Nina Shatskaya, Olga Kabo: “The performance based on Anna Akhmatova’s poems is a confession”

The interweaving of brilliant words and exquisite music to match poetry in a brilliant performance is what awaits this evening the most respectable audience – deeply intelligent and just joining the world of art, already mature and very young.

It is a harsh truth that people are going through difficult times today. However, it is precisely at such moments that everything superfluous, false, superficial falls away from the souls, and they open up to real art. True poems are complex, multifaceted, containing many truths, prophecies and faith, which makes them relevant for centuries. Poems born from a true gift of God. And it is given to only a few to bring them to the hearts of the public – equally gifted, inspired and talented performers. And it is not without reason that the performance, based on the poetry of Anna Akhmatova, performed by the talented vocalist, performer of romances and jazz compositions Nina Shatskaya and the master of artistic expression, actress Olga Kabo, has been in demand for many years.

The premiere of this performance took place in November 2011. Actress, Honored Artist of Russia Olga Kabo and singer, Honored Artist of Russia Nina Shatskaya appear in the play in the full force of their talent and with full theatrical power reveal Anna Akhmatova’s poetic gift on stage.

The performance begins with Akhmatova’s early, romantic lyrics, where music and blank verse are woven into a single narrative. The poem “By the Sea itself” is heard, as well as ballads based on the poems of the great poetess “To get sick properly”, “Darling”, “That night”, “Memory of the Sun”, “The Word of the Angel”, “Garden”, “Gap” , written by composer Zlata Razdolina.

In the second part, the emotional upsurge will reach its climax, which falls on the viewer in the finale with the words of Akhmatova’s great “Requiem”. Lines in which that terrible time lives, which the time will never come to forget. Lines that are impossible to read and listen to without tears.

The play was staged by director Yulia Zhzhenova.

The performers themselves told us how this stage performance originated.

Nina Shatskaya:

— Olga Kabo and I really love this project, it’s already more than ten years old, director Yulia Zhzhenova helped us bring it to life.

— Does the performance consist only of Akhmatova’s works?

– Only. The first part is lyrical. Olga reads the poem “By the Sea”, I perform lyrical ballads. And the second part is “Requiem”.

— “Requiem” is an incredibly powerful thing, it’s impossible to read without tears, and it’s probably very difficult to perform it on stage?

— I love this piece very much and sing it almost in its entirety, with small notes. I consider “Requiem” to be one of my strongest performances professionally. And in general, if the bottom line is to think about what a person lives for, then I sometimes think that my life was in order to perform this repertoire, in order to extend the life of these poems, to convey them to a wide circle.

— For an artist this is a very worthy sound. Have you loved Akhmatova since childhood?

– No. I grew up in Rybinsk during Soviet times, and I did not have any teacher who would have taught me such poetry. I was not a romantic girl, I was more of a boy, so mischievous. And when I graduated from a university in St. Petersburg, I stayed there, began to look for myself, a job, a teacher, and met accompanist Zlata Razdolina. She is a little older than me, a fragile young woman, from Leningrad, very emotional. And so she had huge cycles of Silver Age poetry. And she started showing me these romances. And now they sound in our project.

— How did the project itself originate?

— I was the first performer of romances based on Akhmatova’s poems besides the author himself. Because Zlata Razdolina is both an author and a performer, she sings herself. From the huge number of romances she wrote, I selected ten, and it seemed to me that this was not enough. Then we met Olya Kabo at some film festival, and she also already had her own program dedicated to the poetry of the Silver Age, and we decided that we needed to unite. She invited Yulia Zhzhenova, with whom she had already worked, and Yulia made us a very interesting program, laconic, which always causes an incredible storm of applause.

Question to Olga Kabo:

– Olga, why Akhmatova? When did the love for her poems come?

— Probably, with the first girlhood experiences, a desire appeared to find answers to “secret” topics in poetry. And, of course, she turned to women’s lyrics, to the poetry of Anna Andreevna. And I found surprisingly similar emotions in Anna Akhmatova’s poems; in her lines she lived the same passions as me…

— Nina sings romances based on poetry; as I understand it, you will read: what exactly and why did you choose this?

— The director of our project, Yulia Zhzhenova, decided the performance as an immersion into the poet’s work. The entire creative life of Akhmatova passes before the audience – from her youth, when she lived in Chersonesos with her aunt and every morning she ran barefoot to the sea and listened to the splashing of the waves, where she first felt her gift and her early poem “By the Sea itself” was written, which in my reading and became the basis of the narrative of our performance. And until the terrible years of the Yezhovshchina, when she stood in prison lines in Leningrad and where probably the most tragic work in world literature was born – “Requiem”, which was set to music by the composer Zlata Razdolina and brilliantly performed by Nina Shatskaya.

— What are your favorite works based on Akhmatova’s poems?

Olga Kabo:

— Depending on age and mood, different works are close… Now I’m “drowning” in “Poem without a Hero,” a piercing story about time, about an entire era and about myself, a mystical phantasmagoria of destinies and history.

Nina Shatskaya:

— Usually in a solo project I perform 24 works, and without fail, if “The Witch” was played, people came up later and asked: “What is this?” That’s how strong an impression this song has on the audience. Now this work is already known much better thanks to the “Voice” project, in which I participated. Another romance is called “I wish I could get sick properly”, by the way, Dima Bilan gave it to his duet in the fifth “Voice” – the youth were simply delighted! These songs, of course, are still very relevant today.

— Do you sing in a concert with an orchestra?

Nina Shatskaya:

– Yes, this is the Central Concert Orchestra of the Russian Police under the direction of the artistic director and chief conductor – Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, Police Colonel Felix Aranovsky. They are very professional. It was with them that the premiere of this program took place.

Last year we performed with the State Orchestra of Folk Instruments in Kazan – they did an amazing arrangement on folk instruments.

Olga Kabo:

— Ninochka and I tour a lot with our play. We are mainly invited by philharmonic societies, where we often perform with various symphony orchestras. Akhmatova’s poetry itself is very musical, and when picked up by Razdolina’s melodic and sensual music, it acquires an even deeper sound…

But in Moscow we rarely show “Memory of the Sun”. That’s why we are so happy to prepare for the performance on October 25 at the International House of Music, where, by the way, our premiere took place in 2011!

— Is there a difference in how the performance is perceived in Moscow and in the regions?

Nina Shatskaya:

– Same. They give a standing ovation and don’t let go. I personally am very lucky with the public. She is good, intelligent, refined, friendly. When they say: fans are pursuing… this doesn’t happen to me. No matter what hall I work in, the ticket takers always tell me that I have a very good audience. And even more so for Anna Akhmatova. Because people come who understand that they are coming to listen.

Olga Kabo:

– The audience at this performance of ours, as they say now, is zero plus! From small to large. We presented our program to a youth audience at the Orlyonok children’s camp, where after the performance tear-stained girls came up to us and admitted that they, too, had already experienced their first feelings, and how similar they were to those heard in the works they heard. And, of course, they performed in front of philharmonic spectators who never miss a single poetry or musical performance.

— That is, even in such difficult times, there is a demand among the public for Akhmatova’s, in general, very elitist poetry?

Olga Kabo:

— Poetry in general, and Akhmatova’s especially, is of a confessional nature. Any work is the personal experiences of the author, Akhmatova’s heart beats in the rhymes, her tears flow in the pauses…

So the audience hears passionate confessions, sad stories of partings or happy discoveries in the poems. It seems to me that the souls of listeners, regardless of their involvement and knowledge of poetry, respond to such sincere emotions and perceive them as their own. And poetry becomes a continuation of their personal stories.

Nina Shatskaya:

— We also have a strong promotion team. For example, Dmitry Metelkin and Olga Linyanaya made our poster – they have been designing all our projects for more than 20 years. It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the poster, and we suffered for a very long time – two women as an image of Akhmatova… But they managed to find the right solution. They made posters for us for both the Akhmatov and Tsvetaev projects, we consider them our co-authors. They also initiated the publication of my two books. I couldn’t even imagine how my travel notes and photographs could turn into books, but they insisted: we need to make a book. And they did. And the books went to the publishing house thanks to them, and were a great success. When they tell me: “It’s not difficult to make a book,” I don’t agree, because text and photos are not a book yet.” These are the brilliant assistants we have.

— You mentioned the performance based on the poems of Marina Tsvetaeva, tell us about it.

Nina Shatskaya:

— Romances based on poems by Marina Tsvetaeva were written specifically for me. Olga and I were already collaborating back then, and she wanted to do a Tsvetaeva project. To be honest, I didn’t understand how. Because if Akhmatova’s musical base was already there, then Tsvetaeva’s poetry was not there. It’s very difficult to find your own music. We searched and searched for a composer, and at the last moment Dmitry Selipanov appeared, then Eduard Artemyev recommended him. And Dima has already written very beautiful songs especially for me (it’s such a blessing to find your own composer!), a whole cycle has turned out. I love them very much. And Olya is there reading the diaries of Ariadna Efron.

– But this is a different performance? On October 25th will you show only Akhmatova?

Nina Shatskaya:

– That one is different. It’s called “I was looking for you…”. These are two of our works that I really appreciate and are proud of.

Olga Kabo:

— Very often we come to cities, first with Akhmatova (“Memory of the Sun”), then with Tsvetaeva (“I was looking for you…”). And the audience is ready for our meetings!