Maryana Sadovskaya sang criminal songs

Festival / Music

On October 6, as part of the festival of new music at the Book Arsenal, artist Maryana Sadovskaya presented her new solo program Odessa Underground. ANNA VOVK observed how chanson turns into salon art.

Graduate of the Lviv Music College named after. Lyudkevich and the studio at the local Youth Theater named after. Lesya Kurbasa Maryana Sadovskaya began her creative career as a dramatic actress. A turning point in her life was her acquaintance in the early 1990s with the founder of the famous Polish experimental theater Gardzenice, Vladimir Stanevsky. This troupe, where the future world music performer soon took over the post of musical director, constantly toured the world, combining performances with ethnographic research, studying the customs and melodies of different peoples during their travels. Today, the repertoire of the artist, who has been living in Germany for the last few years, includes a whole anthology of world authenticity, in which, naturally, Ukrainian folklore occupies a significant place. However, the singer is not afraid to try herself in other genres. The Odessa Underground program is such a foray into unfamiliar territory.

The artist spoke about her desire to perform Odessa criminal songs three years ago, after performing at the Lviv Jazz Bez festival, where she came with the German jazz trio Borderland. In addition to the purely creative challenge posed to Maryana Sadovskaya by material that was, in general, foreign to her, interest in the Odessa city romance was caused by some personal motives. According to family legend, the sister of Maryana’s great-grandmother named Glikeria, at the end of the century before last, inexplicably got from a small farm in Volyn to the aristocratic society of Odessa, having married a German who held a high position in the city administration. Alas, the revolution tragically intervened in the fate of this family - Glykeria died, having previously lost her husband and daughter. All that was left from her to her relatives was an old ring. Now he serves as a kind of talisman for the artist, accompanying her wherever she shows her new program. Maryana Sadovskaya has already performed with her in Poland, the USA and Germany, as well as twice in Ukraine - in April in Lviv and in June in Odessa, at the closing of the Silent Nights festival.

The chamber concert in Kiev gathered under the arches of the Mystetskyi Arsenal about two hundred admirers of the artist, among whom were many Ukrainian writers and musicians. A friendly reception in such an audience was obviously guaranteed, but the singer, who accompanied herself on the piano throughout the evening, perfectly proved that a chanson, when in intelligent hands, can sound without the slightest vulgarity. However, the Odessa Underground program consisted not only of Odessa criminal songs, but also romances by Alexander Vertinsky, “And you want to laugh” and “And now I’m sitting in prison again” from the repertoire of Dina Verni, ballads by Nick Cave and Emily Harrison and a composition by Hildegard Schmidt. The artist performed all these songs in the original language, easily switching from German to English, and from Russian to Ukrainian, ending the performance with the folk “Kalina-raspberry”.

Of course, looking at Maryana Sadovskaya on stage, you constantly remember her acting past. The singer turns each of her performances into a solo performance, and any number into a dramatic miniature. Odessa Underground, where the plots of the songs are simply teeming with colorful characters, provides wide scope for demonstrating artistry, which the performer uses to her heart’s content. So, when she says that her new program has not yet been completely settled and requires improvement, the singer is not lying at all. After all, a genuine game is always improvisation.

Newspaper "Kommersant Ukraine" No. 158 dated 10/09/2012, p. 4

Themes:

Music

Chanson of an aristocrat