On July 13 and 15 NOVAT is presenting a premiere of Aida opera by Verdi. Stage director Vyacheslav Starodubtsev has told us about a new fashion-opera genre and his aesthetic concept.
N.: Vyacheslav, Turandot opera that has been staged by you in our Theatre has an unusual genre tag — opera quest. Premiere of Aida by Verdi is coming soon — this time it is called fashion-opera. Would you say that your search for new solutions and forms is one of key points of your creed as a director?
— Search for new solutions is not a goal in itself, but is a result of delving into material. It’s not an attempt to be fancy, modern or notorious. On the contrary; I wend the way of music dramaturgy, from profoundness of music and storyline. From my point of view, the utmost avant-garde these days is a proper rendition of classics.N.: Perhaps, it is one of the most difficult challenges.
— Indeed. Opera is a fantastic realism that Vakhtangov was promoting in drama. I don’t like it when people say that opera is a conventional genre. Opera is a portal to outer space; it’s like a search for truth in celestial structures, not in everyday real life situations. The greatest goal of a director is not to make that artistic sincerity ridiculous and exaggerated, but on the opposite, to have it immersing into another reality and another life. There’s fairy tale, there’s life, there’s music that God gave us to remind us of Divinity.N.: Where do you think is that crossing point between opera art, theatre and fashion?
— Opera is a high art by nature; a kind of "haute couture" art. My goal is to make that sublimity comprehensible. There will be a lot of extraordinary costumes that were made using modern technologies. Of course, besides great costumes by Zhanna Usacheva and beautiful overall look of the production, there will be a bright dramatic story inside that love pyramid of Radames, Amneris, Aida. Who will stay on the top, at the cutting edge... I am not an adherent of storyline distortion, but I wanted to find new motives to characters’ actions. This gave birth to a new character that I created — a Child, who is a real boy on one hand, but on the other hand is a symbol of lost childhood and clarity.N.: So, this ambitious fashion-opera reference is not just a sales pitch?
— By no means. In the framework of a classical production I want to discover a unique aesthetic concept. For instance, there will be a cable bridge on stage in our production. But it’s not because I suddenly wished for a beautiful bridge to be there for no particular reason. Aida was composed in tribute to grand opening of Suez Canal; today there is a unique cable bridge there, it connects Asia and Africa — it’s a mind blowing landmark that enraptures and amazes no less than the pyramids in Giza! It is impossible to image how they built it. The same as it is still hard to grasp how the pyramids themselves were built. But it doesn’t mean that our bridge is an exact copy of the Suez one. It is essential to create an illusion, an image of an object on stage, but not to clutter it up with props. Say, a desert can be symbolic, like in Salvador Dali’s works, not by means of imitating sand and pyramids, but through feeling of sweltering heat, lack of air, by virtue of those smothering landscapes, although there will be real sand in our production as well.N.: Interesting, but how did this idea of drawing upon Dali’s work cross your mind?
— Why did we stick with this artist? Because he is a wise philosopher and a frightened child at the same time.
N.: But for all that, Aida is one of the most well-known classic examples of the genre.
— Exactly. I wish to present this classical Aida in a different aesthetic perspective. That is exactly why there will be references to Salvador Dali and luxurious costumes. With the help of up-to-date technology we are combining plastic, laquer, neoprene, other modern materials that are hardly ever used in fashion industry, let alone on-stage costumes. As a feature of costumes there will be peculiar tattoos resembling micro schemes on bodies of the Nubians. Now we are inventing. But all of this is being done through classical interpretation of the material.N.: Would it be fair to say that it is going to be a monumental production?
— Certainly. We are creating about 250 costumes, more than 150 people at once are going to be engaged on the stage; only in NOVAT it is possible to turn it into reality! When visiting a theatre, a person wants to see something different from what he sees out in the streets. My goal as a director is not only to make audience delve into another reality, but to get this sublimity across to every person. To make this "haute couture" comprehensible to a common person who visits a theatre for the first time in his life. Audience is always on the other side of footlights and runner carpets, as if glancing through a keyhole at luxurious costumes of artists and movie stars. Theatre is not just a chance to sneak a peek, but to become a part of that sublimity.
Photo by Zhanna Samuilova