They did not wait

This year, on the occasion of her 20th anniversary, the “mask” was very tried that its hot spots become not only moments of opening the envelopes. And she did it. About the luxurious inversion in the theater space invented by the artist Zinovy ​​Margolin, it is no longer worth repeating - the whole Facebook that night turned into an endless string of tiers with the royal lodge in the middle, shot from the scene of the large, where the audience was launched. In addition, the casting of those who opened these envelopes revealed respect: for the sake of this minute procedure and the passage of it through the solemnly empty partner from different parts of the world, they delivered Western celebrities.

In the nomination "Opera", Dmitry Chernyakov was such a Western tour. It turned out even symbolic. Chernyakov is our glorious past and not our present. And our present is a debut in the opera Andriy Zholdak. Chernyakov, the author of the masterpiece “Onegin” of the Bolshoi Theater, at one time received only one “Mask” for him, handed the Zholdakovsky “Onegin” from the Mikhailovsky Theater for two - for the best directing and for the best performance. Well, what?

I admit that in a series of rather unexpected decisions of the music jury (led by Leonid Termnetnikov this year), specifically this item was very joyless for me. It seems, against the background of a more conservative choice of colleagues from the drama, the verdict of musicians looks as liberal as possible. But at the same time and very compromise. Because the “Onegin” of the Zholdak, as well as (I will allow myself to get into ballet territory) “Spring Spring” Baganova, recognized as the best performance in modern dance, is, in my opinion, a bold producing project with dubious art results at the exit. In both cases, we are talking about great musical scores, past which the directors passed too much at a great distance.

Of the other surprises, complete ignoring is already very striking already, one might say, a cult Perm with Custezis. Not a single "mask" after last year's four! A special prize to the jury is the most beautiful Maxim Emelyanichev for the Khammerkhavira party in the Continuo Perm “Figaro Wedding” (I am sure that almost none of the Bolshoi Theater Elite collected on the stage and even more so from the television audition did not know what it was) not counted. This award is, first of all, the incredibly sophisticated and lovely Kunshtyuk Maestroznikov, who should go down in the history of “masks”.

Two other special prizes left Akyn-Ooper from Theater.doc and the creative team of the play “Francis”, headed by composer Sergei Nevsky. Both that and the other are much less extravagance for a mask format.

As for Perm, I would not be nervous in their place and would not be upset. The absence of "masks" this year is rather a recognition that it is no longer necessary to expose the shoulder. You already have everything.

Moreover, fortunately, new ones appeared - those who need to substitute this shoulder. Firstly, Yekaterinburg. The theater, one might say, rebelled from the ashes. For the past three years, we have seen his confident presence on the “mask”. And this year - a full -scale victory for the ballet. But at the same time, this is the victory and the main conductor of the theater Pavel Klinichev (the best conductor in ballet), which has already become completely impossible not to notice.

Another more conduction sensation: a long time ago forgotten by the “mask” “New Opera” melted the heart of the jury with its “Tristan”, the first Moscow production of Wagnerian Makhina. More precisely, it was done by her musical director Jan Latam König, who was eventually called the best conductor in the opera. A project combining complete recklessness with a sincere love for this music is rewarded, cheers.

And one more, new for the “mask”, the conductor's name: Ainars Rubikis is recognized as the best conductor in operetta/musical for Mass Bernstain from Novosibirsk. Total - the conductor’s catch was not bad this year, pleasant to open with new horizons.

On this, perhaps, the unprofitable results of the "mask" end. On the part of the singers, the jury decided to do without extravagance. Professionalism, stability, Belcanto. Something like that. Venus Gimadiev (Amina in Somnambul, the Bolshoi Theater) became the best singer. The best singer is Maxim Mironov (Lindor in the Italian in Algeria at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theater).

The best composer is Vladimir Kobekin with an excellent holstomer in the Pokrovsky Theater (it is good that this one was a suitable option, otherwise the jury had to choose between two other nominees - Rodion Shchedrin and Sergey Nevsky!).

Well, and the brilliant absence in the list of the winners of the most famous Russian theater in the world - Mariinsky - you can’t even call a surprise. Mariinka finally went into some kind of independent swimming, not intersecting with a “mask”. They seem to be not needed and uninteresting to each other.