Interviewed by Irina Malkova In her repertoire - more than 50 opera parties. SHE WAS A STAR OF THE BIG AND MARIIN THEATERS, SINGED THE LEADING PARTIES ON THE SCENE OF THE METRO OPERA AND LA ROCKET AND BECAME THE ONLY RUSSIAN SEMIRE BORROWER BETTER. WE MET WITH LOVE OF KAZARNOVSKAYA DURING ITS VISIT TO DUBAI, WHERE ON MAY 9 She made a speech at the celebration of Victory Day.
Lyubov Yurievna, when you are on stage, you not only sing, but also play. I paid attention to this because your facial expression was very bright and expressive.
Lyubov Kazarnovskaya: For the artist, as Stanislavsky said, "a non-singing body, a non-singing face means an insensitive insides." If your body does not sing with you, if you don’t mimic it, you don’t sing. And many now, unfortunately, are taught only to sing loudly.
Have you been taught to play?
Lyubov Kazarnovskaya: I was taught by my teachers, and I, in turn, teach this to my students. They say, "Lord, nobody told us anything like that at the conservatory. The main thing is to go out and scream loudly." And this is the maximum that teachers in higher educational institutions do. But Nadezhda Matveevna Malysheva-Vinogradova, my teacher, said: "I will be engaged with you according to the methodology of Stanislavsky and Chaliapin." She herself studied under the genius of the Bologna teacher Umberto Mazetti, who taught at the Moscow Conservatory, and then accompanied Chaliapin on the piano.
Nadezhda Matveevna took the best from the Italian school of Mazetti and the Russian school with its depth and drama. And when I sang with Leo Nucci, the genius of Italian opera, he asked: "Where did you study in Italy?" I said that I studied in Russia, and he did not believe it. When I mentioned that I studied according to the technique of Mazetti, he said that it was necessary to begin with this.
Has your son followed in your footsteps?
Lyubov Kazarnovskaya: Yes, he is now 21 years old, he is a musician, violinist and wants to be a conductor. And my husband and I did not insist on the violin at all, since I know perfectly well what the violin is - it’s 7-8 hours of lessons per day. This is hellish labor. Until the violinist finds complete elasticity in his fingers and body, he will not be able to convey everything that the composer put into music.
Does he have any favorite works or authors?
Lyubov Kazarnovskaya: There are composers to whose works he is only getting ready, because the vocalists cannot immediately perform extremely complex things. He wants to play all 24 Paganini caprices, but so far he has only four. Now he takes some things, for example, the Bach jacon, and says that he can play technically, but in order to convey the entire cosmos of Bach, all this cosmicity ... Bach is the basis of the foundations. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff - these are the Atlanteans, on which stands the world classics. And of course, they are selected at different periods of life. They need to be tuned in internally, and in order to fulfill them, you need to be a person.
But there is cosmic music, and there is very high-quality earthly music. For me it's Verdi. This is the earth. Italian land, beautiful, full-bodied, with good wine, prosciutto and pasta. "The wonderful son of Italian land," as Tchaikovsky wrote about him. But Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff is a completely different planet.
Have you ever performed Bach's “Passion for Matthew”, for example?
Lyubov Kazarnovskaya: Of course. Blute Nur from Matheus Passion. It was a wonderful story. Sergei Alexandrovich Solovyov, the wonderful director of the films "Assa", "Anna Karenina", "Black Rose - the emblem of sadness, red rose - the emblem of love", planned to shoot the film "Metaphysics of Love" about the love of Turgenev and Polina Viardo, because Turgenev had adored her for 40 years . But the film was not destined to be released. The 1998 crisis struck, and all the money that was allocated to this picture depreciated in one day. However, Sergei Alexandrovich and I recorded the soundtrack for the film, where Bach sounded, which Polina Viardo loved, believing that if you did not go through Bach, you can not be called a musician.
Did you sing Erbarme dich?
Lyubov Kazarnovskaya: Erbarme dich is a party for mezzo-soprano, and I'm a soprano. But Erbarme dich is the pinnacle for me. Viardo adored Erbarme dich and said that when she hears and experiences this music, she begins to shake - music flows through the whole body with currents. This is the passion of Christ. As my son says, the more I play Bach, the more he causes me excitement. And Bach himself said that if he did not write another cantata or puffer, then tomorrow he would have nothing to eat and nothing to feed his large family. So he wrote by necessity, by order. And by the way, it was he who blessed Mozart. He said: "You, Mozart, have caught the same divine code as my father - develop it." This divine code of music is the key to the Creator.
What do you think, why in our time there are no longer such ingenious composers as they were before?
Lyubov Kazarnovskaya: They are not there, you are right. This is in the very history of the development of music. After all, after the romantic period, which was the realm of the melody, experiments began. Impressionism began to talk more about human feelings, while the musical language was simplified. And with the advent of expressionism, the reign of the melody ended. She became torn, in imitation of the sounds of nature. Tchaikovsky argued that real art begins where there is continuity. And what is continuity? This is a legato, a smooth transition of one sound to another, a melody. The unity and melody are gone, the music broke into a completely different hypostasis. And the composers who write melodiously began to be accused of "Old Believers." The same thing is happening with directing now. Modern culture has proposed an absolutely perpendicular approach to all that is called high art. Watch how modern directors stage performances today. For example, I am leaving such performances because it hurts me. If I see a director who puts everyone to bed right away in Eugene Onegin, I get scared.
Today, many consider the time to be form rather than content.
Lyubov Kazarnovskaya: It is necessary to resist this in every way. Yes it's hard. For example, I say to my students that it is impossible to cover the inner void even with a very spectacular shape - there will still be a “pie with nothing”! You will become just a cog in your scandalous desire to say something. Many singers say they need to have a career and make money. And the directors, seeing such spinelessness, bend them to the floor.
Recently put "Eugene Onegin" in Amsterdam. And the wonderful Maris Jansons, chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, canceled invitations to all his friends for this performance. He said: I am ashamed to raise my eyes to the stage. I will conduct the premiere and leave.
Or take the Magic Flute with Riccardo Muti in Salzburg. All the singers had "bare" silicone butt, with which they ran around the stage. What does this have to do with Mozart's The Magic Flute? Nothing. Especially when it comes to pure energies. Muti also did not raise his eyes to the stage and said that he did not want to conduct the opera because of the directors.
There is another direction - when classical performers try to connect with modern trends and thus popularize classics.
Lyubov Kazarnovskaya: This is called a classical crossover, and this is the direction I strongly support. For example, I enjoy singing Lloyd Weber's tunes or doing light arrangements of Bach or Handel. But this should be done with great taste, and the music must be felt by both the composer and the musician.
Is there a classical crossover recital on your tour schedule?
Lyubov Kazarnovskaya: There is no tour schedule, but in a year I will do a similar concert in Moscow, in the Kremlin Palace. Now he is just in preparation. We plan to build the Venetian St. Mark's Square on stage, because Venice is a completely mystical city. It will be a carnival of musical masks. Let's start from the depths of centuries with Vivaldi, with Bach, and go through them to a classic crossover. Vivaldi said that there is nothing more mystical than Venice, because absolutely incredible things are happening in it.
Do you like to be there?
Lyubov Kazarnovskaya: I love to come there in early spring, when there are no crowds of tourists. Almost nobody on the streets. You can walk all night. In general, I really love Italy, especially Lake Garda in the north.
Do you live in Moscow now?
Lyubov Kazarnovskaya: My husband and I live partly in Moscow, partly in Germany - between Munich and Innsburg. This is an absolutely fantastic place in the Alps. By the way, according to legend, the gold of the National Socialists is hidden there. They say that they found, but ... There lived the king of Bavaria, Ludwig II. He loved Wagner very much and liked to build all kinds of castles, in particular, Neuschwanstein Castle, which Walt Disney took to his Disneyland. But the closest to us is the Linderhof castle, where a piano made in the form of a white swan stands in the living room - specially for Wagner, Ludwig made an artificial stalactite cave with a lake, where theatrical performances were staged. Wagner and Ludwig were sitting in a special box and a white swan was floating up to them, on which the artists sang. And for long midnight conversations with Wagner, Ludwig made a table, which the servants covered in the basement and then lifted in chains to the living room so that no one would distract them from the conversation. Wagner played, and Ludwig listened. So they could sit until 6-7 in the morning.
Once Ludwig invited to visit Tchaikovsky in one of the castles. Upon reaching the lake, Tchaikovsky saw a lunar path on the water surface and on both sides of the swimming swans - black and white. This is an incredibly beautiful sight, and today you can watch it with any luck.
By the way, you are always very interesting to talk about the life of composers in your author's program "Vocalissimo" on the radio "Orpheus". I know that many young people are listening to her.
Lyubov Kazarnovskaya: Yes, many say that they teach the history of music in our programs. Take the fate of Vivaldi - on it you can write ten novels. Or Tchaikovsky. No one has such female lyrics as Tchaikovsky’s. Remember how he wrote the scene of Tatyana’s letter. Well, who else can write like that? And the listeners, of course, are satisfied, because we offer them a non-standard presentation of the life of great composers.
What is the current situation with the Russian opera school?
Lyubov Kazarnovskaya: Everyone teaches, in their own way, their technical techniques, which can not be done in any case. After all, everyone has a different structure of the larynx, ligaments, different palatine arch, dome, different structure of the face. Some have a large larynx, others have a small one. The teacher’s ear should catch exactly what will lead to the result. And they learn mainly to sing loudly.
Don't you think that there is a tendency to keep young people out of the scene? Take at least Turandot. After all, this is a young princess, and it is performed mainly by ladies over fifty.
Lyubov Kazarnovskaya: Turandot was written for a dramatic soprano, so experience and a big big voice are needed. These experiments are dangerous for young people. "Turandot" is the same orchestra of 120 people, and we must shout down the whole crowd.
That is, is it justified?
Lyubov Kazarnovskaya: This is justified in terms of music. Because Puccini wanted this power. And the voice should be, like Birgit Nilsson. That was the singer for Turandot! And, as a rule, “Turandot” come to the end of their career. The same is Salome. When I was offered to sing her for the first time, I refused. Because the Richard Strauss Orchestra is 120 people. Plus, there’s also a very complicated dance. You have to look good, move well and be such an experienced vocalist to go around all the sharp corners and sing “Salome” the way you want. I was preparing for a performance at the Metropolitan Opera for a whole year. But I fell into the hands of an absolutely brilliant stage director - Julie Taymor. She spent five years in India, where she received her initiation, and saw through and through everyone. During the dance of Salome, I had to strip off seven symbolic covers. And she suggested stripping off her veils according to the colors of the seven chakras, so that in the end she would remain completely naked. But of course, they made me such a stylized body so that I did not feel constrained.
And only then, with the light hand of my grandson Richard Strauss, who came to my concert and said: “I have a feeling that my grandfather had in mind just such a singer when he wrote his“ Salome ”, they began to call me Salome number one of our days . It has become a catch phrase. He called me "the most erotic soprano."
You really with all your appearance refute the myth that opera singers should weigh 100 kg. Why, by the way, are opera singers, as a rule, so large?
Lyubov Kazarnovskaya: The fact is that when you sing, your diaphragm works so actively that everything you eat, it pushes out of your stomach and it seems to you that you are hungry. Singers for a big serious concert lose up to 2 kg, and after that there is a feeling of wild hunger.
Here are the vocalists and are accustomed to gorging after each performance. They will eat, then rest, and gain extra pounds over and over again - first 3, then 5, then 8. But, as Maria Kallas said, singing is energy. You transmit energy and you receive it if you transmit it correctly. Therefore, you just need to be disciplined and eat properly.
What lifestyle do you lead?
Lyubov Kazarnovskaya: In general, I treat myself quite harshly and I only feel better about it. I do not get tired, because I do not clog up my body. We somehow developed for ourselves and our husband a certain diet, a certain type of life with physical exertion. I drink a lot of juices, smoothies, and in the evening I eat either fish from kenoa or porridge with dried fruits. If you adhere to such a diet, then you will have much more energy. And I really need it, because I work sometimes 24 hours a day. My life is scheduled more than a year in advance, and I must be in shape.
