Anti-Mozart

“The Marriage of Figaro” was staged at Helikon Opera

For the Helikonites, who since the new season have finally established themselves on their second stage on Novy Arbat (the first one will not begin a major reconstruction), “The Marriage of Figaro” is an integral part of a “two-headed” project - not so long ago they played Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville”, written by according to the first part of the famous Beaumarchais cycle, now it’s the turn of “Crazy Day”. I had never been to this site on Novy Arbat before, and when I got there for the first time, I admit, I was sad - if earlier “Helikon” was an integral landmark of the artistic landscape of Bolshaya Nikitskaya, now it has become an inconspicuous episode in the colorful flashing of the capital Las Vegas, where all life hovering in a spot between an exchange office, a cheap jewelry stall, the Novoarbatsky grocery store, and a photo studio.

It’s strange, but from what awaited inside the theater, where there was no longer the bustle of the street, the impression was the same - it reeked of stupid confusion as outside, as if the theater were making its products for the strange visitors of New Arbat, who are attracted to what is brighter, cheaper and more tacky. The interests of Beaumarchais or Mozart are not taken into account, there is only one criterion - entertainment. It is almost impossible to believe that just a few years ago these same artists virtuoso and passionately sang Berg or Kshenek and, in terms of their musical competence, could give a head start to any other Moscow troupe - the Mozart presented by Helikon was barely fit for a professional performance at all. Probably, the change in the theater's place of registration had such a disastrous effect.

Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro,” like the composer’s other mature masterpieces, has the insidious property of exposing any mistake of the performer. In this case, with the exception of Stanislav Shvets (Figaro), who skillfully followed the norms of Mozart’s style and Natalia Zagorinskaya (Countess), who excelled in natural musicality, no one passed the test of professionalism - the singers enthusiastically confused and forgot the text, shouted, faked and forced the sound, and conductor Denis Kirpanev just shrugged helplessly. In Dmitry Bertman's production, however, Mozart's aristocratic stature would be out of place: Susanna here is a depraved nymphet, the Countess is an old woman embittered by rheumatism, Cherubino is a fat baby in rompers, the minor characters seem to have come straight out of children's cartoons. Why? Probably because it’s more fun, or rather because it’s easier. Easier, because thanks to these cardboard images, the director can not invent any story, but refer to the comedy genre, filling the stage with fools, and arrange an outright farce. And in the finale, you can completely turn off the lights in the hall and arrange a mouse fuss in the rows of spectators, so that the characters walk between the spectators as one, wrapped in black cloaks and bump into each other. Probably, casual passers-by on Novy Arbat will like such a colorful action, it’s hard to argue with that. But then there is no need to call everything that happens theater, and the event is an opera premiere, and no one will ever have a complaint. But if Dmitry Bertman still considers his troupe professional, and himself a director, then he should urgently close this performance before his theater finally fits into the local shopping landscape, and his stage begins to be confused with a slot machine salon or supermarket.

Mikhail FIKHTENGOLTS