| “Norma” by the Yerevan Opera House was nominated for the “Golden Mask” and was shown at the Bolshoi The first guest performers performed on the newly opened New Stage of the Bolshoi Theater - artists of the Yerevan Opera and Ballet Theater. Spendiarov, who managed to revive not only the branch’s still modest poster, but also the entire Moscow opera schedule. Vincenzo Bellini's bloody and sublime opera Norma (with Druids and Romans in a twisted plot and with the famous aria Casta Diva in a lush score) is not performed in Moscow. Moreover, not a single provincial “Norma” has so far been included in any program of the annual Golden Mask festival. In a word, a hit title looks like a rarity in Russia, and the Yerevan Theater simply could not get lost in the Moscow operatic everyday life.
An equally notable incident occurred at the Yerevan Opera with the aforementioned “Golden Mask”. By some miracle (namely due to the financial participation in the production of the Yerevan “Norma” of the Russian Union of Armenians), the foreign performance turned out to be a contender for the Russian national award in several categories: “Best Performance”, “Best Female Opera Role” (Marine Deinyan - Norma, Varduhi Khachatryan - Adalgiza), "Best Actor" (Alexander Tamazov - Orovez) and "Best Conductor" (Karen Durgaryan).
The visit to the Bolshoi Theater is only the first of the tour performances of the Yerevan play. Next will be a presentation at the “Mask”, where it will certainly look like an amazing curiosity.
A rag doll with button eyes is about the same amazing in appearance if you place it between varnished Barbies. The rough workmanship of both this doll and this “Norma” is stunning, and the lack of conceptual ambitions not only upsets, but also attracts with warm, touching effects. At a press conference before the performance, it turned out that the rehearsals took place in a 28-degree frost in a theater without heating (usually the Yerevan Opera does not work in winter) and that the theater artist receives 30-40 dollars a month, the chief conductor (he was even embarrassed) - 70 dollars a month, and performances cost from 15 to 40 thousand dollars (for comparison: the Bolshoi Theater, according to unofficial information, usually operates in hundreds of thousands). “Norma” cost $35,000, and it stands out. The performance is decorated purely symbolically (and this can hardly be considered minimalism), and some of the motives are meaningful, while others look random and careless. Simple technologies fail every now and then, and the characters trample in fear around any object on wheels, as if it were a miracle and they don’t know what to expect from it. In a word, the director's hand of cinematographer and opera debutant Boris Hayrapetyan (who is also a set designer and lighting designer) clearly lacks professional dexterity.
At the press conference it was also announced that the main (not counting the world celebrity Hasmik Papyan, who sang the premiere in Yerevan) performer of the role of the Druidess Norma, masked nominee Marine Deinyan, fell ill. The public was presented with a mixture of the first, second and third compositions. This is where the hidden advantages of a rag doll were fully revealed. Few Russian theaters have decent voices scattered so generously and carelessly, and the actors themselves, even in awkward staging, do not lose their strange, unprocessed organic quality. “Second” Norma Anahit Mkhitaryan handled the part very well and captivated with her soft vocal patterns, although her role is clearly more lyrical than the temperament of Bellini’s heroine. Another nominee for “The Mask,” Varduhi Khachatryan (Adalgiza), sounded attractive in a low register, and the theater’s artistic director, Gegham Grigoryan (Pollion), known for his work at the Mariinsky Theater, showed nice Italian manners. The young conductor Karen Durgaryan, who had already managed to shine in European theaters, was surprised: he put Bellini’s score on a diet of slow, student-like tempos, but everything sounded so artistic and diligent that the performance clearly gained many fans. One can only guess how the national professional award will deal with this charming and endearing alien performance made on the knee. Yulia BEDEROVA |
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