Nadezhda Pavlova about her work in Baroque by Kirill Serebrennikov, cabaret songs and the German opera stage

The famous Russian opera singer Nadezhda Pavlova performed in the German premiere of Kirill Serebrennikov’s Baroque, which moved from the Moscow Gogol Center to the Thalia Theater in Hamburg. Teodor Currentzis’s favorite soprano, who performed Verdi’s La Traviata staged by Bob Wilson in Perm, is preparing for a solo concert in Berlin in August and debuts in the new season at the Nizhny Novgorod Opera and Ballet Theatre. About the German version of “Baroque” and engagements in Europe and Russia Nadezhda Pavlova told Vladimir Dudin.

How different was the Hamburg premiere of Baroque from the Moscow one?

– The main idea of ​​”pearls of irregular shape” – wrong people trying to accomplish feats that do not bring any changes as a result, has been preserved. But, in my opinion, the performance distinguished itself radically, starting with a new stage, new extras, dancers. It was enriched with musical numbers, became more extended, the composition of the artists changed. One of the conditions of the Thalia theater was to be three artists from Cyril, three from the theater and two singers, one might say, guest stars. I am from the professional opera world, my partner is a completely unknown street musician whom Kirill heard on the street in Berlin and invited to the project. He turned out to be a great singer with a very beautiful voice. He got a new number along with those that passed to him from another artist.

– Kirill Serebrennikov called his opus, which he created under house arrest, an art history term. But, understanding the penetrating energy of the baroque, its explosive nature, he lashed out in the performance high and low, street and academic, in order to show the rebellious nature. It seems to me that such motives have always been close to the German modern theater, but does the audience really accept the performance well?

— Yes, there is such a story in the play. Initially, after all, there was a name “Baroque Manifesto”. We are received very well in Hamburg, although we were all very worried, because the performance is still somewhat strange for a drama theater. Curiously, the German artists were amazed by this even more than us. The success of the performance is colossal.

– There was an “action-packed” episode in the performance, during which the actor (eccentric Nikita Kukushkin) ran out into the audience and frightened with his played inadequacy, knife and fire. Has he survived?

– There is such a number, it has been greatly changed, but it has retained its outrageous and entertaining character, and therefore it always enjoys special success. The German artist who performs it plays an incredible number of musical instruments, which struck me incredibly: not every dramatic actor can play the violin and guitar like that.

– Your mission in Baroque is the virtuoso arias of Handel and Vivaldi, which only you sing?

– In the classical sense, yes, but the rest also sing baroque, only transformed, adapted for them, in a different stylistic manner. Sveta Mamresheva also has a baroque aria, the only one who represents the Gogol Center, she is now studying at the Berlin Conservatory, making progress. I really liked our international composition. The American Odin Byron opened up to me as a countertenor, to whom I tell him that he can make an excellent career in this role. Dramatic artists take great pleasure in singing and say that “much more can be expressed in singing than in drama theatre.”

– And which of the instrumentalists is involved?

– A small classical academic ensemble and an impressive pop group play there: electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, drums. Danya Orlov works with us, and his synthesizer has many important nuances.

– Are you already recognized in Hamburg as a soloist of the opera house?

– Probably, those who are interested in opera know, because I have repeatedly performed there at the opera house, sang in Don Giovanni by Mozart and Rigoletto by Verdi, in my favorite part of Gilda, which I would like to sing again.

— It seemed to me that your European career was launched by your debut in Salzburg as Donna Anna directed by Romeo Castellucci?

– Yes, that’s right, there was a start, thanks to Maestro Teodor Currentzis. I was received well at the Hamburg Opera, the performances were very interesting, modern – everything I like.

– You made your debut at the Bavarian Opera in Munich, and even in the most difficult part of Constanza in Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio. Did German become more comfortable after that?

– Singing in German in the German theater – for me it was stressful, a serious test. Fortunately, everything turned out to be a little easier. When I began to study with a coach in the theater, she said that we are trying too hard to sing in German, but in fact everything is more elegant, simpler, easier, and at some point I calmed down. For me, the recordings of Edita Gruberova were my teacher in the role of Constanta, although it is always dangerous to listen to someone too much, it is better to look for yourself.

– In German, you recently performed the Brettllieder cycle (“Cabaret Songs”) by Schoenberg, and it was heard how deftly you speak this language.

– I noticed that I like to sing in German more than in French, which I still can’t fully comprehend, and German began to seem to enter into my blood. It helped me a lot in mastering the text of “Cabaret Songs” that I had to relearn the role in the German language from Kirill in the performance, a coach worked with us, I felt the aroma of the German language, and in the hall of the Warehouse in Nizhny Novgorod I could already savor the text.

– In Germany, they did not plan to sing this vocal cycle somewhere? Maybe someday it will come to their theatricalization?

– Yes, and Alexei Goribol, who, by the way, suggested that I perform Schoenberg, dreamed, sharing with me such thoughts: “Maybe Kirill Serebrennikov will stage something for us?” Alexey builds programs very cool, he has intuition, a sense of the performance inside the music, so I completely trust him.

— Alexei Goribol is not the only pianist with whom you collaborate?

– In August, I will have a concert at the Berlin Philharmonic with Alexander Melnikov with the program of Rachmaninov. We worked with Sasha once, we performed Shostakovich, and now he invited me to perform with him. I was lucky to work with Andrei Korobeinikov, who gave a lot of valuable advice, after which I realized how vocally he thinks, he can tell the singer, help update the interpretation of a well-known composition. He suggested trying to sing the second part of Rachmaninov’s Vocalise, which is usually sung loudly, on the piano, and it turned out very beautifully, I was amazed at the weightlessness of the sound. This piece is emotionally very complex. When they ask me if I don’t want to move abroad, because I have every opportunity, I answer that with all the charms, in a week I start this “ah-ah-ah, ah-ah-ah”, I am sharp I feel this nostalgia when everything pulls inside, calling this feeling “Rakhmaninov’s vocalization”. I can only live at home.

– How can a Russian singer build a career in Europe today?

“Wherever I go, they treat me very well. Everyone knows that I am Russian, but no one spits either in the face or in the back, they are perfectly accepted everywhere. Once, my American colleague admitted to me on one of the projects that she doesn’t care what country I am from: “I see a wonderful person, a great professional, and this is the most important thing for me.” It explained everything to me.

What theaters have you performed in?

– Munich, two theaters in Hamburg, Salzburg, Maggio Fiorentino, where there was La Traviata with Zubin Meta. Meta is wonderful, a legend, they adore him, when he goes to bow, everyone literally squeals. There were performances in Luxembourg and at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, in Lucerne there was a concert performance of “Everyone does it this way”, where Cecilia Bartoli sang Despina.

– The geography of your performances, it turns out, is 50 to 50 between Russia and Europe?

– Yes, but this year I was more in Europe, because there were no productions for me in Perm, there was only a big solo concert. At the Nizhny Novgorod Opera House, where I became a soloist, they made very interesting offers to me, among them Leonid Desyatnikov’s Opera, the premiere of Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio. I go where they are waiting for me and where there is work.