The best role of President Shaimiev
Golden Masks awarded at the Bolshoi Theater
Last night the ceremony of presenting the national theater award "Golden Mask" took place at the Bolshoi Theater. Everything looked like an ordinary Bolshoi performance: speculators were briskly selling tickets at the entrance, and the evening opened with a ballet performance of the overture from the opera “Ruslan and Lyudmila,” staged by Vladimir Vasilyev especially for such celebrations.

The names of only five laureates were known in advance. Actor Kirill Lavrov and artist Joseph Sumbatashvili received the “Golden Mask” in the honorary nomination “For Honor and Dignity”. Special awards for support of theatrical art - President of Tatarstan Mintimer Shaimiev and the Open Society Institute (Soros Foundation). Critics surveyed named Masquerade, directed by Lithuanian director Rimas Tuminas, the best foreign performance shown in Russia last year.
The ceremony, directed by the artistic director of the Bolshoi Theater Vladimir Vasiliev, took place surprisingly quickly and without any directorial frills. The nominees, sorted by type of art, were lined up, and after opening the envelopes, the winners were called out one by one. The pauses between awards were filled with ballet - either “The Dying Swan” by Ulyana Lopatkina, which became the new emblem of the state, or the St. Petersburg Eifman Ballet. Yuri Luzhkov, last year's winner of the award "For Support of Russian Theatrical Art", brought improvisational liveliness to the strictly regulated performance. Presenting a similar “Golden Mask” to Mintimer Shaimiev, the Moscow mayor joked: “The best male role among governors.” Shaimiev returned the reprise: “Politics is impossible without a mask, and it’s difficult under a mask.”
The results of the ballet battle were the first to be announced: “Dreams of Japan” staged by Alexei Ratmansky was recognized as the best performance of the past season - the victory went to the Bolshoi Theater (or rather, to Nina Ananiashvili, who commissioned this production for her enterprise). The Bolshoi Theater's premier, Nikolai Tsiskaridze, received a standing ovation and received the award "For Best Actor" - Albert from the new edition of "Giselle" was recognized as such. St. Petersburg resident Svetlana Zakharova, deprived of “The Mask” in the previous season, this time received an award for the main role in the ballet “Serenade” (the representative of the Mariinsky Theater was greeted coolly by Moscow patriots). “Masks” were presented to the laureates by Raisa Struchkova and Vladimir Vasiliev. The operetta was unlucky - the jury did not find either the “best director” or the “best performance” in the past season.
At the opera, all the sisters were given earrings: with the inevitability of sunrise, Valery Gergiev (Mariinsky Theater) was recognized as the best conductor. The tireless creator from the Moscow Helikon Opera, Dmitry Bertman, was named best director for “The Tales of Hoffmann.” The best performance was the avant-garde production of the St. Petersburg Opera, “Song of the Love and Death of Cornet Rilke.” It also happened to the Bolshoi: the artist Oleg Sheintsis was declared the best for the play “The Love for Three Oranges”. Provincials were consoled by the “Best Actress”: Svetlana Savina from the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater received the prize for her Katerina Izmailova.
All imaginable puppet awards (for direction, performance and special jury prize) were won by the Moscow theater "Shadow of the Opera" for the most delightful performance called "P. I. Tchaikovsky. Swan Lake. Opera." The truly innovative performance of the Russian Youth Theater “Victory over the Sun” won in the “Novation” category.
All the main awards of the drama theater went to St. Petersburg. For the second year in a row, the performance of the Maly Drama Theater was recognized as the best - this time "The Winter's Tale", staged by the Englishman Donnellan. The best director of the season was St. Petersburg resident Yuri Butusov. Two of his performances were nominated for The Mask; Beckett's Waiting for Godot won. Moscow received a minor "Mask": Senator Ableukhov performed by Evgeniy Krasnitsky from the Theater. Gogol was recognized as "Best Actor".
The decorous closing ceremony of the Golden Mask festival ended in the open air with fireworks over Teatralnaya Square. But the cold quickly drove theatergoers home.
PAVEL Kommersant-SIGALOV, ELEONORA Kommersant-CHERNYAEVA

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 56 dated 04/06/1999, p. 2