31.01.2012

Mikhail Pletnev: “I feel at home in Kazan”

(Kazan, January 31, Tatar-inform, Maria Kirukhina). The pianist, composer and director Mikhail Pletnev at a news conference, held to mark the opening of the 30th Shaliapin International Opera Festival, conceded Kazan felt like home to him.

“The city has recently dramatically changed, but what can you do, we all change,” Pletnev noted. “The city is far from being provincial, a full-fledged capital of a republic, hosting many fascinating events, including this festival.”

The musician had spent his childhood in the Tatarstan’s capital, where he had studied at the Kazan Conservatoire's music school.

The Shaliapin Opera Festival will open on 1 February with the premiere of an opera Eugene Onegin. Mikhail Pletnev is the premiere’s musical director.

Tchaikovsky and Pushkin are personalities of extraordinary spiritual eminence, gifted, ingenious people, he said. “For this reason, I feel apprehensive touching works created by them,” Pletnev remarked. “Of course, we all, to the best of our talent, try to work with these pieces, convey them to people. This immaculate music will live forever. We did our best while working on this opera, tackled it with enthusiasm and desire.”