his beloved - sings, without looking at her at all. And it would be okay, at least I looked to the side, otherwise it was clearly straight into the hall, like at a concert. And the posture, and the gait! What the highest Parisian society is there, the son of the steppes - you can see from a mile away. I have nothing against the son of the steppes as such, but Alfred is a Parisian dandy, and in this role the steppe should have been forgotten. Here his father moved and looked completely different (well, in the sense, the wonderful Vasily Ladyuk). And he hugged his beloved like Alfred - well, it was hard to believe that he loved her. And because of him, it was hard to believe that she was in love, that she could love such a person. Although Maria still somehow acted out the role, not only sang. Yes, not in the way that dramatic actors do it, rather, exactly as operatic (in my view), that is, somewhat hypertrophied and constrained at the same time, but still incomparably better than her partner, and I was ready to forgive her everything for her wonderful voice. Although Maria still somehow acted out the role, not only sang. Yes, not in the way that dramatic actors do it, rather, exactly as operatic (in my view), that is, somewhat hypertrophied and constrained at the same time, but still incomparably better than her partner, and I was ready to forgive her everything for her wonderful voice. Although Maria still somehow acted out the role, not only sang. Yes, not in the way that dramatic actors do it, rather, exactly as operatic (in my view), that is, somewhat hypertrophied and constrained at the same time, but still incomparably better than her partner, and I was ready to forgive her everything for her wonderful voice. Therefore, he did not touch the finale, because even over the body of his beloved Alfred was sitting, ... making himself comfortable on the floor. Well, where is the director, Alla Sigalova, looking, eh? In general, it’s probably too early for me to attend the opera. She loved dramatic performances all her life, so you have to go to them. Of course, I was glad to expand my theatrical horizons, listened with great pleasure to live beautiful music and no less beautiful voices of Maria and Vasily, but because of the main character I hardly saw the performance. Although at some point Vasily almost made him cry. He would have a partner just as cool, and there would be a piercing performance that takes out the soul. I liked the theater itself very much. All so graceful, in the patterned railings of the stairs, with nooks and crannies of cupboards, with a fountain, with a mosaic marble floor. And with friendly staff, from security guard to receptionist. I want to come back here again, see (and listen, yes) something else, but only now take a closer look at the program, take into account the performers.

The solid performance “Romeo and Juliet” by Gounod directed by Arnaud Bernard gave a number of excellent singing works

If we leave out of the scope of discussion a certain oversaturation of the performance with unusually realistic battle scenes, then the New Opera can be congratulated on an interesting production. "Romeo and Juliet" by Arnaud Bernard not only follows the author's intention and relies on the director's concept built into the author's context, but is also saturated with elements of modern staging language: the scenography is metaphorically laconic, the action is dynamic, and the role drawings are quite complex. With the proper level of performance, which the Novaya Opera is able to provide, the performance can be called one of the best works of the theater and will be popular with the public for many years to come.

premiere opera Continuing the course towards intelligible author's directing, Novaya Opera turned to the St. Petersburg director Yuri Aleksandrov, who is simultaneously known for his love for Donizetti's operas and for his ability to amuse. As a result, EKATERINA BIRYUKOVA laughed together with the whole audience at the premiere of "Love Potion". "Potion of Love" is a light and charming masterpiece by Donizetti, written in two weeks and, since its premiere in 1832, has been traveling incessantly across the opera stages around the world. The simple-minded plot is woven, as it should be in the comic genre, from the collision of numerous surprises (the arrival and departure of a detachment of soldiers, the appearance of a charlatan doctor, the death of a rich uncle) and ultimately leads the capricious beauty and her hapless admirer to a happy wedding outcome. It's even surprising that the starting point for such a happy ending was the book about the love potion of Tristan and Isolde, read by both characters, which, literally a few decades later, read by Wagner, led to completely different results. The incredibly prolific director and head of the St. Petersburg Opera Theater Yuri Alexandrov (he staged some of his 200 performances at the Mariinsky Theater, as well as at the Bolshoi, Metropolitan, La Scala and Arena di Verona) turned to this opera already several times and obviously with her. He used this production as an opportunity to play a trick not only on the heroes of the opera, but also on the audience and, in general, for the entire opera direction. In the first part of the play, viewers naively rejoice at the vampuche charms of Tuscan villagers, who, through the efforts of the artist Vyacheslav Okunev, look like heroes of a luxurious carnival - more Brazilian rather than Venetian. Conductor Eri Klas also gives in to the heat (proving to be both more temperamental and more thorough than in his last year's "The Magic Flute"). And only with shouts of "Enough! Enough! Comrades, boring, old-fashioned!", Which the man in the stalls sings in a loud bass (this is Oleg Didenko in the role of Dulcamara's doctor), the audience understands that they are being fooled. The vulgar beauty at the moment is replaced by literate squalor, worthy of an actual opera house: a gray courtyard-well, a crazy old woman in a kimono (she was just a wealthy Japanese tourist with a camera), a barrel with the inscription "Beer", disgusting women in miniskirts, The accessible Russian language here quite coexists with Italian, and the culmination of this neoperative truth of life is risky ditties that sing right to the music of the classic bel canto: "Love me, girl / I'm a people's deputy / I have a high rating / And an impressive mandate / I'm not with a deputy Against / With the deputy, we are all for / But I'm afraid that only the rating / He hasn't gone up. " The classics themselves, by the way, also get there: "To hang spaghetti on their ears / All men are masters / Maestro Donizetti himself / He did it with a bang." It is hard not to notice that if the dull courtyard-well evokes memories of one of the scenes of Dmitry Chernyakov's turning point for the newest Russian opera directing "Kitezh" backstage) - this is a big hello to Chernyakov's "Onegin" and "Aida". But, in general, quite a kind hello. It seems that there are no other particularly serious meanings in the production, although the Brazilian carnival, which is gradually mutating towards classical ballet, no, no, and it returns, hinting, one must think, at the illusiveness of the boundaries of dreams and reality. The question of the mysteries of the female soul of the beautiful Adina, who chose the unsportsmanlike bumpkin Nemorino from two gentlemen (a high-quality and touching work by Mikhail Gubsky), remains, in general, unanswered. However, there are no questions about male motives - together with his characters, the director openly admires Adina from all sides. In fact, the scattering of gags and a rare set of virtues of the leading role are the main values ​​of the new production. At her first screening (which is traditionally given for dads, moms and the press in Novaya Opera), Adina was young Olga Miroshnikova, who can be called a discovery. A bright voice, good technique, a model figure, bitchy plastic of Penelope Cruz and complete liberation that allows you to dance cancan on the table - everything is with her. And if we take into account that there are two more cast in the theater, and in each, one must think, there is a singer who is ready to sing coloratura in her underwear, it turns out that Anna Netrebko (Adina is one of her signature roles) is growing a worthy change.

The repertoire of the Novaya Opera Theater was enriched with a masterpiece of the Bel canto era - Gaetano Donizetti's opera "Love Potion". The works were performed with dignity by the soloists and the orchestra of the theater (conductor Eri Klas), and the performance turned out to be cheerful and bright (artist Vyacheslav Okunev). Only it was not the theme of a love drink that worried the creators of the play. The director Yuri Alexandrov, the author of the production, asked the audience a sacramental question: what should an opera house be like today? He himself believes that the opera house should be an apologist for beauty. This position became fundamental in his new (in the director's creative baggage already the third) production of "Love Potion". By inviting the viewer to make their choice, Aleksandrov has in mind a kind of "war of approaches" to the opera, the battles on the fields of which, according to the director, swept Moscow. So, "Love Potion", the famous opera, where the idea of ​​a magic potion from the legend of Tristan and Isolde is played out in a comic manner, solved in two stage aspects. The first of them (the beginning and the happy ending) is designed, according to Aleksandrov himself, to depict "a theater that lives by the laws of beauty, a little old-fashioned, but stunningly bright and inspiring." In fact, this is expressed in the fact that in the pompous, almost Stalinist interiors with a mirrored dome, something like a rich Venetian carnival unfolds: a choir in luxurious expensive costumes, Adina (Olga Miroshnikova) and does leave in some kind of inconceivable sparkling carriage, reminiscent of an armored personnel carrier ... From all this shine, teeth begin to drive together in the third minute. Thanks to the charlatan doctor Dulkamara (Oleg Didenko), who leaves the hall and stops all this disgrace with the words: "What nonsense!" solved in two stage aspects. The first of them (the beginning and the happy ending) is designed, according to Aleksandrov himself, to depict "a theater that lives by the laws of beauty, a little old-fashioned, but stunningly bright and inspiring." In fact, this is expressed in the fact that in the pompous, almost Stalinist interiors with a mirrored dome, something like a rich Venetian carnival unfolds: a choir in luxurious expensive costumes, Adina (Olga Miroshnikova) and does leave in some kind of inconceivable sparkling carriage, reminiscent of an armored personnel carrier ... From all this shine, teeth begin to drive together in the third minute. Thanks to the charlatan doctor Dulkamara (Oleg Didenko), who leaves the hall and stops all this disgrace with the words: "What nonsense!" solved in two stage aspects. The first of them (the beginning and the happy ending) is designed, according to Aleksandrov himself, to depict "a theater that lives by the laws of beauty, a little old-fashioned, but stunningly bright and inspiring." In fact, this is expressed in the fact that in the pompous, almost Stalinist interiors with a mirrored dome, something like a rich Venetian carnival unfolds: a choir in luxurious expensive costumes, Adina (Olga Miroshnikova) and does leave in some kind of inconceivable sparkling carriage, reminiscent of an armored personnel carrier ... From all this shine, teeth begin to drive together in the third minute. Thanks to the charlatan doctor Dulkamara (Oleg Didenko), who leaves the hall and stops all this disgrace with the words: "What nonsense!" living by the laws of beauty, a little old-fashioned, but stunningly bright and inspiring. " In fact, this is expressed in the fact that in the pompous, almost Stalinist interiors with a mirrored dome, something like a rich Venetian carnival unfolds: a choir in luxurious expensive costumes, Adina (Olga Miroshnikova) and does leave in some kind of inconceivable sparkling carriage, reminiscent of an armored personnel carrier ... From all this shine, teeth begin to drive together in the third minute. Thanks to the charlatan doctor Dulkamara (Oleg Didenko), who leaves the hall and stops all this disgrace with the words: "What nonsense!" living by the laws of beauty, a little old-fashioned, but stunningly bright and inspiring. " In fact, this is expressed in the fact that in the pompous, almost Stalinist interiors with a mirrored dome, something like a rich Venetian carnival unfolds: a choir in luxurious expensive costumes, Adina (Olga Miroshnikova) and does leave in some kind of inconceivable sparkling carriage, reminiscent of an armored personnel carrier ... From all this shine, teeth begin to drive together in the third minute. Thanks to the charlatan doctor Dulkamara (Oleg Didenko), who leaves the hall and stops all this disgrace with the words: "What nonsense!" the chorus in luxurious expensive suits, Adina (Olga Miroshnikova) and does leave in some inconceivable sparkling carriage, reminiscent of an armored personnel carrier. From all this shine, teeth begin to drive together in the third minute. Thanks to the charlatan doctor Dulkamara (Oleg Didenko), who leaves the hall and stops all this disgrace with the words: "What nonsense!" the choir in luxurious expensive suits, Adina (Olga Miroshnikova) and does leave in some inconceivable sparkling carriage, reminiscent of an armored personnel carrier. From all this shine, teeth begin to drive together in the third minute. Thanks to the charlatan doctor Dulkamara (Oleg Didenko), who leaves the hall and stops all this disgrace with the words: "What nonsense!" Then the scene of the action changes dramatically. And here we are already dealing with the second aspect of the director - “life is primitive and monotonous, invading this beauty” - in the form of a shabby courtyard teeming with all kinds of rabble: drunkards, girls of easy behavior and not so much. With a playing gramophone and shouts of "fish!", Of course. And the action, accordingly, unfolds according to the primitive laws of life. In love with Adina, Nemorino (Mikhail Gubsky) drank "love potion" (or the famous forty-degree potion). Adina got angry and chose the other. For another sip of the "nectar of love" Nemorino surrendered to his rival Belcore (Ilya Kuzmin) as recruits. The ups and downs taking place on the stage most of all resemble a cheerful Soviet skit on a topical topic. For the semantic culmination, the director chose one of the most beautiful moments of the opera - the romance of Nemorino, lyrically and soulfully performed by Mikhail Gubsky. At the same time, Donizetti's brilliant music sounded from the mouth of a man in a quilted jacket and earflaps. And in the background, like shadows of something inaccessible and very beautiful (as if from another opera), carnival characters were circling. As we move towards the denouement, when Adina sorted out her feelings, and Belcore showed nobility and allowed her to buy out Nemorino's contract, the stage gradually fills with "masks", and in the final chorus, brilliance and splendor absorbs squalor and primitiveness. The choice of director Aleksandrov is obvious: a beautiful and bright theater is closer to him than pseudo directorial finds in primitive associations with everyday life. So he seemed to have fulfilled his task. But did the opera, a sweet, touching love story with truly beautiful melodic music, benefit from this? It was the music that turned out to be here, unfortunately, in the last plan (remember the romance of Nemorino), all naive comic situations were vulgarized by everyday life (to the point that one of the duets of Adina and Belcore with the Russian text most of all resembled ditties with the corresponding content), and the magic love drink turned into a glass of vodka. It is not known whether Yuri Aleksandrov's plan envisages three answers, but the music columnist for NG puts a tick in the box “against both candidates” and chooses a live, not a conventional opera house, meaningful, and, above all, music-driven innovations.

On October 7, a truly long-awaited event took place at the Moscow Novaya Opera - the premiere of Gioacchino Rossini's comic opera Cinderella. It was long-awaited not only for the fans of this theater. It was long-awaited for all the capital's lovers of beautiful singing. We had concert performances of this unconditional masterpiece, old ones, of the 1950s, in which the great Zara Dolukhanova still shone, and recent ones, which were done by Vladimir Ponkin , Theodor Currentzis , and Mikhail Pletnev . This opera came to us in tour versions - in the 70s with the Teatro alla Scala and already in the modern post-Soviet era - with the Experimental Musical Theater of Yekaterinburg and St. Petersburg's Through the Looking Glass... Moscow has never had its own "Cinderella" (I'm afraid to say this categorically): at least searches in the reference literature did not give any mention of its performances in the capital either in the 19th or in the 20th centuries. Why was Cinderella, so popular in the world, so unlucky in Russia? Maybe because in the Soviet years we had our "own" "Cinderella" - I mean Sergei Prokofiev's brilliant ballet. Maybe because Rossini, except for the "evergreen" "The Barber of Seville", was practically never performed in our theater. One way or another, but a clear interest in this opera appeared only in the post-Soviet period, and at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century, the sparkling buffoonery of the Perrault-Rossini fairy tale was registered in Moscow. This year, at the Epiphany Week festival in January, New Opera has already taken on Cinderella in concert. That was a completely justified step - for such a complex, stylistically specific material, not very much in the blood of Russian musicians, "artillery preparation" is simply necessary. And now - it took place! I'll start with the main thing: the performance turned out well, and this work can undoubtedly be considered an asset to the theater. First of all, this statement refers to the stage design concept - precisely what is often the most problematic and controversial in the modern opera house. The artist Viktor Gerasimenko stepped into the wrong territory, decided to simultaneously become the director of the play, and here one could well expect a manifestation of helplessness and, in general, failure. But Gerasimenko copes with the task! His layouts, his ideas, playing with a textbook story familiar from childhood look very convincing, simple and logical. The pre-premiere reflections of the director about the shift in emphasis from a pure triumph of virtue (which is inherent in the libretto) to the play of fate are faintly traced, but on the whole, the spirit of comic opera, buffoonery conveyed in the production pretty much! The production of Gerasimenko has characters - decisive, akin to Rosina from "The Barber", not at all quiet Angiolina-Cinderella, frankly bitchy foolish sisters Tisba and Clorinda, melancholic and unrealistically "correct" prince, stupid and narrow-minded daddy Magnifico, roguish Dandini. New technologies were used in the scenography - three screens with video projections, which, in fact, are the scenery of the play. Well, the idea is modern, although perhaps not completely new, besides, it's a good way to save money without anyone noticing. Because there is enough beauty and variety on the stage. Video projections themselves are aesthetically consistent, although perhaps somewhat redundant - the artist has laid too many different symbols and visual aphorisms here. But this redundancy annoyed me personally only in some places - in the overture, in the arias-monologues of Dandini and Magnifico: these musical numbers absolutely do not need visual revitalization, they, first of all, must be listened to! And this in a modern opera house (not only Gerasimenko - he still has not the worst option), very few people understand: In almost all productions, there is an absolute distrust of the music as such, the fear that the viewer will get bored, so his clip consciousness must be constantly fed with a flickering picture. Alas, this is a common misfortune in our modern mentality - not only in Russia. In general, the plasticity and rhythm of video projections are fully shown to the fairy tale plot, moreover, it is impossible not to agree with Gerasimenko that here, in a fairy tale, with its miracles and transformations, the "magic" of computer technologies is appropriate like nowhere else. The costumes are excellent - conventionally old and timelessly fabulous at the same time, they seem to have a reference to the era of the gallant age (strictly speaking, historically lying between the times of Perrault and Rossini), but so unobtrusive, non-literal. Especially successful were the costumes of frankly comic characters, especially those of Cinderella's relatives; I liked the clothes of Alidor and the main character herself less. The musical side of the matter was also generally pleasing. Viktoria Yarovaya (who previously performed under the name Zaitseva) was rightfully at the center of the performance - this is a very good level of singing, a real Rossini standard. The beautiful, delicious voice of the singer, the real honey mezzo was good not only in the cantilena, but also in the dizzying grace - the singer performs them easily, gracefully, as if she sings everything (!). Having a voice large enough and sonorous enough, Yarovaya skillfully lightens it on super-complex passages, and note to note, like pearls, are scattered by cascades of coloratura. The real delight was caused by her performance of the final rondo of Angiolina, which is truly a circus trick. Alexei Tatarintsev in the part of Prince Ramiro delighted him with a beautiful timbre, brightness and flightiness of his voice, but he was somewhat disappointed by the tense, on the verge of falling off the top, but especially the ponderousness in the grace - after all, the voice is too dense for such a repertoire. Although, of course, the charm of youth and the artist's winning appearance (which is so necessary for a romantic hero) redeemed a lot. Vladimir Kudashev (Magnifico) copes with his party very worthily, his large, loud voice is "combed" this time "under Rossini" and he comes out with honor from the dizzying "tongue twisters". Praises to Ilya Kuzmin (Dandini) - his compact but sonorous baritone has also mastered the Rossini style well and evokes a lot of positive emotions: this is how this music should be sung! The weak link of the premiere caste is Artem Garnov in the role of Alidor: a deaf, non-flight voice, lack of charisma, did not allow him to see in his hero a wise "director" of the entire stage situation. The singer's voice sounded especially dim in ensembles. Both poisonous sisters of the main character turned out to be enchanting: both Elvira Khokhlova (Klorinda) and Tatyana Smirnov (Tisba) were interested in both listening and watching. It is a pity that Khokhlova did not have a chance to perform the inserted aria of her heroine (in this production, Agolini's creation is cropped), I think she would have succeeded. The dramatic soprano Smirnova, who delighted us in such difficult roles as, for example, Fevronia, Katerina Izmailova or Santuzza, lightened her powerful voice as much as possible, giving him capricious grace, so suitable for her heroine. The choir's work is not so significant in this work - the excellent team of the Novaya Opera simply has nowhere to turn around. The orchestra, led by Dmitry Volosnikov, in general, raises no objections, plays well and dynamically, supports the singers and contributes to the establishment of the holiday atmosphere, although we would like more lightness, liveliness, necessary sparkling, purity of the solo. Some of the conductor's tempos were surprising, but the accuracy of tempo-rhythmic coordination with the vocalists was still sometimes not enough. Despite some remarks, I will repeat my initial thesis - the premiere was a success. Complex Rossini's material requires colossal efforts, and the invasion of a stylistics that was in many ways foreign to us, undertaken by Novaya Opera, turned out to be more than worthwhile.

The premiere of the opera Cinderella was shown at the Novaya Opera. This is the second, after The Barber of Seville, opus by the Italian composer in the theater's playbill. While preparing Rossini's masterpiece, Novaya Opera decided to keep up with the times: the traditional scenery in the performance was replaced by computer technology. Cinderella, written in 1817, is one of Rossini's most popular operas, staged in various theaters around the world for almost 200 years without losing its charm. The composer and his librettist rewrote Perrault's tale in their own way to create a sparkling comic buffoonery, in which the participants themselves sing about confusion and confusion. In Rossini's version, Cinderella lost her stepmother, but acquired a reckless stepfather. To find the hiding queen of the ball, the prince does not travel with a shoe at all: he keeps the bracelet given by Cinderella. The fate of the main characters is determined not by the fairy, but by the court wizard Alidoro. The directors are actively playing with the “theater within the theater” technique. It is not even being built in a square, but in a cube. The wizard here is the composer of a fairy tale about the love of a scum and a prince, which was inspired by the music: the story is "recorded" by the author before our very eyes, during the overture. The characters act out the story in front of a "double" audience. One is sitting in the auditorium, the second is a flock of flirtatious girls from the prince's court, located in the "boxes" on the sides of the stage. All together watch as director Alidoro leads the wards to the final happiness: a wedding with a prince, according to Rossini, is a reward not for beauty, but for kindness. The intrigue rests on the everyday performance, which is staged in front of Cinderella and her relatives. First, Alidoro checks Cinderella: under the guise of a beggar, he asks for alms, and the heroine successfully passes the exam. The prince wants to be loved just like that, and not for position in society. TownLyubertsy becomes more and more attractive every day. Even before the ball, he enters Cinderella's house, disguised as a footman, and the baron's stepdaughter falls in love with a pretty young man. And the sisters are left with a real servant - Dandini's valet: dressed in a ceremonial dress, at the prince's suggestion, he is playing the august person. The performance was directed by the chief artist of the Novaya Opera, Viktor Gerasimenko, who decided to combine early music with modern 3D technologies. Having canceled the traditional scenery, Gerasimenko and his associates, computer designers, put three huge screens on the stage, on which animated pictures appear. It can be anything: palaces and gardens, people and animals, figures of "real" characters and outlines of objects, all sorts of symbols and allegories. At the same time, the materialization of the subconscious takes place. The heroine's stepfather has a bad dream about a flying donkey, and the said animal on the screens really flies, busily flapping its wings, like your Pegasus. Mechanisms and clock dials appear, which then crumble to dust, then run forward with terrible force: the authors play with the concept of time. Money is falling from the screen sky and couriers are parachuting down carrying invitations to the ball. The carriage, in which the heroine goes to the palace, rushes along the virtual path. Heroes either “enter” the computer space, then “crawl out” of it, while changing their size. The animators' eyes are so piercing that they even see insects crawling on tapestries on the walls of Cinderella's house. In the circumstances of an active life through the looking glass, the director did not pore too much over the direction: apparently, he decided that the colorful and dynamic picture would take out. Gerasimenko only set up the mise-en-scenes so that it would be convenient for the singers to see the conductor. The production was completed by the author of the stage movement Ivan Fadeev, making the characters dance with syncopation. The eclectic costumes also contributed. The blonde Cinderella is endowed with a perky hedgehog haircut, which emphasizes the independent character of the "gray mouse". At the ball, she wears elegant green figs: that's where the sense of proportion and the ability to look good! Alidoro is dressed in a long robe: how else should a wizard dress? The prince and the servant have wigs and vintage camisoles. And the Cinderella family chooses lilac-purple clothes: colors, apparently, are designed to indicate bad taste. The orchestra of the theater under the direction of Dmitry Volosnikov was quite confident: the conductor checked the score a year ago, when the Novaya Opera performed Cinderella in concert. It is felt that Volosnikov treats Rossini with great reverence, but does not experience intoxication from his music. From a vocal point of view, the staging of the New Opera should be considered a great success. Victoria Yarovaya's Mezzo was amazed by her coloratura possibilities: she sang Cinderella, perfectly “pronouncing” all the most complicated grace. Prince Alexei Tatarintsev, undoubtedly, was fascinated by such a voice - and led his part with a heartfelt, generous feeling, throwing the audience the possibilities of his outstanding tenor. Baritone Ilya Kuzmin in the role of Dandini's valet showed not only timbre beauties, but also powerful acting abilities: the lackey played the gentleman with sharp cunning and reckless spontaneity. In Russia, Cinderella has always been a rare guest. Apparently, our theaters were frightened off by the vocal complexity: only true masters can sing what the famous bel canto master composed. The New Opera, fortunately, has those.

On October 8, parents and grandparents with their children and grandchildren came to the Hermitage Garden. The Kolobov Novaya Opera Theater returns to the Moscow stage the undeservedly forgotten opera masterpiece "Hansel and Gretel" by Engelbert Humperdink. The premiere of the performance, which goes under the title "Gingerbread House, or Hansel and Gretel", took place on Sunday and attracted a practically full hall. The premiere of the opera "Hansel and Gretel", written by Humperdinck in 1893, took place in Weimar in December of the same year under the direction of Richard Strauss, and the following year in Hamburg this work was conducted by Gustav Mahler. In 1896-97 the opera was staged in St. Petersburg and in Moscow at the Bolshoi Theater. On the Soviet opera stage, Humperdink's creation did not go on due to an obvious Christian background - in the opera, the happiness that children dream of comes to them precisely at Christmas. In two and a half post-Soviet decades, only one production of this opera took place at the Yekaterinburg Opera and Ballet Theater in 2009. The production at the Novaya Opera Theater was created by: director Yekaterina Odegova, laureate of the Golden Mask award, artist Ethel Ioshpa, playwright Mikhail Muginstein, and another artist, Anna Kostrikova. The musical director of the performance is the Golden Mask Prize laureate Andrey Lebedev. “For a child, a fairy tale is a way of knowing the world through play, for an adult, a philosophical parable. Hence, the main difficulty for the director is not to go into pure entertainment, but also not to overload the little spectator with philosophical meanings that are not yet available to him, and the main task is to find a balance between naivety and parable, "Ekaterina Odegova shared her reflections on the eve of the premiere. The playwright Muginstein called Hansel and Gretel "the most successful musical interpretation of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, and the most organic children's opera." Hansel and Gretel is the rarest example of an opera capable of captivating children and adults, the playwright added. "Opera for Children and Not Only" - this is the genre subtitle of the play, the premiere of which was presented by the Novaya Opera Theater. Enthusiastic children watched with interest the ups and downs of the production. During the intermission, the children's hubbub that filled the foyer of the theater went off scale. The children excitedly discussed with each other and with the parents of the characters of the play and the miracles that were happening on the stage. The scenery of the production really evokes delight and affection, and the amazing play and singing parts of the actors make not only the children, but also the adult spectator not break away from the magic happening on the stage. Mothers and fathers, grandparents, bring your children and grandchildren to the Novaya Opera theater, and you will get an incredible feeling.

The premiere of the musical masterpiece "Hansel and Gretel" by Engelbert Humperdinck was successfully held at the Novaya Opera Theater. Maria Chamberlain explains why this performance is a must-see with the children. The Novaya Opera theater is famous for its tradition of returning undeservedly forgotten operas to the Moscow stage, following Richard Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, Charles Gounod's Romeo and Juliet, Richard Strauss's Salome, the theater is now turning to one of the main children's operas. Surprisingly, few people know that Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel is the most popular opera in Germany, and in five seasons (from 2011 to 2016) around the world it took 13th place in the list of the most performed operas. It is performed in all major theaters in the world and is sung by the first voices. In our country, the last time this opera was performed was before the revolution. And this is absolutely in vain, because in terms of popularity and Christmas, festive atmosphere this opera, which came out, by the way, a year after the premiere of The Nutcracker, may well compete with it among children and adults. This opera was premiered in Weimar on 23 December 1893 under the baton of Richard Strauss. The following year, Gustav Mahler conducted the work in Hamburg. The music is close to Wagner's, and the theme of the pre-Christmas miracle can move even the most callous soul. "Hansel and Gretel" is a real fairytale, romantic opera, the traditions of which in Germany in the 19th century were unusually strong. Here is the theme of the poetics of the German forest, which echoed in the works of Weber, Schubert, Mendelssohn and the theme of travel, a magical transformation. Гражданство Словении до 3 месяцев Сво­бод­ные пу­те­ше­ствия по Ев­ропе и миру. Без­ви­зо­вый въезд в США и Ка­наду. Офор­мите Узнать больше Турбо-страница РЕКЛАМА Humperdink's opera was absent on the Soviet opera stage. One of the reasons is the strong Christian dominance of the composition. Happiness, serenity, wonderful comfort and a special taste of life, for which children yearn so much, are found at Christmas. The performance itself will be imbued with the philosophy of miraculous salvation and faith in one's own strengths. In two and a half post-Soviet decades, only one production has happened (Yekaterinburg Opera and Ballet Theater, 2009) and one semi-concert version (Mariinsky Theater, 2015). The beauty of the current production is the incredible characters inhabiting the magical forest where the main characters got lost and this is a great merit of the production designer, laureate of the Russian National Theater Prize "Golden Mask" Ethel Ioshpa, Anna Kostrikova became another production designer. The text of the German fairy tale was translated into modern Russian, there are also subtitles above the stage, in any case, a child and an adult will understand what is being said on stage. The text was adapted by Ekaterina Pospelova, and the director of the play, Ekaterina Odegova, managed to find a balance between the naivety of the tale and the philosophy of the parable. The musical director of the performance is the Golden Mask Prize laureate Andrey Lebedev. The orchestra does an excellent job with the score, and for the real, tempered sound of the cuckoo, an ocarina was even ordered, which was made and brought from Altai. The performers of the title parts are organic, they combine both acting and vocal skills, but Anton Bochkarev is especially good running around the hall and “devouring children” in the role of a witch. Children squealed with fear and delight, mothers admired artistry and vocal skills. It was this negative character who caused the loudest ovation in the end. But the main theme of the opera was, nevertheless, the relationship between adults and children, how often we do not feel guilty, and sometimes we just don’t hear them. As the playwright of the play, Mikhail Muginstein, accurately noted: “A child often runs up to his parents to say something important, while adults have their own important things at this time: affairs, worries ... The most wonderful elixir of communicating vessels, which we call humanity, is leaving. And the child gradually feels it. And then - alienation as the most important problem of our time. There is no need to wait for the children to grow up and become like us - talk to them now. " Better yet, take them with you to concerts and performances more often, discuss what you saw together. The upcoming performances at the Novaya Opera theater will be held on October 22, November 25, and it will be especially good to get into the theater on December 24, on the eve of Catholic Christmas.