22.01.2013

Yuri Alexandrov: “The Kazan production of Aida is for people who expect a miracle from the opera”

(Kazan, January 21, Tatar-inform, Lucia Kamalova). “I am stunned by the Shaliapin Festival's level of management, performers and quality of work,” People’s Artiste of Russia and Aida director, Yuri Alexandrov of Saint-Petersburg, said at a news conference at Tatar-inform on Monday.

The 31st Shaliapin Opera Festival will on 1 February open with a premiere of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Aida on the stage of the Tatar State Opera and Ballet Theatre after M. Jalil. Yuri Alexandrov, who has directed over 200 shows in various opera theatres in Russia and abroad, is a guest director at the festival.

“This is my first visit to Kazan and I am very curious and excited,” the director admitted. “The thing is, festivals normally frighten me a little, because it is a sort of hack work, you know. I am always afraid of it because for me direction is a huge set of tasks that need to be solved. This is why I was a little apprehensive while coming here but, honestly, I am stunned by the quality of management, performers and the quality of work the theatre offered me.”

The schedule of rehearsals was tight, he went on to share. Jalil theatre’s chief conductor, Renat Salavatov, had persuaded him to come to Kazan, he said.

“I worship this conductor, I think he is the best theatrical conductor in Russia, and not in Russia alone. He persuaded me it could be done,” Alexandrov said.

Aida needed to be a very contemporary show, he said, since few people of today risked their lives for love.

“Everyone would benefit from watching it, both young and old, in our time, so cynical and embittered. Since the show is historical, I want the scene to demonstrate the vast scenographic opportunities this theatre has, which the stage designer allows doing.”

Aida is one of the most popular operas of the world opera repertoire. In 2000, it was staged at the Tatar State Opera by Alexei Stepanyuk of the Mariin Theatre.

The renovated concept of the opera will on 1 and 2 February be presented to the audience during the Shaliapin International Opera Festival.