Verdi without pathos, Currentzis with a premium, the audience won

MOSCOW. The second prize of music critics of the capital went to “Traviate”.

Musical critics of Moscow decided on the winner of their annual award. It became La Traviata of the Perm Opera and Ballet Theater - the result of co-creation by director Robert Wilson, artistic director and conductor Theodor Currentzis and performer of the title role Nadezhda Pavlova. The presence of this performance on the short list automatically deprived of hope for the award of other nominees. The year 2016 was too successful for Currentzis. It has not yet ended, and at the end of the curtain it may well overwhelm another sensation.

Neither the state orchestra of Vladimir Yurovsky, nor the collection of recordings by Richter, nor the three-volume opera encyclopedia of musicologist Mikhail Muginshtein, nor the Yekaterinburg festival “Crazy Days”, nor a co-production of the Bolshoi and English opera Rodelind could resist the pressure of the Perm headliner and the American hitmaker. A standing ovation from the public, unconditionally accepting Wilson’s “luminous” scenography devoid of illustrativeness. The static character of the poses, the inconsistency of the tempo, the abstractness of the directing and its apparent inconsistency with the plot helped Currentzis reload the usual “Traviata”.

Rid of stratifications of stamps, pathos and excessive pathos with which unsuccessful productions sin, she struck me with a hypnotic immersion in music. Nadezhda Pavlova, Permian Traviata, is now called the new Callas. The audience heard a new, as if rethought again Verdi. Each piercing piano and tense fort brought closer to the miracle that happened at the Perm Opera.

The first prize of the AMK last year was received by musicologist Polina Vaydman for the work done to publish the complete works of Tchaikovsky. Presentation of the second will take place in Moscow. The future star of the world theatrical stage Nadezhda Pavlova will also perform a recital there.

Elena Tanakova © Gallerix.ru