/ world as we speak information/ Opera prima Violeta Shahanova: “Bulgarian opera doesn’t want failed reforms, however actual help…”
“Bulgarian politicians, ministers, MPs are so removed from tradition that it’s not even talked about by them…”
For nearly 4 a long time / from 1971 to 2009 / the principle lyrical repertoire within the Ruse Opera, one of many main musical scenes in our nation, was carried by the soloist Violeta Shahanova-Stambolieva. Over 60 totally different roles in type and character from Pergolesi and Cimarosa to fashionable occasions – at all times extremely appreciated by critics and audiences, a formidable variety of chamber recitals and participation in main cantata-oratorio live shows with music by Bach, Handel and Vivaldi, by way of the classics, the romantic, impressionism to the fashionable and tough authors of as we speak, visitor appearances within the nation and overseas, recordings on radio and tv – these are briefly the coordinates of her profitable inventive profession up to now. Solely in the previous few seasons, Violeta Shahanova performed a number of main roles / Lina from “Stifelio” by Verdi, Donna Elvira in “Don Juan” by Mozart, Silva from “The Queen of the Czardasha” by Kalman, Carolina from “The Secret Marriage”, Norina from ” Don Pasquale”/, in addition to a collection of trendy live shows with music by Bach, Schubert, Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Enescu, Vladigerov, Sagaev, participated within the festivals of Varna, Plovdiv, Ruse, Stara Zagora, recorded a number of of essentially the most tough music cycles of Vladigerov, Mussorgsky and Shostakovich for the BNR, a CD for “Vienna Trendy Masters”… For her 40 years of inventive exercise on the opera stage and the live performance podium, she was awarded the best music award in our nation – the Crystal Necklace of the Union of Musicians.
After 4 profitable a long time on the opera stage and the live performance podium, what would you say about your occupation?
– Opera singing is a troublesome bodily and psychological course of. Few perceive it. They are saying: sing, joyful man! And it is a occupation equal to the problem of the miner. It brings extra sorrows than joys. Personally, I’ve at all times been eternally dissatisfied with myself, whatever the evaluations of the critics and the general public, which I can’t complain about. In actual fact, I solely actually lived on stage and on the live performance podium.
Who did you be taught from?
From the good masters. Earlier than that on the Music Academy in his native Rousse and the Academy in Sofia, then with Prof. Octav Enigarescu from Bucharest, an ideal baritone and pedagogue. For the lyric soprano, which is my type of voice, I feel a very powerful factor is expressiveness, which is a component of magnificence and maybe a very powerful factor in music.
You’ve carried out many roles, totally different in type and character, which of them do you worth essentially the most?
Once you’re an artist in a repertory theater that performs every thing, you’ve gotten to have the ability to do every thing. Now the singers, the younger ones, do a number of roles and their total profession is exhausted with them. And within the West there are singers who turned stars with solely 5-6 roles, however there are additionally common artists, for instance, Cheryl Studer from the States, who sings every thing from Rossini to Wagner, so is the good Domingo, whereas one Luigi Alva sang nearly solely Rossini and just a little Mozart… As a soloist of the Rousse Opera, I needed to carry out not solely sometimes lyrical elements, which I favor, but in addition some coloratura / Gilda, Oscar, Adela / or extra dramatic / Donna Elvira and particularly Lina from “Stifelio” by Verdi – for the primary time in our nation at “March Days”, our most prestigious competition /. Additionally roles of heroines and even of a number of soubrettes in classical operettas/ Silva and Stasi in “The Queen of the Chardasha”, Madeleine from “Ball in Savoy” /, roles in new Bulgarian operas, in kids’s operas equivalent to “Hansel and Gretel”, ” Puss in Boots” and so on… However my nature, as the good critic in our nation / Rozalia Biks, Venelin Krastev, Boyanka Arnaudova/ has assessed me, is often lyrical, not soubret. I simply have not turned down a task. I’ve not failed a efficiency as a result of sickness or the rest…Which of my roles do I worth essentially the most? They aren’t many – and they’re primarily lyrical: Marzhenka from “Damaged Bride”, Zornitsa from “Mad Gidia”, Frau Flute from “The Merry Windsors”, Margarita from “Faust”, Mimi and Musetta from “Bohemia”, Adina from “Love elixir”, Donna Elvira from “Don Juan” and Susanna from “The Marriage of Figaro”…One victory for me was Zornitsa on the anniversary of Parashkev Hadzhiev in 1987. One other singer, his most important performer, was introduced for the premiere prematurely, however the creator most popular , to my nice pleasure, me. And I ended my stage exercise in fine condition with an especially tough and fascinating activity – The girl in Jean Cocteau and Francis Poulenc’s mono-opera “The Human Voice” – greater than an hour on stage, with out pause, with out companions, refrain, ballet, in French, actually a tough dramatic function. I carried out it at 4 festivals in our nation and in Romania.
You’ve established your self among the many most energetic chamber singers in our nation. For years, each season you gave premiere live shows in Ruse, Sofia and different cities, found new authors and works…
As a result of the opera was not sufficient for me. I really like the stage, it has given me lots, however now that there are not any funds for brand spanking new exhibits for a very long time / ah, these “reforms”!, these loopy “delegated” budgets! / and the identical headlines about low-cost overseas excursions are repeated over and over, I most popular to throw his forces into the chamber style. I labored passionately within the subject of artwork music and always found one thing new for me, and I hope for the viewers as properly. That is how I found the songwriting of the three masters of bel canto – Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti, and for the primary time in our nation I carried out a few of their vocal works. I titled this system “Venetian Gondola” and because of the curiosity of the viewers, I carried out it 9 occasions up to now in Ruse, Sofia, Varna and Plovdiv – at festivals and particular person live shows. I additionally found the cycle “Songs of the European Peoples” by Beethoven, vocal cycles by the extraordinarily fascinating Romanian composers Pascal Bentou, Tiberiu Bredicanu, Anatole Vieru, in addition to the fantastic French songs with lyrics by Clément Marot by George Enescu / carried out and recorded them with success and of their homeland, at a competition in Bucharest/, new songs by Dimitar Sagaev, Vladigerov’s not often carried out songs by Dora Gabe, devoted to Tsaritsa Eleonora, additionally little-known works by Schubert, Brahms, Weber. Additionally Shostakovich’s thrilling cycle “From the Jewish People Poetry”, banned throughout Stalin’s time. An amazing take a look at for me was the unimaginable cycle of Mussorgsky “The Youngsters’s Room” – a tremendous piece of music. Additionally the romantic and dramatic “Songs of the Wandering Journeyman” by Gustav Mahler, the Italian romances of Glinka…
And is it tough to sing alone at a live performance?
Each arduous and straightforward. It’s simple since you are free and rely solely on your self. You do not have a conductor in entrance of you, you do not depend upon an orchestra, companions, stage gear… Nevertheless it’s additionally tough – you may’t cover behind anybody and conceal even for a second behind anybody and behind nothing. There isn’t a make-up, wig, costume, inventive lighting, units, no pauses, breaks, scenes with out your participation. On the live performance podium, you’re actually “bare”, in entrance of the viewers. Sam – in entrance of the “hundred-headed hydra” of this viewers and it’s a must to be good, neat, on the similar time fairly shut, which scares a lot of my good colleagues on the stage, and to cross the “ramp”, to succeed in everybody. From each music – large or small, from each music cycle, to make a “theatre”, a “scene”, to seize, to maintain the eye, to excite, usually singing in a overseas language, not notably comprehensible to the viewers. As a chamber singer, I’ve needed to carry out essentially the most tough issues (for instance, Mahler, Bruckner, Vladigerov, Shostakovich, Bentoi, Helmsroth, Mussorgsky, Schubert can also be fairly tough). However the pleasure of such a music making is incomparable! Furthermore, on the live performance stage you’re utterly alone, with just one pianist, and you are feeling, as I’ve already stated, utterly impartial and a real creator. You don’t depend upon the need of the conductor, on his views and tempo / generally removed from mine / or on the ideas of the director, who can distort the creator’s intention.
How do you see the way forward for Bulgarian opera?
Up to now, the current is sad. To not say unhappy. Hopefully we are going to get out of this disaster in the future. The reform with the so-called “delegated budgets” turned out to be not solely ineffective, but in addition very dangerous for the Bulgarian musical theaters. As a result of you may’t win from Mozart, Verdi and Beethoven. This isn’t chalga or soccer. Now Bulgarian artists and musicians are merely caught of their work. Not solely due to restricted funds, but in addition due to this mechanical fusion of operas and philharmonics. Right here, when making an opera, you can’t usually make a symphony live performance and vice versa. When the orchestra goes on tour for cash overseas, there isn’t a one to accompany the singers and the performances of the opera and ballet merely fall flat. Irregular and meager manufacturing, poor repertoire, usually the identical ones, merely paralyze our work. The viewers is dropping curiosity, the truth is we provide them nearly nothing new and authentic. It is a vicious circle! Hopefully the longer term is best…
However you continue to cannot complain. You’ve carried out many roles…You’ve labored with good home and overseas administrators and conductors….
Sure, it’s. It’s unhealthy for the younger, so a lot of them run away. Many fantastic younger singers emigrated to the West, due to the higher job alternatives, due to the higher pay. Many turned choristers in an effort to get a job, as a result of within the West they had been fed up with emigrant musicians from Jap Europe and particularly from Russia. The latter are offered cheaper than us and undercut our worth!.. I had the possibility to see the nice years of the Bulgarian opera, when there have been actual ensemble theaters with a really wealthy repertoire and numerous performances per yr – 140-180!. In Ruse, we performed every thing – from Mozart to Prokofiev and Hadjiev, we additionally had quite a lot of repertoire discoveries. The general public liked the opera and even went to the up to date Bulgarian and Russian (Soviet) authors: Al. Raichev, Sagaev, Pironkov, Molchanov, Prokofiev, Khrennikov, Pipkov… And now? Now even Mozart and Puccini don’t collect this viewers. So we have pulled again, method again! I am sorry for this regression! I can’t take it.
Then do not you remorse that you just stayed in Ruse and in Bulgaria? Certainly, you acquired recognition and awards: the Golden Antenna/ 1983/, the Golden Lyre/ 2001/, nomination for “Musician of the Yr” /1996/, and not too long ago the “Crystal Necklace”, the best doable award for a Bulgarian musician. Your title entered Bulgarian and overseas encyclopedias, your entries within the BNR fund, in Bucharest, Prague and Vienna. And the music viewers is aware of and appreciates you, however perhaps that is not sufficient…
One can at all times remorse missed alternatives. I am sorry too. Certainly, if I had not stayed in Ruse and in Bulgaria, my profession would have developed differently. I had alternatives to work in Sofia and overseas /Germany, South Africa/, however I stayed in Bulgaria and in Ruse for higher or for worse. And in my hometown, the place I studied on the Music Excessive College, then I studied on the conservatory, I returned to Ruse, they instantly appointed me as a daily soloist, right here I performed my finest roles. I used to be additionally a visitor on the levels in Plovdiv, Varna and the entire nation. However once I began my profession, and after that, nearly till 1989, the standing of opera artists was a lot greater. And now it is the other! Sadly, the adjustments didn’t carry something good for the Bulgarian opera theater, in addition to for all of our artwork. Bulgarian politicians, ministers, MPs are so removed from tradition that it’s not even talked about in passing by them. It simply would not exist! Until it is concerning the minister. The reform, as I stated, proved disastrous. So I centered my efforts on the chamber style. Though fairly tough, it’s extremely wealthy and attracts me irresistibly. It would not take me just a few extra lifetimes to finish the notes I collected in my private music library. And there’s such fantastic, unimaginable music that I dreamed of performing. But when I had two lives…
The dialog is led by:
Elena Ivanova
Within the function of Serpina in Pergolesi’s “The Mistress-Maid” – with Stoyan Stoyandjov / Uberto/
The dialog is led by: Elena IVANOVA
#Bulgarian #politicians #ministers #deputies #tradition #talked about
