<The title of the article and the text are translated into English automatically, and will be edited in the future>
Interview with Alexander Vedernikov, Artistic Director of the Bolshoi Theatre.
— Surely last July or August you set yourself certain tasks related to the upcoming season. Have these tasks been completed?
— If we talk about events, then all the events that were supposed to happen have happened.
— And creatively? For example, the first production of the last season, "Eugene Onegin" — did this performance turn out the way you would like to see it, or not?
— When you start doing some kind of performance, its final outlines are never clear. Even if they bring you and show you a layout, and it seems that the layout is just wonderful — as a result, it may turn out that everything did not work out so well. Or vice versa: the layout is kind of strange, everything is not done very clearly, and then once — and everything turns out. Therefore, there is always an element of unpredictability and probably should be.
If we talk specifically about Onegin, then, as a very convincing dramatic product, this performance turned out to be very good. To what extent did I manage to implement some musical ideas… At the stage of contact with some directorial circumstances of the work, a compromise is always inevitable. You can just try to minimize it, which is what I usually try to do, or you can stand in a pose and say that if a number of conditions are not met, I will not work. Then at the final stage you will definitely encounter a problem of a different plan: you have implemented everything exactly as you wanted, but due to this, the dramatic side of the performance begins to sag.
Naturally, initially the conductor and the director in some sense interfere with each other. But over time, lapping occurs. I understand what he needs, he understands what I need – it becomes easier to work. And Dmitry Chernyakov, besides, is a man who is not at all alien to music. It was more difficult with Alexander Nikolaevich Sokurov, because, in my opinion, music hindered him more than it helped. Maybe because he is completely self-sufficient and a major creative personality in his own right. Anyway, he had some kind of polemic with Mussorgsky all the time, in which, of course, I sided with the author. We managed to win back some, but not others…
If we talk about symphony concerts, it seems to me that the creative results were not bad. In this sense, I would like to highlight the last symphonic concert (Mahler, "Songs of the Earth"), for which no one should be ashamed at all. This suggests that creative development is going on, and sometimes even moves in some leaps. What was completely impossible some time ago is now quite feasible, and at a very decent level.
In this sense, the coming season will be indicative: we will need to play concerts at the Skala Theater very vividly, and besides that, we are waiting for performances at the Schleswig-Goldstein Festival and several other important appearances. At the same time, I am not conducting any opera productions next season. By the way, this is one of the possible answers to the accusations that no truly major creative figures appear in the Bolshoi Theater. It seems to me that the figures of Mikhail Vasilyevich Pletnev and Yuri Khatuyevich Temirkanov are the level of conducting against which there is little to object.
— Indeed, last season was marked by the arrival of Yuri Temirkanov as chief guest conductor. What can you say about this?
— In my opinion, the amount of work that Yuri Khatuevich is going to do will have a very beneficial effect on the functioning of our creative teams — both the orchestra, the choir, and the opera company as a whole. This season, he should release the premiere of "Carmen", which in itself is already quite a lot, he should conduct performances of the current repertoire (in particular, "The Queen of Spades"). In addition, there will be a symphony concert under his direction, and during one of his tours he will probably also conduct several evenings.
— Can you point out any negative phenomena that have become obvious to you over the past year?
— What worries me is a certain lack of information occasions (in a good sense of the word). The theater is operating in its new building, organizational restrictions are large, and this is not very good, because the so-called rental of performances of the current repertoire, in general, is not the most creative thing imaginable. That is, apparently, we need to look for some additional forms - maybe in the form of some extraordinary things. Maybe even in the form of organizing some festivals. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that prompted Valery Abisalovich to create a number of festivals, including the Moscow Easter Festival — too long existence within the framework of standard conditions for the theater provides too high a degree of monotony.
— But this season the theater has released two very high-profile opera premieres, three ballet and symphony concerts are quite successful…
— It's not a matter of quantity, but how it all happens. You can play the same number of performances that we are playing now in the season, but if the form of submission is different, then the result will be different. Take the La Scala Theatre. No matter what they do, any of their events has unique features. Because ten performances have passed, and that's it, there won't be any more of this.
— But there is a different scheme of work, the Rock is an entreprise theater…
— The scheme of work does not differ as much as it may seem at first glance. Although, of course, there are differences. Nevertheless, I am constantly tormented by the thought that, rather than playing six or eight "Royal Brides" in a season with an interval of a month and with a more or less random hit in quality in terms of composition, availability of rehearsals and so on, maybe it would be better to assemble an impressive line-up, give a good conductor, three or four days of rehearsals — and play about six such performances in a row. From a creative point of view, it will be a completely different matter. Of course, to announce that the outstanding artist Sidorov will sing Gryaznova, and the magnificent artist Petrova will play the role of Lyubasha… That is, to create a set of informational reasons about the old play "The Tsar's Bride", at the same time putting it in order.
— Isn't it scary to attract attention the way it happened with "Eugene Onegin"? Have you been confused by the violent reaction to this production?
It seems to me that as much attention has been drawn to this as needed. Moreover, if it were not for the opinion of Galina Pavlovna Vishnevskaya, then everything would have been much calmer. And the performance itself is an absolute success with the audience – now it is possible to draw some conclusions and talk about it. In no case does he leave the audience indifferent — in this sense, the performance is very effective.
— Speaking of the information confrontation, does it bother you that from time to time there are certain conversations or publications related to the Bolshoi Theater, and not always having a background from the facts?
There is a lot of talk about the Bolshoi Theatre in general. This is a bottomless well — in the sense that if you have nothing to do with it, but you need to "sound out" in some way, then you can immediately "run into" something at the Bolshoi Theater and get a guaranteed surge of interest in yourself. At the same time, unfortunately, the position of the Bolshoi Theater itself on the topic of such comments is not clearly formulated. That is, the Bolshoi Theater does not understand very well how to behave in such situations.
As a rule, it is believed that we cannot react and respond to all sorts of nonsense. On the one hand, we really can't, but on the other hand… Let's say two chess players are sitting, and one starts playing extremely brazenly. If the other says, "No, well, what is this, what kind of bad form is this!" he will immediately get a checkmate, and that will end the whole thing. There's a royal gambit, right? It's a terribly adventurous thing. But there are protections. You can do this or that. As a result, the one who was rude at the beginning, in the endgame, with a guarantee, will receive everything that he is entitled to for it. If, of course, you do it skillfully. But we have not yet developed such strategies.
Actually, this idea intersects with what I said about performances as informational occasions. Of course, the "Royal Bride" can no longer be such – it is more likely that the artist X or the conductor Y will become one. But the point is that the Bolshoi Theater should have a certain strategy and a clear understanding of how it opens up to society, how society perceives it. That is, he must work on his image. True, it's easy to say, but it's very difficult to do. But work is also underway in this direction.
Source.
Interview with Alexander Vedernikov, Artistic Director of the Bolshoi Theatre.
— Surely last July or August you set yourself certain tasks related to the upcoming season. Have these tasks been completed?
— If we talk about events, then all the events that were supposed to happen have happened.
— And creatively? For example, the first production of the last season, "Eugene Onegin" — did this performance turn out the way you would like to see it, or not?
— When you start doing some kind of performance, its final outlines are never clear. Even if they bring you and show you a layout, and it seems that the layout is just wonderful — as a result, it may turn out that everything did not work out so well. Or vice versa: the layout is kind of strange, everything is not done very clearly, and then once — and everything turns out. Therefore, there is always an element of unpredictability and probably should be.
If we talk specifically about Onegin, then, as a very convincing dramatic product, this performance turned out to be very good. To what extent did I manage to implement some musical ideas… At the stage of contact with some directorial circumstances of the work, a compromise is always inevitable. You can just try to minimize it, which is what I usually try to do, or you can stand in a pose and say that if a number of conditions are not met, I will not work. Then at the final stage you will definitely encounter a problem of a different plan: you have implemented everything exactly as you wanted, but due to this, the dramatic side of the performance begins to sag.
Naturally, initially the conductor and the director in some sense interfere with each other. But over time, lapping occurs. I understand what he needs, he understands what I need – it becomes easier to work. And Dmitry Chernyakov, besides, is a man who is not at all alien to music. It was more difficult with Alexander Nikolaevich Sokurov, because, in my opinion, music hindered him more than it helped. Maybe because he is completely self-sufficient and a major creative personality in his own right. Anyway, he had some kind of polemic with Mussorgsky all the time, in which, of course, I sided with the author. We managed to win back some, but not others…
If we talk about symphony concerts, it seems to me that the creative results were not bad. In this sense, I would like to highlight the last symphonic concert (Mahler, "Songs of the Earth"), for which no one should be ashamed at all. This suggests that creative development is going on, and sometimes even moves in some leaps. What was completely impossible some time ago is now quite feasible, and at a very decent level.
In this sense, the coming season will be indicative: we will need to play concerts at the Skala Theater very vividly, and besides that, we are waiting for performances at the Schleswig-Goldstein Festival and several other important appearances. At the same time, I am not conducting any opera productions next season. By the way, this is one of the possible answers to the accusations that no truly major creative figures appear in the Bolshoi Theater. It seems to me that the figures of Mikhail Vasilyevich Pletnev and Yuri Khatuyevich Temirkanov are the level of conducting against which there is little to object.
— Indeed, last season was marked by the arrival of Yuri Temirkanov as chief guest conductor. What can you say about this?
— In my opinion, the amount of work that Yuri Khatuevich is going to do will have a very beneficial effect on the functioning of our creative teams — both the orchestra, the choir, and the opera company as a whole. This season, he should release the premiere of "Carmen", which in itself is already quite a lot, he should conduct performances of the current repertoire (in particular, "The Queen of Spades"). In addition, there will be a symphony concert under his direction, and during one of his tours he will probably also conduct several evenings.
— Can you point out any negative phenomena that have become obvious to you over the past year?
— What worries me is a certain lack of information occasions (in a good sense of the word). The theater is operating in its new building, organizational restrictions are large, and this is not very good, because the so-called rental of performances of the current repertoire, in general, is not the most creative thing imaginable. That is, apparently, we need to look for some additional forms - maybe in the form of some extraordinary things. Maybe even in the form of organizing some festivals. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that prompted Valery Abisalovich to create a number of festivals, including the Moscow Easter Festival — too long existence within the framework of standard conditions for the theater provides too high a degree of monotony.
— But this season the theater has released two very high-profile opera premieres, three ballet and symphony concerts are quite successful…
— It's not a matter of quantity, but how it all happens. You can play the same number of performances that we are playing now in the season, but if the form of submission is different, then the result will be different. Take the La Scala Theatre. No matter what they do, any of their events has unique features. Because ten performances have passed, and that's it, there won't be any more of this.
— But there is a different scheme of work, the Rock is an entreprise theater…
— The scheme of work does not differ as much as it may seem at first glance. Although, of course, there are differences. Nevertheless, I am constantly tormented by the thought that, rather than playing six or eight "Royal Brides" in a season with an interval of a month and with a more or less random hit in quality in terms of composition, availability of rehearsals and so on, maybe it would be better to assemble an impressive line-up, give a good conductor, three or four days of rehearsals — and play about six such performances in a row. From a creative point of view, it will be a completely different matter. Of course, to announce that the outstanding artist Sidorov will sing Gryaznova, and the magnificent artist Petrova will play the role of Lyubasha… That is, to create a set of informational reasons about the old play "The Tsar's Bride", at the same time putting it in order.
— Isn't it scary to attract attention the way it happened with "Eugene Onegin"? Have you been confused by the violent reaction to this production?
It seems to me that as much attention has been drawn to this as needed. Moreover, if it were not for the opinion of Galina Pavlovna Vishnevskaya, then everything would have been much calmer. And the performance itself is an absolute success with the audience – now it is possible to draw some conclusions and talk about it. In no case does he leave the audience indifferent — in this sense, the performance is very effective.
— Speaking of the information confrontation, does it bother you that from time to time there are certain conversations or publications related to the Bolshoi Theater, and not always having a background from the facts?
There is a lot of talk about the Bolshoi Theatre in general. This is a bottomless well — in the sense that if you have nothing to do with it, but you need to "sound out" in some way, then you can immediately "run into" something at the Bolshoi Theater and get a guaranteed surge of interest in yourself. At the same time, unfortunately, the position of the Bolshoi Theater itself on the topic of such comments is not clearly formulated. That is, the Bolshoi Theater does not understand very well how to behave in such situations.
As a rule, it is believed that we cannot react and respond to all sorts of nonsense. On the one hand, we really can't, but on the other hand… Let's say two chess players are sitting, and one starts playing extremely brazenly. If the other says, "No, well, what is this, what kind of bad form is this!" he will immediately get a checkmate, and that will end the whole thing. There's a royal gambit, right? It's a terribly adventurous thing. But there are protections. You can do this or that. As a result, the one who was rude at the beginning, in the endgame, with a guarantee, will receive everything that he is entitled to for it. If, of course, you do it skillfully. But we have not yet developed such strategies.
Actually, this idea intersects with what I said about performances as informational occasions. Of course, the "Royal Bride" can no longer be such – it is more likely that the artist X or the conductor Y will become one. But the point is that the Bolshoi Theater should have a certain strategy and a clear understanding of how it opens up to society, how society perceives it. That is, he must work on his image. True, it's easy to say, but it's very difficult to do. But work is also underway in this direction.
Source.
Boris LIFANOVSKY,
July 15, 2007
July 15, 2007
Alexander Vedernikov on the results of the 2006/07 season and future plans
