In St. Petersburg, the Figaro monument was assembled in parts

In St. Petersburg, the Russian national acting award “Figaro” was presented, the 13th in a row and really the most acting of all existing ones. For the 13th time, it was presented in honor of the amazing Russian actor Andrei Mironov – on his birthday, March 8, and in the theater that bears his name. Which, moreover, is located in the famous house with towers on the Petrograd side, which before the revolution belonged to Mironov’s grandfather on his father’s side – Menaker. Who this time got an elegant porcelain figurine in the form of Figaro’s rake, and in what a strange way the internal plot of the ceremony and the fate of the laureates developed, was observed by the MK columnist, who herself went on stage that evening.

The Figaro Award is not competitive in nature, but is awarded for exceptional achievements in acting. For the first time, Figaro was awarded on March 8, 2011, on the day of Andrei Mironov’s 70th birthday. Among its laureates were the luminaries of the Russian theater: Yuri Yakovlev, Inna Churikova, Oleg Tabakov, Yulia Borisova, Vera Vasilyeva, Vladimir Vasilyev, Valery Gergiev, Valery Fokin, Lev Dodin, world theater and film leaders Emir Kusturitsa, Theodoros Terzopoulos, artists of different generations from Moscow, Petersburg, Yaroslavl, Tyumen, Kirov, Yekaterinburg, Perm, Ozersk, Petrozavodsk. The award is always awarded in three main categories: “Best of the Best” (for performing roles on the Russian theater stage), “For serving the Russian Repertory Theater” and “For serving the Theatrical Fatherland”. The first president of Figaro was Valentin Gaft. Two years ago, they became Sergey Bezrukov.

He opened the ceremony by joking: “… as a president, as well as a king and a god,” referring to the roles he played in theater and cinema. Behind him, as a decoration, on a small pedestal lay a rather large plastic monument to Figaro, disassembled into fragments, and around him danced characters in crinolines and white wigs performed by young theater artists. They also brought the nominees to the stage and handed over diplomas with a statuette to those who presented it. The director’s idea was clear – by the end of the day, the monument should be assembled and presented in all its glory.

It so happened that the character of the 13th Figaro Awards on International Women’s Day came out quite brutal. Among the nominees of this year are Tsar Peter (Alexander Baluev) and Tsarevich Alexei (Vasily Bochkarev), a real colonel, general, marshal, and at the beginning of his creative career and lieutenant (Boris Galkin) and the most honest police officer, and in the past a recidivist thief ( Yuri Kuznetsov). An elegant white and gold figurine was given to Count Almaviva and Figaro (Vasily Gerello), Prince Siegfried and draftsman Ferhad (Farukh Ruzimatov). In company with them are Pushkin (Alexander Oleshko) and Shakespeare (Leonid Okunev), as well as Cyrano (Ivan Volkov), Claudius (Sergey Russkin), Chichikov (Alexander Vasiliev) and Hodja Nasreddin (Vladimir Shvets). The men’s company was adorned by beautiful ladies (after all, on March 8): Irina Malochevskaya, a professor who raised a whole constellation of artists, Tatyana Tkach, People’s Artist of Russia, and Ekaterina Klimova, actress, athlete, mother of many children.

And then there’s the inner story. Boris Galkin, who played the role of Cherubino in the legendary play “The Marriage of Figaro” with Andrei Mironov, read Figaro’s monologue. And the Mariinsky Opera soloist Vasily Gerello admitted that he began his career at La Scala with the opera The Marriage of Figaro. “Now in the sanctions theater,” the singer added, not without sadness. Elena Sanaeva, who presented the prize to the successor of the Volkov acting dynasty, Ivan, turned out to have studied at the same school with Andrei Mironov, and she has known the current laureate since childhood.

The award was presented to Ekaterina Klimova by Natalya Bondarchuk, the sister of film director Andrei Malyukov, in whose films Klimova’s star rose. Ekaterina, who was in a spectacular transparent dress made of white guipure over black, did not hesitate, following Alexander Baluev, that this was actually her first award in her life.

– And I, following Sasha, am ready to repeat: “If there is no other, then there is no need. I have a Figaro.

Well, when I handed over the prize to Alexander Oleshko, I remembered that Moskovsky Komsomolets was the first to tell readers about the young artist on its pages, when an unknown graduate of the Shchukin school played in Sovremennik in a new version of the legendary play Naked King. The special prize “Pen and Sword” went to the journalist and director Sergei Sholokhov, who in his “Quiet House” (as the best perestroika TV program was called) introduced the audience to all the iconic film festivals of our time.

That evening, artists Emmanuil Vitorgan, Valentin Smirnitsky, Elena Sanaeva, Evgenia Kryukova, Yulia Rutberg, Viktor Rakov, Igor Sklyar, Vsevolod Shilovsky, Mikhail Porechenkov, Lyudmila Chursina, playwright Nikolai Kolyada, director Alexander Orlov, cameraman Igor Klebanov took the stage.

– Rudolf Furmanov had a fantastic quality not just to see talented people, – says the leading actress of the Vakhtangov Theater Yulia Rutberg, – but among them to single out only those who know how to serve art.

And the stories looped, leading now to Andrei Mironov, then to Rudolf Furmanov, who built the theater in honor of his friend and discovered many artists, who, in turn, extended a hand to others. Like, for example, the incredible St. Petersburg artist Sergei Russkin, who played prominent roles in the theater and once told Mikhail Porechenkov, who is preparing for a career in military builder: “You can succeed.” And now Porechenkov, a popular, recognized actor, is presenting the prize to Russkin.

Incredible for a theatrical environment, but a fact: the ceremony was held not only under the direction of director Vlad Furmanov, who continued the work of his father and built the ceremony in a stylish and concise manner, but also under the direction of transcendent openness and love. Yes, love was poured in the hall: artists and directors confessed their love to their colleagues, and there was no slyness in this. The dangerous bareness of feelings was discouraging. In this sense, the actor of the Maly Theater Vasily Ivanovich Bochkarev, who told how in his youth he played Figaro, being impressed by the brilliant image of Andrei Mironov, handed a rose to his partner, uttered his name to himself. “In the morning I was at the grave of Blessed Xenia (Petersburg) and brought rose petals from there (rose petals from the grave of the saint as a sign of goodwill. — M.R.). I want to put them on this stage to the pedestal.

The Figaro monument had already been assembled by this time. And against the background of it in the final, they took a common memorable picture.

Saint Petersburg.