Planet of Obraztsova
On 19 November the Mikhailovsky Theatre will stage a gala concert dedicated to the memory of Elena Obraztsova. The great singer is no longer with us, and future generations of music lovers will never experience the magic of her performances. But she was able to impart her love for opera and her understanding of its power and beauty to the young singers with whom she worked in the last years of her life. Obraztsova’s memory will also live on in the many recordings of the operas and concerts she performed in. And although films are not capable of reflecting the great singer’s depth of character and the priceless facets of her mastery, they have helped greatly increase the number of her admirers during her lifetime and are well known even among those who never saw her perform live. The gala concert will bring all of these together, with celebrated recordings of Elena Obraztsova’s best-known arias and live performances by the new generation of singers she fostered.
Carmen and Obraztsova are almost synonyms. “Carmen is the only opera that I don’t sing... it sings through me,” observed the singer once in an interview. She stressed that in embodying the character of the freedom-loving gypsy girl from season to season she was only responding to the spirit of improvisation and emotional flow in the great music. The concert will feature several excerpts from Bizet’s opera, including the seguidilla and the final duet of Carmen and José. The role of Carmen will be sung by mezzo-soprano Elena Maksimova, whose victory in the Elena Obraztsova competition marked the beginning of an outstanding international career. José will be performed by the Polish tenor Arnold Rutkowski, well known to our theatregoers for his performance as Manrico in last autumn’s premiere of Il trovatore.
Cavalleria rusticana was another landmark in Obraztsova’s career. She appeared as Santuzza in Franco Zeffirelli’s film version of the opera made in 1982. Her partner in the film was Placido Domingo as Turiddu. In 2008 it was Cavalleria rusticana that marked Elena Obraztsova’s first premiere as Artistic Director of the Mikhailovsky opera company. In the concert the Mikhailovsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra will play the intermezzo from Mascagni’s opera and Arnold Rutkowski will sing Turiddu’s aria.
L’elisir d’amore was another of our theatre’s landmark productions directed by Obraztsova. The duet of Adina and Nemorino from Donizetti’s opera-buffa will be sung by Natalia Mironova and Boris Stepanov. Maria Litke will present excerpts from The Queen of Spades, in which she appeared with Obraztsova as the unsurpassed Countess on many occasions.
Part of the evening will be devoted to works that are well known to Elena Obraztsova’s admirers through television broadcasts and concerts. Alexander Kuznetsov and Tatiana Ryaguzova will present the duet of Hanna and Danilo from Franz Lehár’s operetta The Merry Widow, familiar to television viewers from the famous 1986 recording of the “Evening of Classical Operetta” in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.
