Kazan once again to be conquered in October
… this time the city will be conquered by opera mania
The first opera laboratory for potential authors of new operas has recently opened in the theatrical space Ugol in Kazan. Top people from the world of opera, among whom there is cult film director of the new generation Vasily Barkhatov, will hold classes with composers, librettists, stage designers scenographers and directors. Read the details in the material of Realnoe Vremya.
School of excellence
The opera laboratory for young directors, scenographers, composers and librettists in Kazan has been initiated by the Fund for development of performing art Sforzando. The first stage of KaznOperaLab, finished on December 23th. The participants were attending lectures and workshops. Among the masters, giving classes in the lab, there were Vasily Barkhatov, music critic Dmitry Renansky, playwright critics Yevgeny Kazachkov and Mikhail Durnenkov, composers Alexander Manotskov, Elmir Nizamov, artist Ksenia Peretrukhina, and others.
By the results of the first stage, the attendees united in the teams composer-playwright-artist-director. For training in the laboratory, the curators selected: composers Leysan Abdullina, Ildar Kamalov and Ilyas Kamal; playwrights Syumbel Gafarova, Ruzalya Mukhametshina and Pavel Polyakov, artists Ksenia Shachneva, Lily Muhametzyanova and Leysan Khusainov; directors Regina Sattarova, Lily Akhmetov and Bulat Minkin. Not everyone were selected, the supervisors were assessing creativity of an applicant.
The second stage of the laboratory is the creation of a draft text of a chamber opera and the approval of the performers. By the way, they are given master classes. The third phase — the team presents libretto and musical sketches. The fourth stage is the screening of a sketch of the future performance. And finally, the fifth stage, is scheduled for October 2018, the premiere of the three operas of the young artists. Moreover, competition between teams is not provided, the result of the laboratory — three new chamber operas.
Theater critic, one of the curators of the laboratory Niyaz Iglamov joked at a press conference in Ugol: ''In October we are going to conquer Kazan once again.''
Laboratory — a reasonable format
In fact, the idea of such lab is more than commendable, young authors need mentoring, an opportunity to create not only for themselves, self-confidence, which will bring the first success. According to Daniyar Sokolov, who is the head of the project, the laboratory is important for the audience too, it is always interesting with what ''fresh heads'' are going to come up with. The productively working in Kazan Tatar Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet named after Dzhalil successfully closes the niche of classical art, as for the lab, it will help to new musical forms to appear in the city.
Vasily Barkhatov, who attended the recent press conference, shared experience of such laboratories, calling it ''a reasonable format.'' ''No one knows how many of these new works will become known later outside of Kazan,'' Barkhatov noted optimistically, noting that ''all operas were new once.''
At the press conference there was a question asked: ''Where will these three created in the lab operas be shown?'' According to Daniyar Sokolov, they will definitely find a site, but once again it is worth remembering that Kazan has long need a chamber music theatre, a theatre for musical performances, which stage could become a platform for experiments. But, in addition to showing new operas in Kazan, the organizers of the laboratory will attempt to show the newly written works in Moscow, they hope for assistance of the permanent mission of Tatarstan in Moscow.
However, as music critic Dmitry Renansky noted at the press conference, it is possible that operas will need not theaters, the premiere place will be dictated by the content and aesthetics of the performance. By the way, the organizers of the lab stressed that its participants would not be bound by any thematic canons, the themes of their future works they would choose by themselves, they are free to choose any theme.
