And it would be better if with camels

This winter, the St. Petersburg Imperial Porcelain Plant presented the AIDA tea service, created according to Anna Netrebko's drawings. The 15 items were designed for six people in two editions, cheaper and more expensive. Even then, it became clear that the AIDA announced in Salzburg with Netrebko in the main party will be a unique event of the musical summer: the singer first performs the main party of one of the most famous operas.

The service costs 138,864 rubles, more expensive than the official price of the most expensive tickets for AID (450 euros). However, tickets for performances with the participation of the Primadonna have a slight fate: on the day of sale, they disappear earlier than the computer manages to turn on. All hope for speculators-a black market in Salzburg offers to look at Egyptian life for three to four thousand euros, and this is already stronger than the service.

In Aida, Yusif Eyvazov also performs. However, the organizers of the festival decided to separate the spouses here - he sings Radamensa on August 22 and 25, when the main party is performed by Korean Soprano of Wittoria Yeo.

Netrebko’s debut in Aida was a success how everything succeeds in her musical career: who else will be called the only p Rimadonna Assoluta today and will not hear a draw of objections? But the second debutant of the evening, director Shirin is nonsense, the holiday is not so obvious. Of course, she listened to the half -jerking wishes of the conductor Riccardo Muti, expressed before the start of rehearsals - no camels, no pyramids on the stage. Animals and architectural monuments are really absent. The artist Christian Schmid (he is known as the constant co-author of Klaus Gut) built a white cube transformer, he becomes either an arena, then a screen for video projections that she shot along with the famous operator Martin Glashcht. Against the background of the cube, Tatyana Van Valsum costumes look great. However, although the color of fabrics can talk about a lot, he has never replaced the directing in the history of the opera.

It will not replace it and a thorough booklet-they recall the latest psychoanalytic comments on the Aida (during the creation of the opera, a love triangle arose, which clearly reduced the life of his wife Giuseppina, this is stated in the German book of Catarina Dennig Yashka “Werdi laughs. Psychoanalytic observations”) and about the colonial in court) Libretto. Nonhat, known for his feminist and left -wing views, offers new accents. The Egyptian Pharaoh (Roberto Taglivini) has a representative of the European monarchy, and the prisoners of Ethiopes are refugees. Political correctness triumphs, but how theatrical is it?

American Iranian American, laureate of the Venetian Biennale Neshat, the author of impressive videos and photographs, including the series “Women of Allah” (1993-1997); Pictures from this cycle are printed in the booklet to Aida. Models were female faces and hands, sometimes holding a pistol directed at the viewer, painted according to the rules of the Arab calligraphy with poems of modern Iranian poets. The enchanting ligature is twisted with a spiral, sews a white background space with a black thread, curls through the palm and fingers, so that the pupil is in the end in the very core. “When I began to engage in the traditions and philosophy that underlie Islam and associated, first of all, with ideas about the woman,” says Neshat, “I decided not to leave the boundaries of social, cultural and religious codes, not to encroach on existing obstacles. As soon as I stopped at such an image, at my disposal there was incredibly little expressive means. But this contraction endowed me with a sense of clarity, simplicity. ”

Putting your first opera in Salzburg at 60 is a bold step, but perhaps a sense of clarity and simplicity is not enough here. Nonhatt talks about parallels in the fate of Aida and his own (both - refugees lost in life), but is this enough for the stage concept? Stativity is the main word in the description of the performance. Misansins are depressing, not alluring with simplicity, most of the action takes place on the forefront, unless, of course, the verb “occurs” to this statue in principle.

The only thing that is lively is the music - thanks to Muti, who perceives Aida as a chamber opera and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. They focused on creating the most convenient conditions for singers. Those at the height - both Ekaterina Semenchuk (Amneeris), and Dmitry Beloselsky (the High Priest Ramfis), and even Francesco reel in the party of Radamama, which sounds, however, not so advantageous in the duets with Anna Netrebko, like Luke Salcy in the Amonasro party. Who, however, is able to get up with her? Having evolved from the lyrical to a dramatic soprano, Netrebko gained all the advantages of the new status, her voice is full of controlled and at the same time who does not know anything impossible to emotionality, hidden, but obvious wisdom.

Perhaps the public was offered the best of all possible compromises-to unite Netrebko, which does not complain for revolutionary productions with the favorite of the Salzburg “Old Guard”, 76-year-old Riccardo Muti, who returned to Opera Salzburg after a long break. To avoid the final loyalty to aesthetic conservatism, they gave a chance to the once amazing art-mir nount. True, she seems to have forgotten to say that in this case she is not just the author of visually spectacular scenes, with his almost graphic opposition to the male and female reminiscent of her best video works, but an opera director. Many artists who previously became famous in a movie or a drama theater fall into such a trap, but only units manage to avoid cliches.

The festival is not a repertoire theater, it is created for experiments, its viewer must be ready for failures. How programmatic are they?

In one of the interviews, the quarter -to -eater, the quarterly, said that, unlike Gerarara Mortier, he does not interfere in the creative process, everything is built on trust, the directors do what they want. Perhaps in the case of Aida it would be worth temporarily abandoning noble habits. You look, and camels would have appeared.