Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” ¹27562, 4 December 2017
Ekaterina Kretova.
Vladimir Kekhman was recently nominated for the post of Artistic Director of NOVAT (the Novosibirsk opera and ballet theatre), which keeps being a powerful source of news for Russian cultural life. This was officially announced by the Minister of culture of the Russian Federation Vladimir Medinsky, who came to Novosibirsk for this particular reason.
Vladimir Medinsky spoke about advances of the theatre which has been directed by Vladimir Kekhman since 2015: increased income, attendance rate. Since this moment Kekhman becomes responsible for the artistic direction, which seems legit: “Vladimir Abramovich is an artistic person” – mentioned the minister. Of course, the nomination and the opening of a new concert hall happened on the same day for a reason, as well as performance of Rossini’s genius piece “Stabat Mater”. The billboards exposing crucifixes were set around the city as some sort of answer to a notorious “Tannhäuser”.
At the time when Vladimir Kekhman was just nominated for the post of Director General of the huge opera house (initial project of the theatre received a Grand-Prix at the World Expo in Paris 1937 alongside "Worker and Kolkhoz Woman" sculpture by Vera Mukhina and was meant to hold 3200 seats) he was shocked by the poor state of the small hall. It was dark, stale, stuffed with unintelligible partitions, additional loges, windows of different size, broken chairs… Although, the whole theatre was rundown, that’s why the small hall was not a priority. It only became possible a year ago, when the minister of culture was visiting the city and he supported the idea of restoring the small hall. The theatre was provided with 123 million rubles for that purpose. Later, some additional sponsors were found who presented the theatre with “decent” seats for a total amount of 25 million rubles. The hall for 333 seats was ready in a year.
Seats in the hall are silent. In case some fussy spectator decides to rush over, his neighbors won’t be disturbed by the sound of seat clashing back of the seat – the hold-open device will silently shut the seat. There is a lot more. The sound depends on the hall configuration and on the quality of the materials used to make the seats. We must mention that all acoustic decisions – both in the Mikhailovsky and NOVAT – are made by the director himself: Vladimir Kekhman owes his professional hearing sense to his uncle, who taught his nephew piano tuning. Experience proves the seats rising in semi-circle without central aisle significantly improve acoustics of a hall.
The hall definitely has a certain historic value. This was the place where the symphonic orchestra played under the baton of Arnold Katz, where students of the conservatory used to rehearse and perform music, where the Novosibirsk music comedy was conceived, and at last, Isidor Zak used to conduct concerts here, the man whose name is given to the restored hall.
Performance of “Stabat Mater” with the world opera stars, outstanding soloists Veronika Dzhioeva, Yuliya Matochkina and two foreign celebrities – bass René Pape and tenor Lawrence Brownlee – was meant to start at 17:00. The hall was gradually filling with people, but the show wouldn’t start. Minister of culture and the region’s direction – the mayor and the governor – felt nervous: since the very morning a detective story called “strong borders” was developing, featuring the American tenor Lawrence Brownlee. The singer took a flight to Novosibirsk through Astana. It seemed to be a faster way. The singer’s schedule is incredibly tight – right after Novosibirsk he was to take a plane to Covent-Garden in London. But not so fast! The border patrol in Astana closed the tenor’s single entry visa, leaving no opportunity to come back to Russia. Anyway, he reached Novosibirsk but wasn’t able to leave the terminal: the careful Russian border patrol detected the singer’s visa was invalid. Deprived of food, sleep or proper plans Lawrence Brownlee was staggering around Tolmachevo. All resources, networks and leverages were used to rescue the singer and the concert.
At 17:00 Vladimir Kekhman came up on stage and explained the situation. Led by the minister of culture, the mayor and the governor the audience headed to the crush bar. Then the battlefield reports arrived: Brownlee got a new visa… Brownlee left the airport… Brownlee got inside the car… He is changing clothes in the car… Warming up…
At last, at half past six the choir, the orchestra of NOVAT, the new Guest Conductor Dmitry Korchak, the soloists – Veronika Dzhioeva, Yuliya Matochkina, René Pape and wait for it… Lawrence Brownlee - come up on the stage, the last one particularly welcomed by the audience.
The performance of Rossini’s piece was outstanding. Maestro Dmitry Korchak is following his new career of a conductor without leaving his main occupation – a brilliant opera soloist; he shows total command of conductor’s art as well as deep understanding of the meanings and messages of this music – just as beauty as it is wise. A very frank and passionate Veronika Dzhioeva, a moving and concentrated Yuliya Matochkina, a very operatic and artistic René Pape, and an incredibly musical Lawrence Brownlee made a fine ensemble, breathtaking as it was. Here we should mention that Dzhioeva and Brownlee never met on stage and haven’t even rehearsed together due to above mentioned events; nevertheless, they duet sounded so well-tuned, one could have thought that just the day before they had sung together in one performance. The choir and the orchestra sounded perfect. That’s why maestro Dmitry Korchak passed a capella part to the choir, though it is designed to be performed by the quartet. Veronika Dzioeva’s high notes are worth of never ending praising – it’s amazing how easy she overwhelms an orchestra and a choir of 60 singers with her clear voice only, no forcing or pitching.
You get uncontrollably proud when you realize this all happened not in New York, Vienna, Moscow or St.-Petersburg, but in Novosibirsk. Those Kulturträger goals that NOVAT and Vladimir Kekhmn set to reach are a good example to follow. It’s clear now already that the choral pieces are going to be performed here, chamber works featuring NOVAT opera soloists and the guest stars, the younger conservatory students will gather here, symphonic music is going to be performed. There are also a lot of plans for the main stage.
There is no doubt that Vladimir Kekhman as a person will trigger different feedback from the audience – from support to protest. Well, this is what you get when you have an outstanding personality and write your own biography and make history as well. At least the theatre’s history.
