Translated material
Stop a portrait of Pasternak?
The premiere of the Russian musical drama "Dr. Zhivago" in Regensburg was accompanied by a scandal and ended with a triumph
The world premiere of the opera Dr. Zhivago, the young Russian composer Anton Lubchenko , the artistic director of the Primorsky Opera and Ballet Theater in Vladivostok, was held in the Bavarian city of Regensburg . The performance, declared as the "Russian musical drama", was accompanied by a scandal, but ended with applause.
On the eve of the premiere, the conflict Anton Lubchenko (author and conductor in one person) and Romanian director Silviu Purkarete, invited by the theater to produce the opera, went beyond the theater and hit the pages of the press. Lubchenko, who was supposed to conduct two premieres and arrived in Regensburg for general rehearsals, “remained extremely dissatisfied with the way the classic of the modern Romanian theater Silviu Purkarete put it. In particular, the 29-year-old Lubchenko considered certain directorial decisions “an insult to Russian culture and Russia” and refused to continue rehearsals until “until the director removes a bottle of vodka in a love duet from the stage and stops demanding a portrait of Pasternak from the artist.”
With the position of the composer (he is also the author of the libretto), Russian media were jointly jointly. Lubchenko threatened the theater by the fact that, in case of failure to fulfill his requirements, he would leave along with three Russian soloists and tore the prime minister. The theater obeyed, or rather forced the director to obey, who, as a result, did not come to the premiere, who had been successful with the unprecedented success in the history of the theater.
The author of the opera Anton Lubchenko in an interview with Radio Liberty speaks of his claims to directing and his truth and rightness:
The Russian author went to the west, put an opera there, in which Pasternaka is trampling his feet
-The Germans see the situation differently, they, like the Romanian director, believe that there is nothing anti-Russian in their reading of my work. The director, for example, says that just "he sees that way." I really hope that the Pasternak history itself and, perhaps, my music will win to some extent. There is such a scene in the libretto and the opera: two writers are talking at the funeral of Zhivago. The words from the "security letter" and from the speech of Pasternak at the evening of the memory of Lermontov in 1934 are sounded. The text is literally as follows: "It was always easy and ordinary for the West to live, it is easier for us, it is easier for us to demolish the Tatar yoke, to fight and get sick with a plague than to live." At these words, according to the director, the writer had to throw an overcome portrait that stood near the coffin. The director decided that these funerals were not alive, but Pasternak. I am generally against this identification, it seems to me a fairly banal move. But this itself can nevertheless be experienced. But throw a portrait and trample it?! The year of literature opens in Russia, and I would remember the production of my opera at the Regensburg Theater only that: the Russian author went west, put an opera there, in which Pasternak was trampling his feet. But this would be remembered, and only they would talk about it, understand?
Anton Lubchenko
It is one thing when it is a classic. Everyone saw the classic performances of Eugene Onegin: Lensky sits in a fur coat on a stump, dies in birch ... After that there may be any copyright readings that can be accepted or not to take ... But here we are talking about the very first performance of the opera, which was never in the form in which it was written, has not been set. It seems to me logical first to help the author express what he wants, and then you, director, can - in a year, for example - put everything you want on this topic. I also do not like the hysteria that spilled out in the media, but, on the other hand, I have to state: if it weren’t for the press in the press, the theater would not have made a compromise, and generally it is not known how it would all end, ”the composer believes.
The history of the conflict before the premiere is commented by the artistic director of the Regensburg Theater Jens Neyendorff von Enzberg :
Recently, on German television in the film about Russia, a fragment from the Nutcracker ballet was shown in the Vladivostok theater, which Lubchenko leads. If I showed this to us, I would undoubtedly be fired: what I saw like the first production of ballet during Tchaikovsky’s time - today they do not dance anywhere so archaic
- This work was officially ordered by Anton Lubchenko together with our and Vladivostok theaters. It was decided in advance: the opera will be performed in our Russian language. The original prosaic texts of Pasternak, and his poems, partially sound in it. Russian music is my great love, I passionately love the Russian soul expressed in music, Russian melancholy. For this reason, I began the project with Lubchenko, began, because I wanted a modern Russian opera to go to us, on Russian material and in Russian. Director Silviu Purkarete and artist Helmut Sturmer, the design of which Anton Lubchenko really likes, is a single team, their tandem is one of the most famous in Germany and Europe. They are characterized by a large aesthetization of stage stories. Lubchenko and the directorial tandem met before the start of work. The composer was delighted, said that he was happy, and told me then in which direction everything would be done.
In the events that took place at the final stages of work, the characteristics of the personality and position of Lubchenko played a role. Recently, on German television in the film about Russia, a fragment from the Nutcracker ballet was shown in the Vladivostok theater, which Lubchenko leads. If I showed this to us, I would undoubtedly be fired: what I saw like the first production of ballet during Tchaikovsky’s time - today they do not dance anywhere thus. Lubchenko is probably under strong pressure. He wrote the opera, at the same time he is the head of the Russian theater and his main conductor. From this story, I realized that, unlike Germany, where we live in democracy, in Russia political factors have a great influence on the decisions of artists, on their work. It is in this sense that Lubchenko is not free. He must lead the theater, and he knows that in this matter he greatly depends on the location of the Moscow authorities to it, and knows that he must publicly demonstrate this dependence. I am sorry that he used our situation as a political forum for setting glasses in the face of Moscow, ”the head of the Regensburg Theater said in an interview with Radio Liberty.
Here is another complaint not changing his opinion about the production and the director and after the successful premiere of Lubchenko. Here's what the composer said in correspondence with a Radio Liberty correspondent:
Near the writers who drink vodka at the funeral of Zhivago, for some reason, a man is stomping with a balalaika and a bear dancing in a span. And where is it? And so the director has almost everything
"If the director worked out to delve into the text of the libretto, as well as read the source, if he put the opera as it was written, he would have come out a much more complex and frank performance. I included Pasternak’s thoughts about the country, about its regime. I collected the most impudent texts from different Pasternak works. For example, there is a conversation between two writers. At the funeral:
- It's dead, everything is dead here, and you need to quickly get out of here, where I still do not know, but I can’t do it anymore. Around lion's muzzles, lion's mouths secretly swallow life for life. The lion roar of imaginary immortality, while everything is immortal in his hands and is taken to a strong lion's chain. You can’t write, but you can’t write the truth either!
- All feel, but everyone endures. We all live on two profiles. One joyful, public, the other is tragic, personal. In these terrible years, when everyone can be arrested, we have tragedy under the ban. It is declared with pessimism and whining, but how wrong it is! Each impulse is tragic, the time of puberty is tragic, but this is life, life affirmation!
And what in the end? This text is lost in the production, the public does not notice it, since at that time near the writers who drink vodka at the funeral of Zhivago, for some reason, a man with a balalaika and a bear dancing in a squaching is stomping. And where is it? And so the director has almost everything. All semantic scenes are lost, all the versatility of Pasternak philosophy is reduced to vodka, bears, a psychiatric hospital and zombies. "
Boris Pasternak. Photo of 1959
The premiere in general, judging by the video report, caused traditional sympathies for Russian music, Russian culture, and certainly the spectators of the performance did not have the feeling that the director insulted Russia and its culture with his production. As for the abuse of the portrait of Pasternak, we must not forget how to stomp the great poet and writer after the publication of his novel abroad and after the award of the Nobel Prize.
Anton Lubchenko, despite youth, is well known in the musical world - in particular, with his bold projects, one way or another related to state participation or state orders. For example, in 2010, at the initiative of Gazprom, Lubchenko created a symphonic triptych of three HTAR-fantasies Industrial Trilogy. Each overture was dedicated to one of the Gazprom projects. The album, along with the "industrial trilogy", the record of the festive poem by Sergei Prokofiev '' Meeting of the Volga with the Don '', dedicated to the construction of the Volga-Don Canal, included as a prologue. In the 2010-2011 season, on the recommendation of Valery Gergieva Lubchenko, he headed the State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater of the Republic of Buryatia, becoming the youngest artistic director of the opera Theater in the history of Russia. The author of four operas, five ballets, seven symphonies and many other works in different genres of classical music.