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We offer a collective portrait of the superstars who at
various times graced the stage of St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theater…
…From morning till dark the huge premises of the Mariinsky Theater are
abuzz with bubbling activity: rehearsals by lead singers, the choir, orchestra,
ballet troupe, concerts and performances are alternating throughout the
day and only a handful of rooms is staying quiet amid all that pandemonium.
A note-plastered at the entrance says this is the theater museum…
“Excuse me, may I come in?”
“Sure, go ahead…”
“I’m Carl Watts, the host of the Voice of Russia’s Musical Portraits of
the 20th Century program. I’m making a program about the Mariinsky’s lead
opera singers who graced its stage in the past century. Do you think I
will find some interesting materials here?”
“Of course you will… I don’t think you will manage to squeeze it all into
a single program, though, even if you make just fleeting mentions of all
the great singers who worked here…”
“I see… And who exactly should I start with, what do you say?”
“Fyodor Chaliapin, who else! He joined the company back in 1895 when he
was only 21, almost a record age for a bass singer! Back in those days
they had a formidable opera lineup here with nearly a dozen of excellent
basses, meaning they hardly needed any more… They still signed him up and
they could do no better, I guess you understand what I mean…
Fyodor Chaliapin was more than a great singer, he was a genius also where
it comes to his stage presence. Just a quick listen to his recordings makes
your heart throb! People who heard him on stage say the impression was
absolutely flabbergasting!
Always a perfectionist, Chaliapin never left anything to chance trying
hard to underscore the tiniest nuances of his characters. Just look at
his photographs, we’ve got a whole lot of them here. A frozen moment, but
his vivid personality still comes out strong!”
“They say he kept quitting and coming back again…”
“Yes, he sang at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. It was an Imperial Theater,
just like ours… He also worked with small-time private companies and on
several occasions joined Sergei Diaghilev’s Russian Seasons acts in Europe.
But all the time he couldn’t wait to get back here again… It was here,
by the way, that he gave his last performance before leaving Russia for
good. It was in 1922… A few days after, he left Russia hating to live under
the Bolsheviks…”
“Have there been other, equally bright superstars here since Chaliapin
left?”
“Well, Chaliapin defies comparisons, you know… We did have outstanding
singers in virtually every vocal range here, but many of them eventually
moved down to the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow… After Moscow became capital
again, the Bolshoi became the country’s number one theater everyone tried
to work at…”
“Looking at the biographies of the Bolshoi’s biggest stars, it’s hard to
miss the obvious fact that many of them, like, for example, Yelena
Obraztsova, Vladimir Atlantov, Yevgeny Nesterenko, and before them, Georgy
Nelepp and Mark Reizen, first established themselves at the Mariinsky,
which in the mid-1930s was renamed the Kirov Opera and Ballet Theater.”
“Interestingly, many of our lead singers were in no hurry to move down
to Moscow, but the decision was made at the very top and they simply did
not dare to say “no” to the big shots in the Kremlin…”
“And still, some of the top-flight performers did stay on and, against
all odds, the Kirov company remained in perfect form throughout the Soviet
years. Could you mention some of the biggest stars you had here in the
Fifties and Sixties?”
“Galina Kovaleva, yes… She joined in 1960. She came from Saratov, on the
Volga where she had graduated from the local conservatory and spent two
years with the local opera and ballet theater. She had absolutely amazing
soprano, airy, tender and richly textured…”
“And what are the parts she sang?…”
“Boasting a lyrical coloratura soprano, Galina Kovaleva was really great
singing Desdemona in “Othello” by Giuseppe Verdi and was equally inimitable
singing coloratura characters in operas by Donizetti, Bellini, Verdi and
the founding father of Russian classical music, Mikhail Glinka. Her virtuosic
performance of Lyudmila in Glinka’s opera “Ruslan and Lyudmila” was one
of the best parts she ever sang…”
“Galina Kovaleva was a legendary singer, she really was…”
“A Kirov Opera lead singer for a whole 35 years, Galina Kovaleva died early,
shortly after celebrating her 60th birthday. She will forever be remembered
by the true connoisseurs of Russian opera singing...”
“Irina Bogacheva joined the Kirov troupe almost simultaneously with Galina
Kovaleva, didn’t she?…”
“Yes, and also became our lead singer during the 1960s. An honors graduate
of the Leningrad Conservatory, she signed with the Kirov Theater which
was just across the square from the Conservatory…”
“Irina Bogacheva and Galina Kovaleva both became Conservatory Professors
turning out a constellation of excellent singers who eventually became
the pride and glory of the Kirov Opera. Getting back to Irina Bogacheva,
what else could you say about her?”
“Bogacheva boasted a uniquely beautiful mezzo-soprano, a quality that was
amply appreciated both here in Russia and in Italy where she spent some
time brushing up her skills and subsequently performed at their best venues.
Her larger than life talent and professionalism won her a wealth of competition
awards and public acclaim almost immediately making her part of the exclusive
circle of the theater’s lead singers.”
“Could you name the opera parts that made Irina Bogacheva so famous, by
the way?”
“Well, Marina Mniszech in Mussorgsky’s opera “Boris Godunov”, Carmen
in the eponymous opera by Bizet, Azucena in Verdi’s opera “Il Trovatore”
and Amneris in “Aida” also by Giuseppe Verdi…”
“Good looking and dashing, Irina Bogacheva is very artistic and small wonder
that she eventually married one of Russia’s best-known opera directors
Stanislav Gaudasinsky.”
“She sang in several operas staged by her husband, but she is also the
darling of just about every other director around. And with pretty good
reason too because with her magnetic persona, Irina Bogacheva always goes
strong, her red-hot emotionality making her a real superstar…”
During the 1960s and 70s many young singers, Conservatory graduates all,
started their stage career at Leningrad’s Maly Theater, which was then
looked upon as essentially an experimental endeavor. Their professional
teeth cut and singing skills honed, they then moved on to join the formidable
Kirov Opera, now Mariinsky. There, singing on the stage of what once was
an Imperial Theater, they finally made a hit at the Big Time…
Konstantin Pluzhnikov was one of these wide eyed and ambitious young hopefuls.
As a student, Konstantin became a proud winner of a national contest. Two
years later he bowed out with the top award of the Enescu International
Competition in Bucharest and another two years after topped the winners’
list at another prestigious international showcase in Geneva. Acting on
the strength of this victorious streak, he was now all set to take on the
opera world.
At the Kirov Opera they were now giving the up and coming young tenor the
leading parts, among them of Faust in Gounod’s opera of the same name,
of Lohengrin in the eponymous opera by Richard Wagner, of Lensky in Yevgeny
Onegin by Pyotr Tchaikovsky and of the Duke in “Rigoletto” by Giuseppe
Verdi.
Good acting skills adding zest to his singing mastery, Konstantin Pluzhnikov
was now a welcome guest in Europe where he partnered on stage with the
biggest opera stars around…
Driven and hardworking, Pluzhnikov helped launch a young singers’ academy
at the Mariinsky without taking any break from his regular stage schedule.
It’s been five years since he was appointed director and instructor of
this academy, generously sharing his vast experience with young singers.
During the Sixties Yevgenia Gorokhovskaya attended the very same Leningrad
Conservatory Pluzhnikov then studied at. Boasting a sumptuous mezzo-soprano,
she, like Konstantin, started out singing at the Maly Opera Theater.
Only 9 year later, having successfully sailed through the competition program
and winning the Grand Prix of the prestigious contest in Barcelona, did
she finally sign with the Kirov Opera joining the exclusive family of their
principals.
By that time she already boasted vast repertoire, her wide vocal range
offering equally stirring renditions of the very challenging parts of the
Countess in the “Queen of Spades,” of Amneris in “Aida” and of Rosina in
“The Barber of Seville”…
Yevgenia’s talent did not go unnoticed resulting in a streak of tours
of Poland, Austria, Germany, Britain, Israel and South Korea…
Yevgenia Gorokhovskaya’s inimitable voice still is the pride and glory
of the Mariinsky Opera Company. Just like that of Nikolai Okhotnikov who
recently marked 30 years of working with the Mariinsky…
Nikolai Okhotnikov won the Grand Prix singing at the very same competition
in Barcelona that catapulted Gorokhovskaya to international stardom. In
was in 1962, by which time Nikolai already boasted top awards of a singers’
contest in Finland and also of the very prestigious Tchaikovsky competition
in Moscow.
In virtually no time he mastered a vast repertoire singing Boris Godunov
in the opera of the same name by Modest Mussorgsky, of Don Basilio in “The
Barber of Seville” by Gioacchino Rossini, of Ivan Susanin in an eponymous
opera by the Russian classic Mikhail Glinka and of King Philip II in “Don
Carlos” by Giuseppe Verdi…
One of the most celebrated members of the constellation of young singers
who joined the Kirov (Mariinsky) Opera during the late Sixties and early
Seventies, Nikolai Okhotnikov is still going strong widely admired and
respected for being able to preserve and perfect his God-given talent…
Yuri Marusin is probably the biggest jewel in the Mariinsky’s crown, his
tenor that seems absolutely limitless in the higher register, winning him
top awards of many a prestigious international competition.
Years ago, Marusin, then fresh from the Leningrad Conservatory, was lucky
to have a rare chance to intern at Milan’s famous La Scala Opera where
he honed his skills singing almost every classical European tenor part
available. During his stint there he was invited to perform several times
on Italy’s premier stage winning kudos from both the public and the ever-nitpicking
critics.
Later on, already one of the Kirov Opera’s lead singers, Yuri Marusin occasionally
performed in Italy much to the satisfaction of his many fans there. In
1982 an Italian music society presented the Russian tenor with a bust of
Giuseppe Verdi and named him the best foreign singer of the year.
Yuri Marusin has, over the years, partnered on stage with the likes of
Mirella Freni, Nikolai Gyaurov and Claudio Abbado, to name just a few and
a consummate actor, he has also starred in several film versions of classical
opera evergreens.
Yuri’s repertoire boasts a whopping 50-plus operatic parts and he has also
added his inimitable vocals to the Ninth Symphony by Beethoven and Requiems
by Mozart and Verdi.
Yuri Marusin is always on the road singing Russian romances, Neapolitan
songs and popular opera arias. Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev never
missed a single concert Marusin gave here in Moscow.
Yuri Marusin is still in good form, his voice, which has graced the stage
of one of the world’s finest theaters for more than two decades now, easily
surging up and the audience following with bated breath the vocal perfection
of one of the best opera singers who ever graced this world.
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