Director Dmitry Bertman, conductor Valery Kiryanov (first performance), artists Igor Nezhny and Tatyana Tulubyeva, choreographer Edvald Smirnov unraveled the most confusing plot of the world opera repertoire with the help of allusions to today's events in the world. At the same time, Verdi's brilliant music not only did not resist the director's decision, but fully revealed all its strength, passion and fantastic beauty.

The audience loves Verdi's opera, although many theaters around the world refuse to stage it - the parts of the main characters are too complex and emotional.

Luxurious interiors of "Helikon" became the basis for the decision for the performance, which tells about cruel revenge, hatred, fratricide with incredibly beautiful means of Italian opera music in its most radical - Verdi - version.

Maestro Valery Kiryanov performed Verdi's score with inspiration, with the necessary drive and emotionality, with the pretentious theatricality inherent in this music, but at the same time with great taste and love.

Leonora and Manrico, according to Bertman, are artists. Which, however, differs from the original only in relation to Leonora: Manrico and Verdi are also a singer, a troubadour, a representative of the artistic intelligentsia. The theatrical reality of the performance is conditional and metaphorical. The performance is dedicated to human feelings and characters - bright, quite unambiguous, not complicated by contradictions, but at the same time motivated and justified.

Dmitry Bertman's directing style is this fusion of opera convention and psychological unconditionality, which he passes on to his students.

The stage space is both scary and mesmerizing - the synthesis of these polar states is part of the concept of the performance. Huge metal gratings that form multi-level bridges, walls, a backdrop, allowing the artists to spread not only horizontally, but also vertically on the stage mirror. The gratings either heat up or fill with smoke, moving and changing shape.

The performance is designed as a synthetic action, in which plasticity and choreography are a full-fledged expressive means along with vocals. Edvald Smirnov created a detailed dance score, in which he combined a variety of plastic elements - from torero and gaucho poses to riverdance movements. It is performed by the phenomenal Helikon Choir under the direction of Evgeny Ilyin.

Vertical mise-en-scenes - distinguishing feature performance. The scene in the monastery, in which several artists form crucifixes on the back, is a separate work of visual art.

Confrontation of two forces to each other: who are they, these participants in the internecine war? Muslims and Christians? Pagans and monotheists? Red and white? Who is right and whose side should we be on? "Helikon" does not give answers to these questions. But in the entire history of mankind, no answers have been found.

The prima donna Leonora performed by Alisa Gitsba is exquisite, subtle, living in an imaginary the art world. Debutant Ivan Gyngazov (Manrico) - with equal recklessness rushes into the arms of his beloved and into battle with the enemy. Di Luna by Mikhail Nikanorov is mysterious and very charismatic.

Ksenia Vyaznikova (Azucena) is a manipulator. It is she who drives the plot and events. Vyaznikova's image comes out one-dimensional, devoid of subtext: Azucena is zombified by revenge. She hates Manrico and actually kills him herself in the finale. But she's not a villain either. As Dmitry Bertman said after the premiere, there are no villains in the opera. Because the most terrible operatic villain sings such beautiful music that all his villainy is instantly forgiven.

It is in this the main idea performance! There is a great temptation to plunge into the world of classical theater and music, where real human feelings seethe, leaving the reality that has become a cynical theater of war…

Lyudmila Yurievna (a novice theatergoer) shared her impressions after watching:

“The hall is solemn, cozy, bewitching. Tours of the theater during the intermission are interesting and informative. A live orchestra and soulful voices create the impression of a holiday. Look at it in one breath. Thanks to the artists for the pleasure."

Sabadash Vladimir from "Helikon"

Photo courtesy of the theatre.

  • The most mysterious…

The idea of ​​writing the opera came to Verdi after reading a play by the talented Spanish playwright Antonio Gutierrez. Written in verse, with magnificent female images, this story so captivated the composer, who at that time was working on Rigoletto, that he immediately turned to his friend Cammarano with a request to write a libretto for the opera.

Fearing that the plot in the style of a Greek tragedy might displease the censors, Cammarano delayed the answer for a long time. But Verdi was persistent and in 1851 the first version of the libretto appeared, but was rejected because of the too optimistic ending and Cammarano returned to work, but did not have time to finish. Verdi was shocked by the death of a friend, but finished the opera.

In 1853, the premiere took place on the stage of the Roman theater "Appolo". Contrary to Cammarino's concerns, the opera had not been closed. The performance was a huge success. It remains one of the most popular works of Giuseppe Verdi today.

Count di Luna is in love with the young Leonora, who lives in a convent. He comes to her windows to look at her at least with one eye. However, the night walks of the nobleman do not allow the guards to calmly pokemar on the post and they entertain themselves with gossip.

Once the count had a younger brother, who was bewitched by a gypsy. The unfit woman was seized and a just court sentenced her to be burned. But the witch had a daughter, Azucena. She vowed to avenge her mother's death and stole di Luna's brother to throw the baby into the fire that burned her mother. The count's father could not bear the grief and died. Since then, di Luna has been gloomy and stern.

At this time, the beautiful Leonora does not dream of a noble groom at all, but of a simple troubadour Manrico, who sings serenades to her under the windows. She listens to his song and, in the dark, takes the count for a poor musician. Two men in love collide at the monastery walls. The Count draws his sword. Manrico defends himself, but receives terrible wounds.

His mother, a gypsy, the same Azucena, who raised the count's offspring as her own son and instilled in him thoughts of revenge, nurses him.

Convinced of the death of her beloved, Leonora is about to be tonsured. Manrico hurries to the convent to stop her. The same thoughts visit the count, who, with his detachment, is also heading towards the holy monastery.

The troubadour gets there first. She and Leonora are already on their way to the altar when news arrives that the Count has arrested Azucena. Manrico rushes to her aid. He is arrested and thrown into prison with his mother.

In order to save her beloved, Leonora agrees to marry the count and be faithful to him until death do them part. She decides to speed things up and takes poison. Before dying, she descends into the chamber where Manrico and Azucena await their fate in order to free them. The young man understands what his freedom cost and refuses to leave the dungeon, cursing his ex-bride. Insulted, she falls dead.

The count discovers his dead young wife in the arms of a troubadour and poisons him to be executed, but this does not seem enough to him. He mocks the old woman, forcing her to look at the death of her son. Azucena, heartbroken, manages to say that di Luna sent his own brother to be executed and dies.

Production Troubadour

Helikon-Opera is able to impress the audience not only with excellent performance and magnificent operatic voices, but also with staging and scenography. This long-awaited premiere will allow you to take a fresh look at the classics and see the subtle nuances in the already seemingly familiar music.

"was held on June 27 this year on the stage of the Great Hall-Amphitheater "Stravinsky". It became the final premiere of last season, but the current season also opened with Il trovatore.

Having read rave reviews and watched a video with advertising propaganda on the theatre’s website, the author of these lines, “suppressed by the greatness” of none other than the “moment of truth”, sung by a host of media personalities from the “near-opera bohemia”, did not rush to the premiere last season.

The theatrical "foam of days" had to be allowed to settle, and therefore the beginning of the new season was chosen to attend the loud premiere

The moment when serious passions and unbridled delight should safely, if not remain in the past, then at least slightly sink to the bottom.

I had a chance to join the “beautiful and eternal” only recently - on September 2, but, contrary to expectations, Il trovatore staged by the founder and artistic director"Helikon-Opera" by Dmitry Bertman did not become the promised sensation. He did not, despite the fact that, by European standards, this performance is undoubtedly characterized by scenographic elegance, which reveals the really flexible and impressive possibilities of the machinery found in the new theater space of the completed and redesigned building on Bolshaya Nikitskaya.

The sensation did not happen, since, in essence, an abstractly far-fetched and banal transformer performance was born. In its sophisticated system of coordinates, in a complex three-dimensional labyrinth of continuously rising and falling metal structures (bridges-crossings, barriers-shields and cages-towers-containers), stage at least any opera - not necessarily by Verdi and not necessarily by Il trovatore!

But the scenographic and costume concept of the production, proposed by the artists Igor Nezhny and Tatiana Tulubeva, the director, apparently, is satisfied with everything. It is complemented by a very effective "score of light" Damira Ismagilova and typically pop, hauntingly rhythmic movement, totally brought to the stage by the choreographer Edvald Smirnov and in the end

turning Verdi's Italian thriller based on a Spanish plot by librettists Cammarano and Bardare into an ordinary musical with backing dancers and a catchy, bright serial "opera" wardrobe.

The remarkable fantasy of the director and artists transfers the plot to some orthodox Arab country, in which the Islamist thugs (the party of the Count di Luna) are waging a stubborn fight against the rebels - the "green berets" (the "gypsy" party of Manrico and Azucena with Leonora who joined them).

Leonora in this production is like a star of the propaganda brigade, speaking to the fighters opposing the terror of the Islamists, and Manrico is a sexy lover who has thoroughly twisted an affair with her.

The characters of "Il Trovatore" can be dressed, of course, as you like: this time they are traditional Arab scarves with plaits and "landing" berets.

But if you do not create an aesthetically adequate environment for the perception of music, and it is not created in the performance, then there will simply be no opera, especially such as Il trovatore, because it only talks about the events of the plot all the time, and the key effective moments are taken out in libretto for the stage.

So, there is no musically friendly environment, and what happens on stage to the accompaniment of the orchestra, when the soloists and the choir not only sing, but also dance, is a common costumed concert. This whole scenographic installation, like a simple musical, is only in a state of operatic suspended animation, and there are practically no chances for it to wake up from sleep, for a living aspiration towards opera.

It is obviously impossible to call the performance spectacular, but its visual picture is quite nice, although it is straightforwardly naive.

The moments when the “scenographic iron” is obscured for the duration of one or another episode by local “architectural-pictorial” islands-inserts descending from the grate in the traditional classical manner (there is such a thing in the production, after all!), look like deliberate flirting with the audience.

It is as if they are telling us: “Look, we can do everything, but we will do just the way it should!" I mean: so that it was “cool” and “cool”, but, like this time, it went against the aesthetics of the operatic story itself, embedded in the libretto and music. Otherwise, the direction of this performance would not have been that “fashionable product” in a shiny golden wrapper, which the club audience devoted to “Helikon” simply adores, brought up on just such a primitive with glamor and firmly believing that this is an opera ...

One would like to say, “not all that glitters is gold”, but, however, we will not destroy the illusions of the club public, fanatic of the aesthetic miracles of Helikon, although the very spirit of the opera from Verdi’s most popular work, the staged “creativity” inevitably knocks out and this time.

The only indicative value of this performance is the absolute impossibility of falling asleep on it:

with all the vampuk of the musical and even in places of cranberry operetta, it is unexpectedly interesting to watch what happens on the stage!

It is to observe, not to empathize! Precisely “to make fun of”, and not to listen to the opera in the high and most important spiritual mission of this genre. But today the attack on the opera is actively going on on all fronts, on many metropolitan (if we talk about Moscow) opera venues, so it would be simply the height of naivety to be surprised that the old “proven” leader of this movement did not stand aside this time !

The plot collision of Il trovatore is incredibly confusing, but unraveling it in the mind of the viewer is still much less important than diving into the crucible of dramatic bloody ups and downs, momentary psychological situations, beautiful truly melodic music and enjoying the high art of academic operatic singing.

But it was with the last aspect that Helikon always had problems: they have not gone away this time either. In general, in a loud voice - an obsessive feeling is created! – It seems that the soloists and the choir do not have to strain at all with the hardware-controlled acoustics of the forcedly designed Stravinsky Hall with a wide front of the audience seating and an excessively deepened orchestra pit.

Singers open their mouths on stage, but you don’t feel direct contact with them:

sound - and very good and technically high quality - we hear from somewhere above, and this unexpected discovery from the live and direct art of opera leads even more. Well, oh well: after all, Helikon will not have another building anyway. After years The tireless selfless efforts of Dmitry Bertman finally built this: in our times of crisis, this is already fantastic in itself!

It is absolutely impossible to fall asleep on the Helikon's "Troubadour" also because of the excessive, as noted above, the volume of the "soundtrack", but for the majority of the public, loudness is not a hindrance at all: only those who, like the author of these lines, are used to attending academic music venues with more tolerant operatic acoustics. But in this case, the very specific acoustics of the Stravinsky Hall even helps the singers to some extent:

everyone is heard wonderfully, but there are no bright discoveries and cherished music lovers' pleasure from vocals.

If we talk about the parts of Leonora and Manrico in a purely technical vocal aspect, then their performers are quite an experienced soprano Alisa Gitsba and a very young, stylistically unformed tenor Ivan Gyngazov– this time the named parties try on more than conditionally. But how you want to taste Verdi's "dramatic bel canto" at the same time, but it wasn't there! How you want to enjoy the purity of intonation and the magic of the phrasing of the singer-artists, how you want to feel yourself in the power of a melodic cantilena, but this is exactly what is not there!

Everything is approximate, everything is nominative, but if in vocals main character and the remnants of the luxury of former mastery appear, then the tenor, excessively pressing with the sound of a deliberately spint, resonantly whitened color and going off scale in the upper register, instead of mastery, squanders so far only a stream of decibels that do not touch the opera too much.

Pleasant exceptions - stylistically confident interpretations captivating with musicality, presented by a dramatic and sensual baritone Mikhail Nikanorov(Count di Luna), brightly textured mezzo-soprano Ksenia Vyaznikova(Azucena) and young - hopefully - promising bass Georgy Ekimov(Ferrando).

But due to the specifics of acoustics, it’s still impossible to experience the full sensual return from their singing, alas…

"Nessun dorma" ("No one sleeps"), Calaf sings in his famous aria in Puccini's opera "Turandot", not so long ago - in January - also staged for the first time on this stage. But if suddenly on the “Troubadour”, on which, as we found out above, it is impossible to fall asleep, you inadvertently take a nap, then closer to the final you will wake up for sure!

The fact is that the French finale, incorporated by Verdi for the Parisian production of 1857, unexpectedly invades the fabric of this production, which refers to the usual Italian version. In it, which was not at the world premiere in Rome on the stage of the Apollo Theater in January 1853, the theme of "Miserere" is repeated with the choir from the first picture of the last (fourth) act. But if in this picture this music is connected exclusively with the drama of the relationship between Leonora and Manrico, then in the Paris finale (by this time Leonora, who had taken the poison, is already dead), Azucena also joins the theme of “Miserere” with new vocal lines.

At the first moment, you are simply confused, because this move is of interest only to music lovers, and the general public is unlikely to notice this know-how!

But even music lovers’ interest immediately raises the question: “Why do we need all this intellectual impulse trying to connect the incompatible - Italian with French, French with Nizhny Novgorod?” And whose brilliant idea is this - a guest conductor-producer from Spain Oliver Diaz, who directed the orchestra and at the performance under discussion, or the stage director? Or maybe it's both? Probably, this is not so important, but the mise-en-scene of the final is more inclined to believe that this is still the director's idea.

In the scene of Leonora's dying explanation with Manrico, this time Count di Luna is present from the very beginning: he comes and listens silently. Leonora, who deceived him, dressed in a black Muslim outfit, dying, does not die at all, but quietly steps aside. Following this, after "Miserere", Azucena slowly points the hand of the Count di Luna with a pistol at Manrico, achieving a shot, which is what happens.

Why should she feel sorry for her adopted Manrico, when instead of him, by an absurd accident, she threw her own son into the fire!

Moreover, Manrico is the brother of the Count di Luna, whose father is responsible for the death of her mother. But this kunshtuk, no matter what they say about the hyper-intricacy of the libretto, is a move obviously across Verdi. However, such moves are a common place in modern opera productions, however, they are always issued exclusively for directorial prowess.

And just for this, the Paris final was needed?

Well, when global production ideas - and this can be seen with the naked eye - stall, probably, the desire to play spillikins really comes to mind, appealing to a slightly modified musical form, and not to the essence of psychological content. But all this is nothing but from the evil one.

And yet, no matter how cunning, the singers and the choir (choirmaster - Evgeny Ilyin) sing loudly, the orchestra plays quite evenly, without emissions, quite even emotionally, but also loudly.

The opera itself on the stage of the Great Hall of the multi-hall mega-theater, which today is the reconstructed super-fashionable Helikon, this time, in its legal rights, is noticeably squeezed. And this is exactly what nano-opera is!

Photos from the official website of the "Galikon-Opera"

' has long been overgrown with a beard. Looks like everyone loves it! In fact, there are many operas where the intricacies of intrigue are many times more complicated. But those works are not so popular, so the poor gypsy Azucena, who confused her own and someone else's son with grief, has to take the rap for a hundred and fifty years for all the romantic vampuk.

It is even more fun when, over the libretto by Salvatore Cammarano, who remade the forgotten Spanish play by Antonio Gutierrez for the opera, the directors bring in the now inevitable moment of actualization. What the characters of "Troubadour" did not have to endure in recent decades: from the transfer to the times of Verdi (to the confrontation between the Garibaldians and the Austrians) to the creepy backstage of circus performers or, quite radically, showing a session of psychoanalysis in a locked apartment.

Director of the new version of "Troubadour" in the Moscow musical theater"Helikon-Opera" sensitively catches topicality. His secrecy at a press conference about stage design and taboos on questions about the style of costumes made him smile after he announced that in connection with the premiere, an exhibition of photographs by the Rossiya Segodnya International News Agency on the theme “The Fate of Aleppo” was launched in the theater lobby in connection with the premiere. Moreover, there is a clue that the plot of Il Trovatore, where as a result the brother kills the brother, echoes the fratricidal war that does not stop in the Middle East. Well, the traditional clothes of the faithful look spectacular on stage, but here's how to fit into the front-line reports of electronic news agencies love triangle opera?

Here's what we saw. mature prima donna conditional opera house(helpfully guessed: except in Tel Aviv, there is no regular opera anywhere in those parts!) flirts, quite innocently, with a young partner, a tenor. But she does not resist the courtship of a respectable admirer, a wealthy sheikh, who showers her with baskets of flowers. And he does not suspect that a colleague on the stage is simultaneously “working part-time” as the commander of some armed formation. And the Islamic "authority", he is also an Arab music lover, with an uncharacteristic nickname Count di Luna, respectively, is at war with him. Who is good here, who is bad, on whose side is truth and justice - it is not clear. And this is so, in civil strife the boundaries of good and evil are blurred. Only the artist-terrorist is original, that is, the Troubadour himself, Manrico. However, if such a character could come out from under the talented pen of Dina Rubina in her trilogy "Russian Canary" (recall, there the protagonist combines the career of a stellar countertenor and a super agent of the Israeli special services), then why be ashamed of “absurdity” in the opera?

The main thing, and for this it is worth going to "Helikon" to the "Troubadour" - everything is beautiful on the stage! Which is a gift these days. Theatrically, aesthetically, without going beyond the moral framework of "9+" - I'm talking about the age limit, with all responsibility. The white Arab uniform of the di Luna warriors and the Count himself, who changes light and dark Bedouin costumes, look elegant. The theatrical blue-scarlet velvet dresses of Leonora are luxurious. The “two-faced” Manrico now flaunts in an embroidered camisole, when he “acts”, then turns his vest inside out, merging with a gray-green lining with his incomprehensible “gypsy detachment” in international army uniforms.

Complex lattice structures that rise with people or lower the unfortunate into prison dungeons are sometimes complemented by a recognizable ruined arch, the remains of ancient Palmyra. Imitation of an old red curtain with gold tassels - Leonora's alcove. A huge month hanging in the sky with its horns up, as if on a minaret, marks the victory of the faithful. All this is a brilliant work of artists Igor Nezhny and Tatyana Tulubeva. And instead of the gypsy anvil - fiery tracers, the darkness of the night and the smoke of conflagrations, the stingy light bulbs of the dungeons, fading with the beating streams of the southern sun with the farewell dawn of the heroes - a well-thought-out light score.

The choir of "Helikon" this time not only sings wonderfully, but shows plastic miracles, which are difficult to get used to. Choreographer Edvald Smirnov can be proud of the result: the bodies of Arab warriors “in ambush” in the prologue (the height of the structure is scary there!), frozen in picturesque poses on a vertical lattice, rhythmically living in a camp camp “like gypsies”, back-dancing adorable luminaries in the fast part of Cavatina Leonora Di tale amor che dirsi. Particularly surprised by the scene in the di Luna camp. Squilli, echeggi la tromba guerriera- typically Verdi, song-stern male choir. And slender, as if fitting, guys in white sang and danced smoothly, deftly moving their hips on the verge of decency under oriental trousers. Sacredly clearly announced from behind the scenes the famous Miserere. And then the Islamists in white repeated the funeral lines, beyond the plan, at the last minute of the action, at the moment of execution. Verdi did not write this, but it turned out.

The young Spanish conductor Oliver Diaz was specially invited for the production. The orchestral sound as such turned out to be very worthy. Purely and together (which is already quite a lot!), without kicks from the solo wind instruments. Okay, let's skip some differences in the ensembles. A press screening, a dress rehearsal - a well-established performance that has not yet been run in. But how to explain the unreasonably slow pace in some numbers? For example, the divine cantilena of the Count Il balen del suo sorriso almost turned into a stagnant swamp. And only the skill of Mikhail Nikanorov helped him to endure a long phrase. In general, from the quartet of protagonists, it was the baritone that seemed the most organic. Nikanorov has an ordinary timbre, but a well-crafted voice, he is musical, he understands what he is singing about. External and acting data is what you need: height, become, regular facial features, ability to move. A real noble villain!

Leonora, performed by Alisa Gitsba, attracts with a special, bitter-sagebrush timbre, the ability to mill out the top notes on the piano, and convey the colors of suffering with her voice. She is regally beautiful in the emphatically magnificent prima donna's outfits and frighteningly authentic in the finale, in a black abaya - yes, yes, Leonora, apparently, ends up as a suicide bomber! But I would like that what was noticed was not about “already”, given the singer’s adulthood and her long busy career, but about “still” - that is, the part that has not yet been drunk and tessitura virtuosic numbers, such as stretta Tu vedrai che amore in terra and the following duet with the Count, Alice's major dramatic soprano is difficult.

The image most desired by singers and unparalleled in operatic classics is Azucena. Here - completely devoid of nationality, short-haired gray-haired mother-soldier. Of course, the insane fanatic, who with her own hand raised the “instrument of retaliation” - Manrico, and shoots him herself - either to save him from a painful death, or ... her nerves simply could not stand it. According to the image of Ksenia Vyaznikova, it turns out quite logically. Although it does not capture, because it is sung not by a fatal thick mezzo, but by a central soprano. Sonorous, but grinding, unpleasant and noticeably lowering intonation, especially in the finale.

The main character is the hardest to judge. Considering that we heard the debut of Ivan Gyngazov (not only as Manrico, but on the Moscow stage in general), this is a test. Young, inexperienced, who learned the part just for insurance (as many as four soloists were prepared!) - and suddenly he had to help out the theater and a sick colleague. Tall, thin, fair-haired, similar to the fabulous Ivanushka, the young man approached the director's concept in texture - Manrico is not a romantic knight, but a pawn in someone else's game, an orphan who is manipulated in turn by the other characters. Gyngazov sang all the notes, and the notorious Di quella pira, stretta, was not afraid to shout in C major. (Even many masters sing calmly in B major, a semitone lower, and there is a variant in B-flat major, also used.) Then it’s not his “gray-green” comrades-in-arms who run out, but “white” Arabs and under the jubilant All'armi, lifting them in their arms, they carry Troubadour (he is here again in a camisole against the backdrop of a curtain) - to prison, as it turns out later. And he is so radiant, so happy! It is not clear who was rejoicing at that moment - a stupid Middle Eastern tenor who did not recognize his enemies, or the soloist of "Helikon" Ivan Gyngazov, who did not give a rooster (he was close to that, in the first duet with Azuchena), took the top do, and it was left to sing no more a lot and not scary. The beginner's voice is loud, simple, direct, but not annoying. It's a pity if he continues to sing in such a noisy manner, especially the power parts, like Manrico, - he risks becoming a chronicle among the phoniatrists. Some kind of meaningfulness, nuances in singing, stage freedom in Gyngazov are still only in the future.

There is also a bass in the play, Ferrando. A seasoned warrior who tells in the prologue about an old gypsy woman burned as a witch, and about the missing younger brother of the current count. Ferrando's story Di due figli vivea padre beatato bass Dmitry Skorikov performed expressively as an actor, although not exactly technically on small graces.

The comprimarios retired. Ines - Marina Kalinina, Ruiz - Nikolai Melikov, Old Gypsy - Alexei Egorov.

In the premiere series of "Troubadour", for the first time, within the framework of a new project organized jointly with the Alisher Usmanov Foundation "Art, Science and Sports", a program to support people with visual impairments "Un Certain Regard" is launched in "Helikon" - audio commentary: visually impaired viewers will hear in headphones comments that help them understand what is happening on stage, from the actions of the artists to the changes in the scenery. The initiative deserves respect, although it raises questions. Prepared at the rehearsals of "Troubadour", a nice commentator girl had previously worked in drama theaters. But the plays are full of pauses, convenient for additional information "in the ear", and in the opera all the time is filled with music. Perhaps a blind newcomer who came to "Helikon" on a social ticket will appreciate the care. But among those deprived of the “gift of light” there are a lot of music lovers. They will hardly agree to listen to: “goes backstage”, “the cage goes down”, “takes out a gun” and miss something in the singing or the orchestra. And in principle, it is better for the blind to listen to the great recordings of Il trovatore, they are more likely to give goosebumps on the tragic confession of Azucena and tears of compassion for the unhappy love of Leonora and Manrico will flow.

The new Il trovatore by Dmitry Bertman is by no means for strict adherents of bel canto, but for audiences open to the mainstream who appreciate theatricality in its grotesque Vakhtangov style, recognizing the absurdity and adventurousness of the production.

Photos provided by the press service

“MMT “Helikon-Opera”

opera premiere

Theater "Helikon-Opera" presented in its hall "Stravinsky", equipped with the latest theater technology, the premiere episode of Verdi's Il trovatore. One of the most popular opera scores is now staged in Moscow by director Dmitry Bertman and conductor Oliver Diaz, adding another extravagant and poignant opera show to Verdi's Helikon series. Tells Yulia Bederova.


Outstanding for its emotional pomp, theatrical beauty of the music, and the legendary intricacy of the plot, Verdi's Il trovatore is both popular and difficult to perform. But "Helikon" was never afraid of any Verdi, regularly putting into the repertoire the most difficult Verdi blockbusters from "Aida" to "Falstaff" and "Un ballo in maschera". In several premiere casts of Il trovatore, only the troupe of the theater is occupied without invited soloists. The only guest performer in the team is the Spanish conductor Oliver Diaz, and he, responding to the Spanish circumstances of the libretto, leads the performance resiliently, densely, recklessly in terms of colors, balance and articulation, with cuts and at the most rapid pace that does not allow the singers, choir and orchestra to relax , and dramaturgy - to blur.

Bertman's directing, straightening out some particularly ornate operatic lines, transforms the score into a compact, fiery and, above all, playful drama, not devoid of tragedy, but not devoid of sarcasm, with the hum of luxurious theatrical machinery. The fratricide at the base of the Verdiian spring of Il trovatore unfolds on stage into a story about a modern fratricidal war and, if not into an anti-war manifesto, then into a living memorial, as sad as it is unashamedly artistic. Bertman's recipe for directorial decisions - the charming populism of the theatrical show, mixed with social accuracy and musicality of mise-en-scene - works in Il trovatore really appropriately. A reinterpretation of the libretto would oblige the opera reviewer to show the scrupulousness more common in stories about cinema and not reveal the secret of the final turn in the stage plot of Verdi's version of Helikon. But the main idea of ​​the performance, which is fully revealed only towards the end, is not a secret. The poison that Leonora drinks in the finale, sacrificing herself to save another, is only the material embodiment of the poisonous idea of ​​revenge, transmitted from mother to daughter, from father to son, infecting and poisoning the lives of old and current generations. The main dramatic idea of ​​the performance is the theme of the catastrophic power of sacrifice and revenge and the vital need for forgiveness, and the main musical theme- Miserere choir, lamentation for the dead and dying.

And the fact that the photo exhibition “War and ... Peace?”, which tells about the fate of Aleppo (and asserts: “Modern wars - senseless and merciless - differ little from the events of Verdi’s romantic opera, and photography makes you feel the rabid cruelty war"), only emphasizes the theme of forgiveness and sympathy heard in Verdi's stormy score.

The performance is built (the specifics of the stage design by the artists Igor Nezhny and Tatyana Tulubyeva is such that it is built exactly like an architectural structure, like a house) with a surprisingly charming measure of elegance and vampuchi, not only not alien to the Verdi score, but saturating it with a combustible mixture through and through. Here, among other things, the danceability of the melodramatic Verdi is visualized, and they revel in it with extravagant ease and even prowess, especially in choral episodes, which in an amusing way echoes some higher-flying Verdi productions up to the Permian La Traviata.

The ensemble of singers in the performance should show not only vocal and dramatic, but also plastic abilities, which, however, never prevented the artists of "Helikon-Opera" from sounding and looking expressive. Acting strong Larisa Kostyuk forced her voice in the role of Azucena, and Dmitry Ponomarev (Manrico) rather emphasized the unevenness of the ensemble than concealed it. But the clear and almost always vocally convincing dramaturgy of Elena Mikhailenko as Leonora, Alexei Isaev as Count di Luna, Stanislav Shvets as Ferrando was very suitable for the musical and dramatic structure of the performance. Which, despite the deliberate technological effectiveness of the scenography and lighting, lined up flexibly and frighteningly understandable.