Principal Director of the Mariinsky. The Ministry of Culture published the salaries of heads of museums and theaters

Going to the performance, I kept in mind the recent premiere of the Mariinsky Theater on the stage of the KZ "Notes of a Madman" staged by Gleb Cherepanov. Gogol was rethought in a very original and innovative way, in the spirit of Butsko's music. The action took place in the circus arena. The only, but, unfortunately, the most dominant drawback of "Notes ..." was the slurred diction of quite vocally decent baritone Dmitry Garbovsky. And Cherepanov did not provide for the titles, then my textbook knowledge of the test saved me - the day before the premiere I re-read Gogol. But I liked this theater of the grotesque and the absurd.
I expected the same unusual and bizarre from his production of Mozart's "Director of the Theater". During the overture, they started with a video sequence of real shots of scenery installation on different stages of the Mariinsky Theater - idols from the "Ring of the Nibelungs" flashed by and trunks of birches from Shchedrin's "Not Only Love" flashed into the sky. Will the plot really be tied to the modern backstage of the Mariinsky Theater - a seditious thought slipped through my head.
But the screen rose - and everything fell into its quite traditional places. Late 19th century Europe, theater director and bass comedian Buff gather a troupe for a tour of a festival in the city of Rumburg. The technique of bleached and painted clown faces was repeated. White Clown - Theater Director (Andrey Gorbunov - non-singing actor) and Red Clown (bass Denis Begansky).
Opera program:


Frankly, in the presented singspiel of Mozart there is a “zing”, and even what, it definitely was, but there was a problem with the “spire”. In the absence of music, the action sank hopelessly into banality and boredom. I blame this, firstly, on the unsuccessful Russian-language dialogues, and, secondly, on the faded play of the only dramatic actor Andrey Gorbunov- a rather poor speech technique (it is not audible when he turned sideways or back), and a primitive manner of playing. Against its background, our singer Denis Begansky with a perfectly choreographed voice and comical plasticity, he simply saved the boring dialogues with the director.
But when the main heroines of the opera appeared on the stage Mrs. Hertz (Olga Pudova) And Mrs. Silberklang (Antonina Vesenina), and most importantly - the music began to sound, the performance gained a second wind. These young singers can do almost everything - sing virtuoso, play talentedly and, if necessary, dance great. Probably inspired by the abilities of Pudova and Vesenina, the director showed imagination and fiction in the scenes of the arias. Got four concert numbers- each singer added a bonus aria to the score.
An imaginary coloratura battle between two sopranos captivated the audience. Experienced prima donna Ms. Hertz vs rising star Ms. Silberklang.
Pudova first sang in the form of a mermaid in the sea, capriciously throwing out her fake tail in the finale. Then she came out in the form of Cleopatra with a plush snake, easily singing the most complex aria of Alceste "Io non chiedo, eterni Dei" with some insanely transcendent top notes.
Vesenina together with Begansky played a scene of Little Red Riding Hood and gray wolf. And Clorinda's bonus aria "No, che non sei capace" was presented in the form of a warlike Maid of Orleans.
Tenor output Mr. Vogelsang (Dmitry Voropaev) was greeted with thunderous applause - everyone already adored the tenor :). True, he had nothing special to sing there - only in the tercet and the finale, along with everyone else. And how I would like a bonus for Dmitry Voropaev ...
Orchestra led by Anton Gakkel sounded wonderful - easy, transparent, Mozartian.

IMHO, for the further successful fate of the performance, the following should be done:
- Transfer to the stage short circuit. historical scene turned out to be too spacious for this chamber singspiel.
- Change the Russian-language dialogues, making more comic and grotesque.
- Replace the actor playing the Theater Director. And it’s better to grow up in your Mariinsky team :).
- Add aria for tenor.
I'll chime in some more :). The duration of the performance with all inserted arias is only 1 hour. As a children's matinee, these "zings" in German are unlikely to be given a ride, and adults will clearly miss the "continuation of the banquet" in the form of a second chamber opera after intermission. Otherwise, it doesn’t turn out solidly - they called the people for an hour and took the money, as if for a serious opera.

P.S. In the repertoire of the theater "Through the Looking Glass" there is an excellent "Director of the Theater". It is a pity that they are extremely rare. A wonderful plot was invented there - the director of the theater, who adores Mozart, saves the theater from bankruptcy. A lot of actors, a lot of music. In short - a lot of great "zing" and a lot of good "spire". And one evening they give comic opera Puccini "Gianni Schicchi".

Photos of bows:

Director Gleb Cherepanov and conductor Anton Gakkel

The first premiere of the season at the Mariinsky Theater was The Theater Director

Loudly launching the 2016/17 season with Yusif Eyvazov towards the end and opening the current season with the same opera (already without such a star cast), the Mariinsky Theater immediately gives way to beginners. Mozart staged by the Academy of Young opera singers and director Gleb Cherepanov.

For the performance, the stage of the old building was taken to Theater Square, although in anticipation of the reconstruction, which cannot begin in any way, the premieres are mainly held at the newer venues of the theater - in the Mariinsky-2 with its chamber halls and Concert hall. It is in the KZ that Cherepanov's previous performances - "The Story of a Soldier" and.

Buff - Denis Begansky, Mrs. Silberklang - Antonina Vesenina

No need for Once again go into the details of the story of the competition and Salieri, during which the "Director of the Theater" was created. But Mozart and librettist Gottlieb Stefanie really wrote a work that can be used as an educational program on the basics theatrical art and theater management: the original plot is as simple as it is relevant at all times, and conversational dialogues can and should be rewritten to the topic of the day.

The soloists of the Academy of Young Singers mostly perform in concert performances or in completely chamber productions of some Soviet mono-operas. To get at their disposal a full-fledged scene for them is an almost unique case. Gleb Cherepanov, however, did not use the space and hung a blank backdrop throughout the portal, blocking only the proscenium for the artists. Judging by the absence of the name of the production designer in the imprint, Cherepanov again designed his performance himself. In this case, it should be given its due - candelabra, antique furniture and an imitation of a draped curtain on the backdrop fit well into the interior of the old Mariinsky Theater and suit it in spirit. Particularly good are the three antique music stands on which the abacus stands. New technologies are not forgotten either: during the overture, the accelerated installation and dismantling of the scenery of various theater performances is projected, from Shchedrin's opera in the Concert Hall to Der Ring des Nibelungen on the new stage.

The license to change the dialogues is used worse: Cherepanov follows Stefanie's script, not trying to either exacerbate the rivalry of the singers recruited into the troupe, or even replace german names into more speaking ones for the domestic listener, as is done in many productions of The Director. The only attempt at actualization was the invitation of the troupe to a festival in the city of Za… Rumburg invented by the director – and now one of the two successful jokes from Cherepanov's dialogues has been quoted. The second is funnier, but less clear to the St. Petersburg public: director Frank (a role without singing, performed by dramatic actor Andrei Gorbunov) clarifies whether his theater was invited to the festival of honey or jam. Muscovites who are regularly offered festivities of this kind with delivery right to the steps Bolshoi Theater, humor would be appreciated.

Director Frank - Andrey Gorbunov, Mrs. Hertz - Olga Pudova

In general, the whole performance is declared as frivolous. The characters are stilted and one-dimensional, which is emphasized by their mannered play, strictly monophonic costumes and plastered mask faces. So, the director is all in white, and his chief manager and part-time comic bass Buff (bass-baritone Denis Begansky) is all in red. The mise-en-scenes of the arias, in which two sopranos compete - the prima donna and the ingenue - parody the wampuka, which the opera house, presumably, is never destined to forget. The main moral of the play is that wampuk should be taken as part of opera house and love opera in spite of it. But there is far less of it in modern productions than the actual parodies of it.

The sung text plays no role in the performance: the mise-en-scene comes from the affects that sound in the music, and this should be counted as a big plus for Cherepanov with his dramatic background. The second plus is the introduction of the second round of rivalry between the singers, for which they were given an additional aria, since the format of the Theater Director allows not only to add any suitable numbers to about twenty minutes of the original music written by Mozart, but also, for example, to include some more an entire opera, as was done in 2006 in Salzburg as part of the M22 project. This project included the staging, recording and video release of all 22 Mozart operas for the composer's 250th birthday. At that time, The Theater Director was staged by Thomas Reichert, director of the Salzburg Puppet Theater, in the form of a casting for roles in early opera Mozart with the subsequent performance of this opera in its entirety.

Scene from the play

Cherepanov and music director Larisa Gergieva’s productions were limited to two interstitial arias – indeed, written by Mozart as insert arias: it was assumed that Aloisia Weber, Mozart’s sister-in-law (and the first performer of Mrs. Herz in The Theater Director), would sing them in operas by other composers, shining with her fantastic technique. Therefore, the rivalry in the Mariinsky production is on the rise: the arias set according to the score are sung without unnecessary embellishments, but in the inserts, willy-nilly, one has to perform complex coloratura.

The game with operatic clichés in the mise-en-scenes accompanying these arias is also on the rise. Therefore, in the first aria, the prima donna Mrs. Hertz (Olga Pudova) simply waves her attached mermaid tail, and during the second, she portrays Cleopatra, who is bitten by a thick plush snake over the bodies of deceased servants. Ingenue Mrs. Silberklang (Antonina Vesenina) first plays the director's reimagined Little Red Riding Hood, who subdues the wolf to herself and kills him, and during her second aria, a comically serious duel with fake swords unfolds on stage, turning into a tragic ending with the death of all participants.

Toward the end, the tenor from the Mariinsky Opera Company Dmitry Voropaev joined the artists of the Academy of Young Singers in the role of Mr. Vogelsang. He performs parts in the theater from Mozart's Idomeneo to Siegfried, and it is not very clear why he was chosen for such an undemanding role in The Director - the baritone Thomas Hampson at one time easily coped with the part of Vogelsang on the 1987 recording of Nikolaus Arnoncourt.

Most last number The opera, where all the characters-artists sing in turn, including only Buff who has spoken until now, is made in the form of homage to the M22 project: the director is armed with crosses and leads his singers like puppets. But then everyone comes to life and under the curtain they blow crackers together - the theater still remains a holiday. Unfortunately, in the music (conductor - Anton Gakkel) there was no holiday to be heard; mechanical performance destroyed the sparkling Mozart overture, and the performance of solos and ensembles did not want to come close in terms of brightness of emotions to the hypertrophied theatricality of mise-en-scenes - both by the orchestra and by the vocalists, who, however, did not sin from the point of view of technology.

Scene from the play

The Theater Director, an hour-long comedy with music in one act, rated 6+, will enter the repertoire as an afternoon family performance: at least two more shows are scheduled for the fall. Let's hope that when the premiere stress releases the artists, the performance will come to life and be filled with humor no longer through force.

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One of the oldest and leading musical theaters Russia. The history of the theater dates back to 1783, when the Stone Theater was opened, in which drama, opera and ballet troupe. Department of opera (singers P.V. Zlov, A.M. Krutitsky, E.S. Sandunova and others) and ballet (dancers E.I. Andreyanova, I.I. Valberkh (Lesogorov), A.P. Glushkovsky, A.I.Istomina, E.I.Kolosova and others) from the drama troupe took place in 1803. Foreign operas were staged, as well as the first works by Russian composers. In 1836, the opera A Life for the Tsar by M.I. Glinka was staged, which opened the classical period of Russian operatic art. Outstanding Russian singers O.A. Petrov, A.Ya. In the 1840s Russian opera company was pushed aside by the Italian, who was under the patronage of the court, and transferred to Moscow. Her performances resumed in St. Petersburg only from the mid-1850s. on the stage of the Circus Theatre, which was rebuilt after a fire in 1859 (architect A.K. Kavos) and opened in 1860 under the name of the Mariinsky Theater (in 1883-1896 the building was reconstructed under the guidance of architect V.A. Schroeter). creative development and the formation of the theater are associated with the performance of operas (as well as ballets) by A.P. Borodin, A.S. Dargomyzhsky, M.P. Mussorgsky, N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, P.I. Tchaikovsky (many works for the first time). High musical culture the activity of the conductor and composer E.F. Napravnik (in 1863-1916) contributed to the collective. A great contribution to the development of ballet art was made by the choreographers M.I. Petipa, L.I. Ivanov. Singers E.A. Lavrovskaya, D.M. Leonova, I.A. Melnikov, E.K. Mravina, Yu.F. Platonova, F.I. Stravinsky, M.I. and N.N. Fignery, F.I. Chaliapin, dancers T.P. Karsavina, M.F. Kshesinskaya, V.F. Nizhinsky, A.P. Pavlova, M.M. major artists, including A.Ya.Golovin, K.A.Korovin.

After the October Revolution, the theater became state, since 1919 - academic. Since 1920 it was called the State academic theater opera and ballet, since 1935 - named after Kirov. Along with the classics, the theater staged operas and ballets by Soviet composers. Singers I.V. Ershov, S.I. Migai, S.P. Preobrazhenskaya, N.K. Pechkovsky, ballet dancers T.M. Vecheslova, N.M. V. Lopukhov, K. M. Sergeev, G. S. Ulanova, V. M. Chabukiani, A. Ya. Shelest, conductors V. A. Dranishnikov, A. M. Pazovsky, B. E. Khaikin, directors V. A. Lossky, S. E. Radlov, N. V. Smolich, I. Yu. Shlepyanov, ballet masters A. Ya. Vaganova, L. M. Lavrovsky, F. V. Lopukhov. During the years of the Great Patriotic War the theater was in Perm, continuing to work actively (there were several premieres, including the opera "Emelyan Pugachev" by M.V. Koval, 1942). Some theater artists who remained in the besieged Leningrad, including Preobrazhenskaya, P.Z. Andreev, performed in concerts, on the radio, participated in opera performances. IN post-war years The theater paid great attention Soviet music. The artistic achievements of the theater are associated with the activities of the chief conductors S.V. Yeltsin, E.P. Grikurov, A.I. Klimov, K.A. Simeonov, Yu.Kh. , choreographers I.A. Belsky, K.M. Sergeev, B.A. Fenster, L.V. Yakobson, artists V.V. Dmitriev, I.V. Sevastyanov, S.B. Virsaladze and others. In the troupe ( 1990): chief conductor V. A. Gergiev, chief choreographer O. I. Vinogradov, singers I. P. Bogacheva, E. E. Gorohovskaya, G. A. Kovaleva, S. P. Leiferkus, Yu. M. Marusin, V. M. Morozov , N.P.Okhotnikov, K.I.Pluzhnikov, L.P.Filatova, B.G.Shtokolov, ballet dancers S.V.Vikulov, V.N.Gulyaev, I.A.Kolpakova, G.T.Komleva , N.A. Kurgapkina, A.I. Sizova and others. Awarded the Order of Lenin (1939), October revolution(1983). Large-circulation newspaper "For Soviet art"(since 1933).

His whole life is music. Today is the birthday of artistic director Mariinsky Theater Valery Gergiev. A virtuoso musician, a citizen with a capital letter, a real workaholic - he does not even think about rest on his holiday. The Easter Festival is in full swing, and every time he goes on stage, he gives himself to his beloved work completely, without a trace.

“I was lucky to lead the Mariinsky Theatre. The world yearned to meet unknown masterpieces”, says Valery Gergiev.

Unknown masterpieces are Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich… Some compositions famous composers have never been fulfilled. to Gergiev. They seemed technically complex or incomprehensible. The Mariinsky Theater Orchestra plays dozens of composers almost by heart: for example, all the symphonies of Beethoven, Mahler, Sibelius... Today, the maestro only needs ten minutes to stand in an unfamiliar hall to announce that the acoustics allow Strauss to be played. And the musicians are playing! Masterly.

They were playing the best halls world, from New York to Tokyo. And with the same enthusiasm they give concerts in Omsk and Kirov. They consider it their civic duty to perform in the destroyed Tskhinvali, and in the mourning Kemerovo, and in Palmyra, which has just been liberated from terrorists.

Gergiev, the son of a front-line soldier, was read military career. Even named after Valery Chkalov. Then a career as a football player - he played quite professionally. But at the music school they decided that the guy was deaf: he looked out the window, where his friends were playing football, and instead of the given rhythm, he beat out some syncopations with his palms to the beat of the ball.

When the future conductor turned 13, his father died unexpectedly.

“My father passed away at 49, too early, too young. My mother, already at an advanced age, she somehow saved me for music school. It was not easy for her, very difficult, she raised three children alone,” he says.

He entered the Leningrad Conservatory at the conducting faculty at the age of 19. Usually such young people are not taken into this profession. But two years later Gergiev became a laureate international competition Herbert von Karajan, beating the 70 best conductors in the world, performing 18 symphonic works! To play composers in cycles, all compositions in a row - this grandiose idea was born under the influence of outstanding Leningrad teachers.

“These were professors with a great reputation, they were Petersburgers, connoisseurs, intellectuals, but also aristocrats of the soul. We could find time to take a walk with the student after the performance, talk about Schubert, about Bach,” recalls the conductor.

In 1988, the Kirov (now the Mariinsky) Theater elected Gergiev as its chief conductor. The pace at which they have been working since then seems crazy. The Easter Festival is in full swing right now. A hotel train has been booked under it. In the morning, for example, a concert in Cherepovets, in the evening - in Vologda, and tomorrow at noon Arkhangelsk is waiting.

“We sometimes walk more than 1,000 kilometers a day. We just have to go to the limit. Recently, even the locomotive could not stand it,” says Valery Gergiev.

Many of today's orchestra members were not yet born when Gergiev took over the band. Average age- 25 years. For these young people, such a pace of life and such volumes of repertoire are already the norm. The listener of Gergiev is also rapidly getting younger - five- and even three-year-old spectators come to concerts with their parents.

On his 65th birthday, the maestro does not arrange special ceremonies. Friends will come to the Moscow concert, and the very next day - again at the conductor's stand. In the morning - in Smolensk, in the evening - in Bryansk.