“Listeners can only close their eyes”

Today, the famous baritone Vladislav Sulimsky and pianist Yakov Katsnelson will conclude the Opera Apriori festival in the Zaryadye hall, where they will perform the vocal cycle Biblical Songs by Dvorak and Songs and Dances of Death by Mussorgsky. Towards the end of the outgoing year, it became known that the singer was invited to perform at the Salzburg Festival with the part of Macbeth in the Verdi opera of the same name, which will be staged by Krzysztof Warlikowski. On his vision of Macbeth, the Salzburg heat and internationalism Vladislav Sulimsky on the eve of the Moscow concert told Vladimir Dudin.

– Is it difficult to sing “Bible Songs” by Dvořák and “Songs and Dances of Death” in one concert? Who wrote such a program for survival?

— All programs of the Opera Apriori project are designed by Elena Kharakidzyan. She suggested – I replied that you can try, interesting. On the one hand, something divine, on the other, human – there about God, here about death, high and low frequencies. “Bible songs” I have never sung, never even heard before, they are very rarely performed. And he performed “Songs and Dances” in Shostakovich’s edition, but not in Russia, but in Germany with Dmitry Kitaenko. “Bible songs” calm me down a lot when I study them during my flights and transfers — they are very melodic, beautiful, but you need a special state of mind to sing them. Fuss and stress are unsettling so that it is difficult to remember the simplest melodic line. When a couple of days ago I was returning from Leipzig to St. Petersburg, having left at five in the morning and having spent a total of 16 hours on the ground and in the sky, I listened to “Bible Songs”, and this time flew by.

– I suspect that the Mussorgsky cycle has the exact opposite effect?

– Yes, that’s why his songs will be performed after Dvorak – after this cycle, singing is no longer worth anything. I worked very painstakingly on them, spent four hours on each song. A very difficult thing, where all the right notes are rebuilt from emotions. I call them vocal “pictures at an exhibition”, I look at each of the four songs as if it were some kind of fairy tale. Everything is written ingeniously in them – the listeners can only close their eyes and watch the movie.

Is it scary to sing about death?

– Most of all I was worried about the first song – the lullaby “Moaning a Child”, I was not myself. I like to go into the material with my head, and it is so naturalistic, vividly written. I put off learning this song until the last moment, starting with “Serenade”, then there was “Trepak” and “Commander”, after which nothing is scary anymore.

What happened in Leipzig? How is it working in Europe now?

– It works without any problems. In Leipzig I sang Iago in Verdi’s Othello, in Berlin Il trovatore in my favorite production staged by Philipp Stölzl at the Staatsoper. In Othello we had a highly international cast of soloists: a Chilean, a Spaniard, a North American, an Icelander, a couple of Germans and myself. We talked absolutely calmly. People understand that music is music. Musicians create the world.

“Opera seems to be one of the last islands of internationalism.

– This is really the last island. My agent came to the premiere of Othello in Leipzig and said that he had just been to Hamburg, where he listened to Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, which was performed by Russians and Ukrainians – and everyone worked perfectly without problems, because adequate people.

– You were recently invited to the title role in Verdi’s Macbeth at the Salzburg Festival staged by Warlikovsky. Did you agree without hesitation?

The agent called me and asked if I agreed. Macbeth in Salzburg – no hesitation! I heard about Varlikovsky that he is a shocking artist, but I never met him personally. Polish directors, in principle, have always been outrageous, but I hope that in this case it will be something unusual even for Warlikowski himself. Yes, and with all you can agree, I think.

– Did such Lady Macbeth as Hasmik Grigoryan also add points in favor of “agree”? Have you worked with her before?

– Yes. But Hasmik and I haven’t had any joint projects for a long time. We sang together in Tchaikovsky’s The Enchantress in Vienna and in Vilnius in Verdi’s Il trovatore, then our paths parted. Many things were planned together, but did not add up. At the Mariinsky, we once sang together in Othello, but, as you know, in this opera there is not a single duet, not a single soprano and baritone duetino – a rare case. Only one remark: “Forse che in grazia tornera”.

But there will be a lot of your duets in Macbeth.

– I think yes, if everything goes well, we will give one of our best performances.

– Who is the conductor?

“To be honest, at first I didn’t ask. The website says Franz Welser-Mest. Frankly, I never find out who the conductor is. Valery Abisalovich (Gergiev.— “b”) taught me never to look at the conductor. What should the conductor do? What the composer wrote. And even without a conductor I know what Verdi wrote.

— And how long will it take to work in Salzburg?

– About two months, exactly, everything is being prepared for a long time. On the Queen of Spades, when it was crazy hot outside, we all went crazy. She almost went sideways.

– Does it make sense to sit on the project for such a long time, do you think?

— I think not. Sometimes it just hurts. The opera “Macbeth” is not so difficult musically, but requires thorough coordination, since there is a choir. But it is not necessary to do this with soloists, everything can be done separately. Moreover, the soloists who get to Salzburg are initially quite competent. I remember how I once performed in Savonlinna, flying into a performance staged for the festival in Macerata. We started the first rehearsal – and I saw very surprised eyes, everyone looked at me like I was an alien: “Wow, this Belarusian boy who came to save the performance, can something ?!” Then they began to give advice, that here it is, and there it is. I answer: “I know, because I prepared the game with coaches who worked with Bruzon, Cappuccili and others.” “Yes?!” – “Yes!”

– You have accumulated powerful experience in performing Macbeth, among your ladies were Anna Netrebko, and Tatiana Serzhan, and Ekaterina Semenchuk. How will you show your favorite character in Salzburg?

– There will be more plastic moments in connection with my latest experiments with Iago in Othello in Bucharest, Leipzig and the Mariinsky, where I tried to sort through different eras in this image, but at the same time show that the human essence remains the same . I want to transfer this feeling to Macbeth, in which there is a lot from Iago. Although evil is different here, in Macbeth it is primal, not thoughtful or prudent, but impulsive, elemental, even more than rage. I haven’t sung Macbeth for a long time, and it’s very good;

– When will you be expected in Russia next time?

– I plan to bring Borodin’s “Prince Igor” to mind next month at the Mariinsky, this is my immediate task, for some reason I wanted to perform this part. I didn’t manage to come to the “Demon” in the Bolshoi, but I still sing it, there is time.