Venera Gimadieva on her debut at the Glyndebourne Festival as Donna Anna

opera premiere

Glyndebourne, England hosts one of the most famous opera festivals in Europe. In the new production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, the part of Donna Anna is sung for the first time by a Russian soprano Venera Gimadievawho told Vladimir Dudin about a new look at the old classics, the great benefits of singing Mozart and about the imminent return to the Russian stage.

There have already been interesting versions of Don Juan in Glyndebourne. Is this brand new?

— Yes, the Frenchwoman Mariam Clement, whose name I learned here for the first time, is showing her version of this opera here for the first time. And I am very glad to debut with her, because Mariam analyzes the images in a very interesting and detailed way, offering to look at them from the other side – not stereotyped, not stereotyped. Otherwise, she made me look at my heroine, Donna Anna. Previously, it always seemed to me that Anna was secretly in love with the main character, because the woman who was tried to be raped does not chase the rapist after that, and the opera begins with this. The director convinced me, saying that this is just such a property of character and she, as an aristocrat, still finds strength in herself.

And yet – unlike most other productions, in this Donna Anna and Don Ottavio really love each other. Moreover, the director makes the Commander, Donna Anna’s father, a great friend of Don Juan. Don Juan is a childhood friend of Donna Anna, the Commander dreamed of seeing him as a son-in-law. This, oddly enough, clarifies a lot, and further relationships between Anna and Ottavio line up logically. And Don Juan turns out to be a scoundrel.

– But how then did this “great friend” decide to finish off the Commander?

— Accident at the party. The commander, being drunk, noticed that his daughter was fighting with a man in a mask, under which Don Juan was hiding. There was a scuffle, during which the Commander accidentally slipped on the stairs, flew down from it and died. This is certainly an interpretation, but very convincing, which I did not expect.

– And the soloists are all young?

— Yes, all of them are about the same age as me, among them Andrey Zhilihovsky, the performer of the title part, and my Don Ottavio, Oleksiy Palchikov. Ruzanna Mantashyan as Donna Elvira is even younger. Leporello is the bass Mikhail Timoshenko from Russia, but has been living in Paris for a long time. Commander – a young Polish bass Jerzy Butryn. Andrey Bondarenko will replace Andrey Zhilikhovsky in the last three performances. Oleksiy Palchikov is from Kyiv, but has long lived with Ruzanna Mantashyan in Hamburg, he is an excellent tenor, with whom I sang twice in Lucia. All of us here in the multinational team communicate amicably, study Mozart.

– And who is conducting?

— Evan Rogister.

– Oh, so he was the musical director of the premiere of Lohengrin at the Bolshoi Theater on February 24, 2022.

– Yes. Now at rehearsals, he told us: “I really want to go back there again. I was just offered the Russian name that I had been dreaming about for so long.” But alas, everything came to a halt. We can only hope that everything will be fine. Evan did an excellent detailed job with us here, clarified all the nuances, carefully finished the text with us, like all our Italian coaches, since I, Andrey, Misha and Ruzanna are debutants in the games.

– And how do you feel about the part of Donna Anna, according to your feelings? Still, one of the pinnacles of the soprano repertoire. Got a plank?

– I’m afraid to jinx it, but yes, she is mine, she fits well with her voice. It is even difficult to compare it with any other party. Everything is quite even here, but there is also cantilena, and drama, and recitatives, and coloratura, it is very diverse.

– And I remember your debut on the stage of the St. Petersburg Conservatory Theater – in the small part of Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro.

— Yes, Barbarina was my first part, thanks for reminding me, after it I didn’t really sing Mozart, I sang mostly bel canto and the Russian repertoire, mostly the Queen of Shemakhan. A few years ago there were continuous “Golden Cockerels” – in Brussels, Madrid, Santa Fe, Amsterdam. In Mozart, after bel canto, everything is different. I had not only to relearn, but still everything was in a new way, and it turned out to be very useful. And now there will be a lot of Mozart in my life. I became a soloist with the Nizhny Novgorod Opera and Ballet Theatre, where I will make my debut as the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro and Constanza in The Abduction from the Seraglio.

– Many soloists who have visited Glyndebourne excitedly tell that they felt especially good there. And you?

— Yes, it’s really very good here, you feel like you’re on vacation. It’s like an English village. The bus here brings the artists to the place of work. I live with my family between Lewis and Glyndebourne, somewhere in the fields, in an incredibly beautiful place.

– And when will we expect you in Russia?

– After a pause, I will have many performances in Russia. In September I will return to Nizhny Novgorod, where I will sing in Carmen. On October 4, there will be a solo concert from Rachmaninoff’s romances in the Zaryadye chamber hall with pianist Pavel Nebolsin, and then many other things. It’s good to be at home too – I’ve traveled a lot for the past ten years.

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