Leviathan | Colta.ru

The new work of the Bolshoi Theater is Billy Badd, perhaps the most important of the 14 operas of Benjamin Britten. It was written in 1951, the premiere was held in London Covent Garden. Despite the fact that in our country the music of the British classic was in a rather preferential position (and did not sin with radicalism, and people such as Shostakovich, Richter, Rostropovich and Vishnevskaya promoted it, for the first time on the Russian scene of Billy Badd appeared only in the latest time, in the Mikhailovsky Theater . The current premiere is the second attempt to settle this innocent beauty with us, very successful. Two performances remained from the premiere series - today and December 1, the next series is in February.

At the heart of the libretto composed by the famous British writer E.M. Forster and producer Eric Croose, is the novel by the American writer-Marinist of the 19th century German Melville (the main creation of which is the parable of the marine monster "Moby Dick"). “Billy Badd” does not look like all other operas, first of all, because there are no female votes in it. The scene is a British warship, a closed male world, inside which various passions smolder.

The rebellious-war 1797 moves the plot. But the only topic here is no French revolution, but a war of good with evil, into which three main characters are drawn. The young, simple -minded, kind, strong and beautiful sailor Billy Badd, who does not know his parents, is an allegory of goodness, innocence and even holiness, Parsifal of the 20th century. Its stuttering - a symbol of irresponsibility - lets it down at a decisive moment. John Claggart, who performs police functions on the ship, is an exemplary villain, his erotic attraction to Baddu prefers to turn into hatred. Captain Vir is the most difficult role (it was written by Britten for his long -term partner in life and work, Tenor Peter Pierce); This character, who experiences paternal feelings for the young sailor, should choose between human truth and military law, between good and evil, between life and death. And, knowing about the innocence of Badd, he nevertheless does not resist the death sentence, sends the young man to the slaughter.

There are many Christian metaphors, which now and then appear through a detailed description of sea life and ship terminology (all the explanations of which can be found in an outstanding booklet accompanying the performance). Sea and military romance is ashamed as much as possible, instead of it the pacifists Britten and Forster fill the opera with viscous horror and disgusting cruelty, turning it into a passionate humanistic statement.

Director David Olden (his twin brother Christopher, four years ago, put another opera Britten in the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theater, which caused a lot of unrest- the very “summer night”) picks up the ideas of the authors. There are no seas and other beauties in the production, there are claustrophobic premises (scenographer Paul Steinberg, artist Adam Silverman): Captain Vira, which shines with the whiteness of the wire, pressing holding holds with sailors, tukes for sleeping, in a folded form, pums for retracting the deck, cords, one of which will eventually become as a result Viselitsa for Billy Badd. The scenes of the fight was put by the director of the stage battle Jessica Jackson Smith. The costume artist Konstanta Hoffman was inspired by Eisenstein's Babblers “Potemkin”.

Although the Vir acted in accordance with the law, the director clearly considers this defeat and refuses him for forgiveness: the blessing that the young sailor sends to the captain before the execution, in the play sounds more likely to be mocked, the vir changes its snow -white uniform to the black hoodie of the exhausted old man and in the final itself dumps into an even more black wall. The path to the light is closed to him. An unplanned analogy arises with Grishka Kutherm from the Amsterdam “Kitezha” Chernyakov , because both characters were invented under the same very expressive performer - the British tenor of John Dashak (he is not alien to us also because Sergey’s new “Katerina Izmailova” Tominas in Bolshoi ).

Having mastered the unusual opera style, the Bolshoi Theater again used the same mechanism as from last year's Gendelev’s “Rodelinda” . The performance, in which, contrary to local traditions, only one composition of the performers is listed as a co -product with the English national opera (the prime minister took place there in 2012) and the German opera Berlin. The scenery posted on the new scene of the Bolshoi Theater, visitors. The orchestra and the choir. Western soloists are neatly mixed with Russian-speaking, among which the main discovery is the young and charming Minsk-Kiev-Frankfurt Bariton Yuri Samoilov, wonderful Billy Bedd, a staging star. From the ranks of the Bolshoi Theater, Bogdan Volkov with an excellent light Britten Tenor turned out to be most noticeable - he performs a party of a young sailor named a novice. The villain of Claggart with enthusiasm sings the bass bariton Gidon Sax (born in Israel, grew up in South Africa, studied in London, works around the world). The legendary British bass of the older generation Robert Lloyd wisely decorates the performance as an old sailor called the Dange.

The male color of the opera does not at all leads to monotony. Billy Badd is one of the most beautiful and musically exciting opera scores of the 20th century with the ultimate variety of timbres and textures, the finest chamber lyrics, powerful choral scenes and enchanting orchestral interludes. Confidently and sensitively controls the ship with Britten music, well familiar to the Moscow public and her beloved maestro William Leisi (his Moscow debut took place just in the same “summer night”). And no matter how the director’s conclusion is black, the musical part of the production gives one continuous happiness.