News
29.04.2018
The Selivanovs: Brothers in tandem
The performance of Il barbiere di Siviglia on 12 May will be a remarkable one, as it will give the audience the opportunity to see two brothers working in tandem: the opera will be conducted by Philipp Selivanov, while the part of Count Almaviva will be sung by his elder brother Ilya Selivanov. The musicians told us when we can expect to see their other brother on stage.Ilya: I saw the Mikhailovsky Theatre’s production of Il barbiere di Siviglia when Philipp invited my wife and me to the premiere. We went backstage after the performance, and Vladimir Kekhman and Mikhail Tatarnikov suggested that I perform with my brother.
Philipp: We were naturally taken with the idea straightaway. And we have spent quite a long time preparing for this.
Ilya: It won’t be our first performance together. We have been making music since we were children. We have another brother named Tikhon. As children we all sang with our parents. I remember there was a competition for musical families at the Gaza Palace of Culture in St. Petersburg. We won first prize and were even given an enormous samovar.
Philipp: Ilya is 28, I am 25 and Tikhon is 22. There are three-year gaps between each of us. All three of us graduated from the Choir School, then entered the Faculty of Choral Conducting at the Conservatory, but after that we specialized in different areas as our hearts led us: Ilya entered the Vocal Faculty, I went to the Faculty of Symphony Conducting, and Tikhon joined the Piano Faculty, where he is still studying.
Ilya: It was fun growing up together. When we were children we often put on concerts at home for visitors. It was all about music from the age of six. Our parents are also musicians — our father is a choral conductor who directed a large children’s choir at the Lenin House of Culture for thirty years. Later he established a chamber choir from the larger one and they toured Europe. Our mother is also a musician — a music historian, though you could say she sacrificed her career to bring us up. Just recently she started work as an accompanist in a ballet studio. Our parents invested a great deal of effort, time and energy in us.
We received our basic education at the Choir School. We have all been conducting since we were children, and also learned the violin, flute and piano. When I finished school I entered the Faculty of Choral Conducting at the Conservatory, because that is the natural path for all graduates of the Choir School. But it is now very difficult to make your way in life with a choral education. I started looking around for something else. First I played the piano — I even went to a competition in Yekaterinburg and won the grand prix. Then I worked as a conductor with the orchestra at the House of Scientists, but at the same time I began to study singing seriously. I entered a competition in Estonia, where I won first prize, and after that I was immediately accepted into the second year at the Vocal Faculty.
Philipp: It’s been a long-standing dream of ours to perform together. The first time we did so was at the Cappella eight years ago when I graduated from the Choir School. I was conducting the choir and asked my brother to be the soloist. We performed a work by Merab Partskhaladze. Ilya was already studying in the Vocal Faculty at the Conservatory. Everyone was in raptures at his beautiful sonorous voice and I was very proud of him.
Ilya: Il barbiere di Siviglia is not the easiest opera. I know the part of Almaviva well — I’ve sung it several times. In my interpretation he is not a frivolous clown. I find it more interesting to treat his story as a melodrama rather than clowning.There is already a comic character in the opera — that’s Figaro, and you can’t beat him however hard you try. Figaro always stands out. Just think of his trademark cavatina! Almaviva’s cavatina is not very well known, and it comes at the very beginning of the opera, like an introduction. That is why I am inclined to make Almaviva a lyrical character, so that he has a more rounded image, but you still can’t do without the comical changes of costume. Boris Stepanov, who also sings Almaviva, is my friend, so I’ll borrow a costume from him.
Philipp: Il barbiere di Siviglia was my first serious work as a conductor — it was my debut at the Mikhailovsky Theatre. Last season I was assistant conductor for Mozart. The Marriage of Figaro and got to know all the artists and the production team, and that is why Il barbiere di Siviglia has worked out so well. Of course I was nervous at the first rehearsals because I didn’t know how I would be regarded as a conductor or what the singers’ reactions would be after the rehearsal. I was also not sure what I should be guided by — the accompanist or my own vision — because there are established traditions of performing particular operas at this theatre. At that moment it was a difficult balancing act — whether to follow the performers or to insist on my own interpretation. My worries disappeared when we began to understand one another.
After Il barbiere di Siviglia I conducted Mozart. The Marriage of Figaro, Iolanta and Cavalleria rusticana in our theatre, and Pagliacci is now ready.