March, 6, 2014. Issue No. 248"Carmen". New cast members March 6 - the famous Spanish singer Nancy Fabiola Herrera will perform at the Bolshoi for the first time; the singer successfully performs the role of Carmen at such theatres as the Metropolitan Opera, Paris National Opera, Royal Opera House, Arena di Verona, The Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona) and others. Alexei Pashiev will make his debut in the role of Escamillo, Alina Yarovaya - in the role of Frasquita and the Bolshoi Young Opera Artists Program soloist Bogdan Volkov - in the role of Remendado"The Tsar's Bride" at the BolshoiJulia Pevzner: "The taste and the understanding of the goal are crucial for the set designer" On February 22 the opera by N. Rimsky-Korsakov "The Tsar's Bride" premiered at the Bolshoi Theatre. The production was staged by the world famous opera director Julia Pevzner. She did not appear at the Bolshoi Theatre by chance. She had previously worked at the best opera theatres in the world and with world opera stars. Julia Pevzner told "The Voice of Russia" how the idea of this production appeared and how casting was organized; she also talked about the set, created by the famous set designer and the main Bolshoi Theatre designer Fedor Fedorovsky and her cooperation with the conductor and composer Gennady Rozhdestvensky. Diana Berlin hosted the show. - Dear ladies and gentlemen, today we are glad to welcome here Julia Pevsner, who is a famous director. We are happy to have an opportunity to talk to this wonderful and charming woman. Besides, quite recently the opera by N. Rimsky-Korsakov "The Tsar's Bride" premiered at the Bolshoi Theatre; Julia was the director of the production. Gennady N. Rozhdestvensky conducted the orchestra; the production starred top-of-the-line artists. Julia, you are a director who had worked successfully on many landmark productions at different theatres around the world, including Israel and America; you have worked at different theatres and then you suddenly staged the Russian opera "The Tsar's Bride" at the Bolshoi Theatre. How did all this come about? - My cooperation with the Theatre started long ago; at first I worked as an assistant director. I came here to work together with my colleague Francesca Zambello. We staged "Turandot" and "The Fiery Angel" at the Bolshoi Theatre in the beginning of the 2000s. This is how my cooperation with the Theatre started; over the fifteen years that passed since the first time I walked into this building, I have developed professionally, and now I am not an assistant director, but a director myself. As you have mentioned, I have staged several productions at many theatres on different continents. When Anatoly G. Iksanov offered to me to stage "The Tsar's Bride" using the set of Fedorovsky, I watched the performance and offered him to create not a grand revival as he had planned initially, but to consider the concept of a new premiere production, where the set would have been based on Fedorovsky's sketches. We were considering this issue for a while; we took a close look at all its aspects, both artistic and legal, and finally Mr. Iksanov decided that it was the right step to take in order to turn the historic production of the Bolshoi gold pool into an adequate 21 century production. A production that would not be obsolete; one that would not be a museum exhibit, but rather an adequate production with the set, based on the sketches of the wonderful set of this genius Russian designer. "The Tsar's Bride" was Fedorovsky's last production; when it premiered, he was already very ill and, as they say, was not even present at the premiere performance. His daughter organized all preparatory work before the premiere. For example, only three original sketches of the costumes created by Fedorovsky himself were found; all other sketches for this 1955 production were made by his daughter Natalia. As for the set, my colleague Alyona Pikalova, who is a set designer, conducted very extensive research at the Theatre Museum and found the originals of Fedorovsky's models of 1950s, which were rather different from the models of the last productions of "The Tsar's Bride". As it turned out, during those fifty years the set was changed; everything changed somehow every time. The theatre acted as was convenient for it, and for some reason everything moved to the center. Honestly, what I saw a couple of years ago reminded me of a concert version with a beautiful set. When we got back to the basics it turned out that the perspective was great, and the whole thing was modern at some points; I would not say that the set is modern, but it is very, very beautiful, and I consider that it is important to preserve this tradition. It is important that the modern audience has an opportunity to watch a production that follows the tradition, as well as modern productions that use modern approaches in terms of directing, set design and so on.The Bolshoi Theatre soloist Dinara Alieva. Her interview with RBC Daily is available in today's newsletterJulia Pevzner, the director of the opera "The Tsar's Bride", which premiered at the Bolshoi Theatre on February 22, 2014. Photo: Damir YusupovNewsletter - You know, you are a modern person; when a modern person starts working on some production, especially on an opera production, the audience is rather cautious when they come to see it. We could have seen Gryaznoy wearing an ushanka-hat, or Lyubasha wearing a short skirt and singing her aria on the table. This also could happen, couldn't it? It used to happen. Unfortunately, I have not seen your other works, although you have quite a few. You have staged "The Queen of Spades" by P. Tchaikovsky; you have also staged operas by Wagner. I mean, you have worked with operas by very different composers; a director envisions their music in different ways. In this particular case you decided to go with the main decision. You know, in one of his interviews Dmitri Hvorostovsky said, as he addressed people in general and your colleagues: "Please, do not touch opera! Let opera live in peace, so that whatever was written by a composer sounds as the composer intended it to sound; do not change anything". I cannot fail to mention that in this particular case nothing has been changed; there were many discussions about it in the interval, and I overheard some people talking about it, because it was very interesting for me. As you know, people have gladly accepted what they have seen; this has been a true success. The house was packed at the dress rehearsal; the audience was educated, and some people noticed that there were some nursery rhymes instead of dancing, and this was great! Young critics were talking about this, you see? As far as I know, you have worked on this project for two years, haven't you? - Yes, we have worked on it for about two years. - Did you decide not to use anything avant-garde in this production, not to touch the old production, not to touch Rimsky-Korsakov, not to rave and storm from the very beginning? -It was impossible to rave and storm, given such strict boundaries. It seems to me that the artistic taste and the understanding of goals and objectives, as well as the understanding of the style, are some of the crucial skills of every director. Of course, it is clear that it would have been silly to do certain things given the framework of Fedorovsky's visual image. Thus, it is only natural that we did not do it. There were only two novelties that we introduced in terms of this visual image: Gryaznoy's dream in the beginning when he sees Marfa swinging on the swing; when Marfa appears on the stage for the first time, we also see her on the swing in the garden. This is a romantic and romanticized image of this character. Another novelty is a bride-show scene in the beginning of the third act, which also follows the style of Fedorovsky's - Yes, I saw those people; I was glad it was not only my mother. I think that there are so many touching moments in this particular piece, in this particular tragedy, that if people had not cried in the end, it would have meant that we had done something wrong; I mean that it was our artistic goal to cause such a reaction. It was our goal to show this awful human tragedy against the historic background of this most cruel world; it seems to me that today the world is not less cruel that it was during the time of Ivan the Terrible rule. It is clear that in the 1950s, when Fedorovsky created his visual image, the director could not allow himself to show the cruelty of oprichniks. I mean, it is clear from the political and historical points of view; he could not do it if he was a sane person and did not want to end up in prison, therefore, he did everything in such a beautiful and decent way. I am very glad that today we can take a look at this amazing epoch. It astonishes with its grand scale, its cruelty and its passion. People chased one another, and that was OK; at the same time, there was love - it always exists. Instead of becoming an activity, this love gained destructive capacity. It is so horrible; it seemed to me that if people had not cried, it would have meant that we had not dug in deep enough. - I bet you had. In your opinion, why do people turn to "The Tsar's Bride" today? It was staged in Germany; Dmitry Bertman staged it here - not now, earlier, but he also has turned to this opera quite recently. - First of all, there is a fashion for different operas at different times. At some point it was very fashionable to stage the opera "Boris Godunov" everywhere; I mean, not Mass media about the Theatre March, 62014Newsletter stars will participate in the production. The singer talked with Maya Krylova about the details of this project and peculiar features of her profession. - This will not be the first time that you have performed in Vienna. Did your regular cooperation with the Vienna Opera begin before you performed in "Don Giovanni"by Mozart or after? - After. They tied up a contract with me; I became a permanent guest singer. Now I also work at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin and at the Latvian Opera. By the way, I learned the role of Elvira over a short period of time - just in two weeks, to perform in Riga. They even did not believe me at the theatre when I told them that. - It is a big risk and a huge responsibility to perform operas by Mozart at his home. - In Vienna everyone knows the music by Mozart; people come to performances with the score and follow the text; besides, the production was transmitted on screens in the street. The mass media published positive reviews. It was very nice that there were many people who brought my pictures and asked for my autograph on the very first evening. - Does the cast of "Eugene Onegin" in Vienna star many famous singers? - Yes, it does. It stars Mariusz Kwiecien as Onegin, Nadia Krasteva as Olga and Rolando VillazГіn as Lensky. There also will be a wonderful conductor Patrick Lange; by the way, he conducted the orchestra in "Don Giovanni" as well. It is very interesting to work with such a star cast. - What is this production like? Is it a traditional "costume" version or a "director's opera"? - The action takes place nowadays; the set is minimalistic, there is snow, black and white colors. - What is your attitude towards "director's opera"? Are you OK with it? - I am, if a director understands what the goal of modernizing the action is and can explain it to the cast. Although I am a big fan of beautiful productions, singers cannot choose, because it is the time of directors today. The modern version of "Onegin", staged by Andrejs ЕЅagars at the Latvian Opera, was interesting for me. - It is the one where the action takes place on a huge bed. - The director explained that Tatiana is a child and her parents paid very little attention to her. She becomes reserved; she browses the Internet and writes poems all the time, finally she becomes a famous poetess and publishes a book. I hope that the director Falk Richter in Vienna will formulate the task clearly. - What kind of female opera characters can you best relate to? Are you thoughtful Tatiana or cheerful Olga in the real life? - Neither, I guess; I am somewhere in between. I would not be able to write such a frank declaration of love to my beloved person. Although there are cases when love changes a person. When I am on the stage, I live the role so hard that I all my characters become very close to my heart. Thus, I cannot say which one of them I love more - Violetta or Tatiana. They all are my favorite. - In the near future besides the part of Tatiana you will perform in the production of "La Traviata" at the Bolshoi Theatre and the part of Marfa in "The Tsar's Bride" during the Bolshoi summer tour in the USA. There are only melodramas about unhappy love. Is it because of your voice type? - Yes, it is; almost all the main roles for the lyrical soprano have a sad ending. Although the characters are different. Violetta's character is the sacrifice for love; it is a tragic commitment. Marfa is Russian heartiness, naiveté and cleanliness, the broken soul and insanity. Besides, I have operas by Mozart in my repertory; it is not as bad in his operas. - You have a big list of roles and musical styles, from baroque to jazz, which is rare. How do you manage to combine everything? - A very famous European vocal pedagogue has come to Moscow recently; he has said that I can sing even Handel and Rossini, because my range and my voice enable me to do so. The main thing is not to mix everything together. For example, I can sing Handel today, Mozart tomorrow and only then - Verdi, because one needs to re-tune the vocal apparatus for his opera. But my intuition tells me that my main March, 62014Newsletter Digest has been compiled by The Bolshoi Theatre Press Office Photos: Damir Yusupov and Mikhail Logvinov Design layout: Vladimir AndrusenkoAll materials used in the digest are the public domain of information agencies, mass media, civil society organizations and government The program included pieces from Vaslav Nijinsky's ballet repertoire as well as bright and unique pieces of the modern Russian ballet art.
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