15.05.2017
Figaro – a head-spinning production
Television correspondents have had the opportunity to be among the first to appraise Mozart. The Marriage of Figaro. We have collected some of the most striking impressions of Vyacheslav Starodubtsev’s production.
„Last year, Mozart’s opera Die Zauberflöte had its first staging at the Mikhailovsky, and it was very warmly received by the public. This new production represents another step forward in creating what could become a new St. Petersburg hallmark — the city’s very own Mozart Theatre,“ claimed the TV channel Kultura. The reporter went on to note that „despite the production’s oriental decor, its classic music and classic plot remain unchanged, with its main thread, the relationship between two couples, and genuinely timeless concept.“
„I don’t see The Marriage of Figaro as opera buffa. It goes much deeper than existing notions of comic opera,“ Starodubtsev said in an interview with local TV channel St. Petersburg. „The music is so profound that it resembles Chinese or Japanese philosophy; it possesses the spirit of these ancient civilizations. There is a cosmic element, humour, fun, and above all — philosophy.“ The reporter concurred, managing to capture the director’s intentions for this show at the Mikhailovsky with a witty quote from Nabokov: „Only one sibilant consonant separates the comic from the cosmic.“
„This is a classic production, compared to the disarray of many European productions,“ said Boris Pinkhasovich, one of the Mikhailovsky Theatre’s soloists, in the same report. Elsewhere, the TV channel Rossiya noted classical music’s power to induce a feeling of weightlessness, saying that „Visitors to the Mikhailovsky Theatre can save on champagne, because the action on the stage will leave your head spinning.“
„Last year, Mozart’s opera Die Zauberflöte had its first staging at the Mikhailovsky, and it was very warmly received by the public. This new production represents another step forward in creating what could become a new St. Petersburg hallmark — the city’s very own Mozart Theatre,“ claimed the TV channel Kultura. The reporter went on to note that „despite the production’s oriental decor, its classic music and classic plot remain unchanged, with its main thread, the relationship between two couples, and genuinely timeless concept.“
„I don’t see The Marriage of Figaro as opera buffa. It goes much deeper than existing notions of comic opera,“ Starodubtsev said in an interview with local TV channel St. Petersburg. „The music is so profound that it resembles Chinese or Japanese philosophy; it possesses the spirit of these ancient civilizations. There is a cosmic element, humour, fun, and above all — philosophy.“ The reporter concurred, managing to capture the director’s intentions for this show at the Mikhailovsky with a witty quote from Nabokov: „Only one sibilant consonant separates the comic from the cosmic.“
„This is a classic production, compared to the disarray of many European productions,“ said Boris Pinkhasovich, one of the Mikhailovsky Theatre’s soloists, in the same report. Elsewhere, the TV channel Rossiya noted classical music’s power to induce a feeling of weightlessness, saying that „Visitors to the Mikhailovsky Theatre can save on champagne, because the action on the stage will leave your head spinning.“
