“We have the opportunity not to be afraid” – Newspaper Kommersant No. 166 (7367) of 09/09/2022

On September 11, the famous Brussels theater La Monnaie will host the premiere of Tchaikovsky’s opera The Queen of Spades directed by David Marton under the musical direction of Natalie Shtutzman. The performance promises to be one of the main events of the new season and a new word in the interpretation of the famous score. The part of Lisa is performed by the soloist of the Bolshoi Theater Anna Nechaeva, who told Vladimir Dudin about the environment of great musicians, breaking stereotypes and faithfulness to the text.

Have you ever performed at La Monnaie before?

— Yes, several years ago I performed here Francesca and Zemfira in Rachmaninov’s operas Francesca da Rimini and Aleko conducted by Mikhail Tatarnikov. Sergey Leiferkus himself performed in the Miserly Knight at that time – the Russian team was cool, which also included Sergey Semishkur and Dima Golovnin, with whom we have now safely returned here. After my debut, then I received an invitation to play Lisa. It was nice to be back – La Monnaie has an amazing atmosphere – so friendly, easy. Here they know how to gather very nice teams of performers and amazing musicians. The theater quartermaster, Peter de Caluwe, is very friendly, sociable, constantly in contact with us, comes to rehearsals, shares his opinion about what he saw and heard.

Are you meeting director David Marton for the first time?

– Yes, but this “first” happened in March 2020, when this production was supposed to premiere, but was postponed due to the pandemic. I remember how we all gathered at rehearsals then, when the situation began to escalate, every day and every hour it became more and more terrible. But in the three days of the first rehearsals, we met, managed to make friends. La Monnaie turned out to be one of the few theaters that did not completely close the project. Peter immediately wrote to everyone that the project was being transferred in the composition in which it was originally assembled. And David also made it clear to everyone that we will definitely meet later. The transfer time was strictly observed, and this cannot but cause admiration.

– That is, this “Queen of Spades”, unlike Pushkin’s, “means secret benevolence” – after all, it might not exist today, taking into account the sad new introductory geopolitical circumstances.

— In a sense, yes. In Europe, a lot of projects were not transferred, but simply disappeared forever, they were not restored, unfortunately. I was supposed to sing in Dvorak’s “Mermaid” in Australia, in the Metropolitan – in Prokofiev’s “Player”, but nothing happened. Only this year I began to travel abroad again, and before that I worked at the Bolshoi Theater and only in Russia.

How many different versions of The Queen of Spades have you performed so far?

“It seems to me that I still have quite a few of them. Recently, the performer of the part of Countess Anne-Sophie von Otter asked me the same question. When I answered that this was my “only fourth” Lisa, she was very surprised, saying that this was already a lot. Another question is that I often perform this part, there were many performances. At the Bolshoi Theater, Rimas Tuminas staged The Queen of Spades in 2018, and it is still running with great success. There were performances in Russia, there was a production at the San Carlo Theater in Naples, by the way, shortly before the pandemic at the end of 2019. The director was Barry Kosky, but I didn’t work with him, unfortunately.

– In Brussels, you have an exceptional company – take at least Ann-Sophie von Otter. By the way, is she a comfortable stage partner?

– You know, at first she seemed a little cold – probably such a mentality. She did not throw herself at anyone’s neck, she behaved very restrainedly. But it turned out that she can play tricks, laugh, she is very sociable, a very pleasant person and a great musician. Honestly, when I first listened to her as the Countess, my ear did not accept it, because in Russia we are a little used to other Countesses – singers with big voices, like Obraztsova, Arkhipova, Zaremba, Dyadkova, Bogacheva. Ann-Sophie has a high mezzo, not as deep as we are accustomed to. But at the rehearsal in the hall, I realized how interesting it works and sounds great. She is an amazing performer, sensitive to the text, to the meaning, understands every word that she sings.

– With such ingredients, this production claims to become a new word in the interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece, and, apparently, Natalie Stutzman at the podium is the main reason to think so.

— Natalie is an absolute miracle in our project. Firstly, this is just fire, a very charismatic personality, very cheerful. A similar feeling – a fireworks man who never stops, does not lose heart, does not remain in a state of slumber, all the time gushing out with emotions, fun, anecdotes, powerful energy – I once had from Elena Obraztsova when she gave me lessons in Mikhailovsky theater. Natalie Shtutzman is known primarily as a singer, a phenomenal contralto, but now she is mainly making a rapid career as a symphony conductor, developing as an operatic conductor as well. This is her fourth opera production. At the Met, she has two performances planned in one season – The Magic Flute and Don Juan. But we don’t feel at all that she had few productions.

The only thing is that at first it seemed to us that such a large form as Tchaikovsky’s opera, she does not quite the way we are accustomed to according to our traditions of performance, but unwritten traditions, transmitted “by blood”. Here we are taught to perform only what is written in the score, which sometimes seemed terribly inconvenient due to force of habit. For example, before the quintet “I’m scared” they usually pause, a kind of delay, which Pyotr Ilyich does not have, just as he does not have a slowdown in tempo. Tchaikovsky did not write simply at all. At first it was difficult to overcome myself. But now I sing it freely, as if I have been doing it for twenty years. Breaking stereotypes is always useful to sing as written by the composer himself.

– It is not surprising that she treats the text so scrupulously and reverently – she is a true barista, but what does she discover new in this painfully well-known score?

– First of all, she works with music in the most subtle way. Due to the fact that Natalie is a singer herself, she asks the orchestra members not only to listen to the singers, who already perfectly listen and hear us, but to literally sing, breathe with us. She herself breathes with us, tremendously feeling every slightest inconvenience. She immediately asked: “Do you want to slow down? We can do it with the orchestra.” And I know that this agreement will remain not only within the framework of the rehearsal, but it will always be so at the performances. After all, it often happens that you agree with the conductor on some pace, and then in the courage he forgets about everything and does it his own way. Under her leadership, we have a unique opportunity to pay attention to so many nuances, because the orchestra does not rumble – as it really should be. And we have the opportunity not to be afraid that we will not be heard in the hall, and to focus calmly on the music.

What does the director say?

– The production is modern. The director immediately designated the period – the 1980s. This is a very interesting time, when it was already clear that the Soviet era was leaving, ending, people were tired and no longer wanted to live in this, they were looking for something else. But there is still nothing new – a new understanding of the world, openness to it. And the boundary state is acutely felt in the production. People were running out of patience, it was felt that something should happen, some changes should happen. “We are waiting for change” – as Tsoi sang. Minimalistic decorations convey this atmosphere of the time.

Do you remember that era of impending change? Gorbachev time?

– I can’t say that I remember it so clearly, because I was still very small. For me, the world was absolutely beautiful and consisted of tall parents and tall trees.

– Are the costumes repulsive?

– Not! I was very afraid that it would be a terrible second-hand, something awkward would be put on us. But even in the 1980s, women still tried to dress feminine and beautiful, I remember that. There were always heels, skirts, dresses trying to compose from what was. The costume designer in the performance surprised me, the costumes turned out to be very interesting, conveying the flavor of the era. And Lisa looks very elegant.

– Countess, I suppose, some high-ranking party lady?

– The Countess is a former noblewoman with blue blood, who was out of work, with nothing. A bit of a city madwoman who leaves home, Lisa is constantly looking for her, because she leaves in an unknown direction and always comes to the same place, sits down somewhere in the park for a picnic with her silverware from a past life. She is thoroughly intelligent, not understanding what is happening, not wanting to accept the terrible reality for her.

Isn’t Lisa a teacher by any chance?

– We did not talk with the director about their professions, we ourselves come up with something. Lisa is quite socially prosperous, perhaps some kind of accountant. Both by blood and by her attitude, she is a girl with a subtle structure of her soul, who is aware of the incorrectness of the reigning way of life, she wants everything to be different, she wants freedom to express her emotions. Therefore, she feels a new breath in Herman, a poor man who did not find himself in this time, but brave, desperately striving for something more. And it excites her, inspires her.