By Olga Fyodorova
…June of 1960. The Conservatory Big Hall in Moscow is abuzz ahead of a
singers’ graduation exam as if there was some big league celebrity preparing
to walk out on stage. Members of the examination commission are all there,
gathered around the sixth row of tables…
“How come there’re so many fans here today?”
“Well, that’s what usually happens when the singers have their graduation
exams, don’t you know that?”
“I do but what we have here today is something very unusual. Look, the
stalls and even the balconies are full of people! What’s going on?”
“I believe most of them are here for Yuri Mazurok’s sake…”
“Just another rising star, I presume?”
“I guess so. Just back home after winning a major competition in Prague…”
“You mean the Prague Spring? Yeah, that’s serious, meaning this fellow
is real good, eh?”
“Here he comes, opening with Andrei Bolkonsky’s aria from War and Peace
by Sergei Prokofyev...”
Yuri Mazurok entered the Moscow Conservatory at the already advanced age
of 24. An honors graduate of the Moscow Polytechnic Institute, one day
he realized that he was born to sing, not compute. Yuri started singing
pretty late, when he was already in college. They had a pretty good song
ensemble there whose members even tried their hand, or, rather, voice,
singing operas. Dropping in to see one such rehearsal, Yuri was immediately
hooked by what was like a fairy tale come true… A few days later, shy and
nervous, he ventured to an audition and, much to his surprise, they took
him onboard!
The ensemble’s conductor had a hard time figuring out whether the gifted
young man was a tenor or a baritone though… That’s exactly what his conservatory
teachers also tried hard to find out, by the way. And with good reason
too given Yuri’s tenor-tinged voice combining with a range that looks so
much like a baritone, making teaching such a singer a real nightmare!
Professor Sergei Migai, a very fine baritone himself, took his time sizing
up the new singer before saying the fellow was a baritone and a great one
too… Time proved him perfectly right…
Still a graduation year student, Yuri Mazurok took part in his first competition
in Prague and was immediately hailed as a very promising young singer.
The following year Yuri performed equally well at the prestigious Georghe
Enescu competition in Bucharest and in Montreal, still suffering the effects
of the jet lag, he managed to pull himself together climbing to the very
top of the pack. After the first round it was already clear that he was
headed for the first prize and that was exactly what happened…
Already a world-acclaimed singer, Yuri Mazurok took part in his last competition
vying for a vacancy at Moscow’s venerable Bolshoi Theater. During the Sixties
the auditions there were just about any major international competition.
Here, too, he was lucky to be signed on and entrusted almost all their
lead baritone parts.
At first it seemed that his relatively lightweight voice would not fill
out the Bolshoi’s giant hall and deep scene. Yuri Mazurok made the best
of what he had though, singing only what suited his voice best. He
painstakingly thought out all the scenes and acoustically advantageous
locations and always did it right…
Just like many other singers, Yuri Mazurok eventually became a slave to
his own voice making his and his loved ones’ life subordinated to the Bolshoi’s
timetable. He only ate diet food on performance days, staying away from
anything that was cold, hot and spicy. Moreover, one day before going out
on stage he refrained from talking on the phone and getting otherwise excited.
Yuri Mazurok came to the theater two or three hours before show time and
walked around the giant stage warming up. He then went into his room, applied
the makeup himself and started getting dressed, moving slowly as if trying
not to spill the atmosphere built up inside him. When it was time to go
out on stage, he was invariably concentrated, his performance always precise
and stable making him the darling of his stage partners…
Gradually acquiring international status, Yuri Mazurok was now a welcome
guest on major operatic stages around the world with Munich, Berlin, Buenos
Aires and San Francisco all knocking on his door asking him to come over.
Then came invitations from La Scala, Covent Garden and the Metropolitan
Opera. The great Franco Zefirelli invited Yuri to sing the part of bullfighter
Escamillo in his Vienna Opera production of Carmen made jointly with Carlos
Clybur. It was the pinnacle of Yuri’s entire stage career!
In July 2001 Yuri Mazurok turned 70 – just the time to look back and see
what you have accomplished in your life. And look back he did seeing a
collection of top Russian and international awards.
At 70, Yuri Mazurok’s baritone remains fresh and vibrant and thanks much
to his healthy lifestyle, he is still slim and upright, still able to play
young lovers and heroes alike.
His many fans still admire him welcoming his every stage appearance
with long and tumultuous applause… |