Dmitry Vdovin Bolshoi Theater. Dmitry Vdovin from the master class arranged an attraction

- Dear Dmitry Yuryevich, brief biographical information about you can be found on the Internet, but let’s start again from the very beginning: with your family, from childhood. How and where did your introduction to the world of music, vocals, and opera theater begin?

I was born and raised in Sverdlovsk. My parents, and all my relatives in general, are entirely physicists and mathematicians. Mom is a teacher of higher mathematics at the Ural State University, dad is a physicist, he was the director of a large research institute, his uncle is also a physicist, his aunt is an algebraist, his brother is the head of. Department of Mathematics at the Academy, now in Yekaterinburg. The cousins ​​scattered all over the world are all mathematicians.

So I am the only exception, as they say, in the family not without... a musician!

But at the same time, everyone studied music in childhood: both dad and brother. But I just somehow “lingered” in this. He graduated from music school with a degree in piano, and entered GITIS to study at the Faculty of Theater Studies. And then my pianism turned out to be very useful, I lived with it, accompanying the vocalists. That is, it was a kind of “barter” - I learned vocals from friends and acquaintances and “repaid” them by playing arias, romances on the piano, and learning new works with them. I really wanted to sing myself in my youth, but my parents, being serious people, advised me to get a more reliable specialty first, so I graduated from college as a theater specialist, specializing in opera, and then graduated from graduate school.

Alas, I have not met a real vocal teacher who would believe in me and give me a start. Perhaps there were not enough personal qualities for a career as a singer-soloist, and thank God that I realized this in time. Everything that is not done is for the better. In general, I began to sing decently quite late, by the age of 30. By that time, many people in the opera world already knew me in a different capacity. The situation was delicate - in the Union of Theater Workers I “commanded” the musical theater. It was a short-lived association at the end of the Soviet Union, organizing huge festivals and competitions with million-dollar budgets and good intentions...

In the early 90s, I went to Belgium to improve myself as a vocal teacher, and when they offered me a contract with a fairly large agency as a singer, I suddenly realized that it was too late, as they say, “all the steam was gone,” or rather, I headed in the other direction - for teaching.

- But there are historical examples of late vocal careers - tenor Nikandr Khanaev, who began at 36 years old, bass Boris Gmyrya - at 33 years old, Antonina Nezhdanova made her debut on the professional stage only at 29.

Firstly, they lived in the early to mid-20th century; the closer they are to their contemporaries, the more difficult it is to find singers who start at 30 years old, and then, each has their own “margin of safety” in perseverance in achieving their goals.

When the Soviet Union collapsed, we organized a concert and acting agency “out of the ruins” of STD, which was quite successful. I remember those days with special gratitude, because for the first time at the age of 28 I began to travel abroad; for some reason they had not allowed me to go abroad before. This provided a huge listening experience, the opportunity to get acquainted with the best productions of operas on world stages, and to evaluate the voices of famous singers live. I discovered a new world for myself, where they sang completely different from ours, with rare exceptions.

I had to break some ideas in myself, because my hearing was “blurred” by the Soviet opera tradition, both in the good and bad sense of the word. I was rebuilt technically and stylistically, my taste changed. It was not easy, sometimes I did stupid things. For some time I studied with the guys out of interest; I don’t even remember taking money for lessons.

And then I was invited to teach vocals at the Gnessin School, at the department of musical theater actors. For me, they took the only student specially for the additional intake - Rodion Pogosov. He was 16 years old at the time, he had never sung and generally dreamed of becoming a dramatic actor. But he was not accepted into theater universities, and “out of grief” he entered the school and ended up with me. Already at the age of 19, in his 3rd year, he made his debut as Papageno at the Novaya Opera, and at 21 he became the youngest participant in the youth program at the Metropolitan, and so on. Now Rodion is a sought-after international artist.

- Well, even the “first pancake” didn’t turn out lumpy for you!

Yes, working with my first student required a lot of strength and energy from me. I forced him to practice vocals all the time, teaming up with his mother. These were not ordinary classes twice a week for 45 minutes, but lessons almost every day. Simply put, I chased him, overcoming resistance and reluctance to learn. You can understand - a very young boy, who also did not believe in his vocal capabilities. He even laughed at the singers; the very process of academic singing seemed ridiculous to him.

- It turns out that you had to study from scratch! And one gets the impression that Vdovin’s students - we know more about the graduates of the Choral Academy - are already prepared guys from childhood, singing from the age of 6-7, very competent musicians.

Now they say about me that I take the cream of the crop, the best voices, into my class. Should we take the bad ones? Or do I have to prove something to someone? Any normal artist (artist, master) always chooses the best. Yes, now young people come to me, seeing the results of my work, and I have the opportunity to choose. And at first they gave me different students. So I went through the full school of pulling out difficult students, and I think that this is necessary for a young teacher.

- Were there any completely hopeless options? For a person to lose his voice completely, or to leave his vocal career, even if it’s not your fault?

The extremely young age of the current newcomers is also one of the problems. Previously, people began to study vocals professionally at the age of 23-25, especially men, that is, being physically developed people, strong not only in body, but also in spirit, who had meaningfully chosen their profession. Now 15-16 year olds come to schools, and to the Choir Academy in my class - at 17 years old.

It turns out that at 22 they are already graduates. I had this guy, a very good bass player, he won competitions. He was immediately accepted into a youth program in one of the European countries, then into the theater. And that’s it - I haven’t heard anything about him for a long time, he disappeared. So-called fest contracts in repertory theaters are especially risky for very young vocalists. This means singing everything, whether it suits or does not suit your voice. Today - Rossini, tomorrow - Mussorgsky, the day after tomorrow - Mozart, and so on, right up to Bernstein and operetta. You look, not even a couple of years have passed, and instead of a voice there are remnants of former beauties.

- But in the Russian-Soviet tradition, a variety of styles and names in the playbill always alternated, and the leading soloists also sang not 6-7 “La Traviata” or “Pikovykh”, as now in the West, but 4-5 of the most diverse roles per month .

I believe that full-time companies and repertory theater are outdated, they are bad for everyone: artists, conductors, audiences. Firstly, there is always a shortage of rehearsals to keep current titles in decent shape. There are not enough rehearsals even in such powerful companies as the Metropolitan Opera in New York or the Vienna Staatsoper. So don’t think that everything is bad with us, and they are completely prosperous there. I can remember how my student made her debut at the Met in the most difficult leading role without a single stage rehearsal! So she came out and sang, and the turntable got stuck, and she started the aria from behind the scenes.

So I am not a supporter of the repertoire system; in our country I consider it a relic of Soviet times, not related to art, but connected only with labor legislation, ideology, etc. So now we are sitting at a dead end and don’t know what to do. Singers are not confident in their future, but, by the way, the profession of an opera artist is generally quite risky, the voice is too fragile an instrument, if in doubt, you can and should initially choose another field. The conductors are not happy because the singer cannot equally convincingly perform Mozart today and Prokofiev tomorrow. The public today is also spoiled and needs stars or new names. And compromises result that are detrimental to art.

In a free lanser situation, leading singers always have more chances to master the repertoire that suits them, to meet interesting conductors, partners of equal level, etc. And how carefully everything can be rehearsed in the case of a production team for a specific project!

- But then, in a situation where there are not even 5-6, but sometimes 12 performances of the same title in a row, don’t the artists experience the effect of automatism, like soloists in musicals? I have a hard time understanding how you can work hundreds of performances in a row on Broadway with one day off, often without replacement, portraying feelings, laughter and tears on stage...

Unlike Broadway, in the opera house the actors do not appear every evening (except in emergencies); there is always one or two days of rest. And performances are rarely performed more than five times in a production block. The best theaters, like the Metropolitan, are trying to gather the best performers of this opera around the world today. And believe me, in an atmosphere of high professionalism and perfection of every detail, it is much easier for the artist to concentrate on the image.

The Met example is also interesting for the public, because in a week you can listen to works of a wide variety of styles in the best performance. It’s no secret that visitors and tourists tend to go to the opera house more often than “natives”. So, while in New York in January of this year, in a few days I visited the talented baroque compilation “The Enchanted Island”, saw the sensational “Faust”, then “Tosca” and “The Daughter of the Regiment”. And for the slow-moving “locals,” the most successful titles repeat themselves after about six months, like “Anne Boleyn,” which opened the current opera season.

In general, the topic of various traditions of the existence of the opera house is incredibly interesting and difficult; each country has its own rational aspects that can be combined for good, you just need to know them and know how to do it.

- Personally, especially at the beginning of your teaching career, were you not hindered by your lack of stage experience?

At first, of course, yes, it was a hindrance! Naturally, when I sit in a master class with my beloved Elena Vasilyevna Obraztsova, I simply revel in her comparisons and figurative speech. Her vast experience, work with outstanding masters, plus her personal rich artistic imagination - all together it’s fascinating! When she works on a fragment from an opera or a romance that she knows well, she builds a whole world, created from knowledge and talent together, in which there is not only an acting, but also a director’s, and even a conductor’s element.

I'm learning all the time! I studied while working with the unforgettable Irina Konstantinovna Arkhipova, now next to Obraztsova, with Evgeniy Evgenievich Nesterenko, with the teachers of our Youth Program. I go through the riffs of new parts and productions, including foreign ones, with my students. All this is search, school, enrichment of personal practice. I was lucky in terms of time; I began actively teaching at an age when opera singers are usually busy only with themselves and their careers. I had the opportunity to immerse myself very deeply and widely in pedagogical problems - to gain pedagogical experience, to work with all types of voices, to study different repertoires.

- Let me make a somewhat unexpected comparison here. There is an opinion that the best obstetricians are men, because they are unable to understand or imagine the pains of labor and act more decisively and calmly.

Yes, perhaps the moment of my detachment from performance as such can be beneficial. I thought about this a lot and came to the conclusion that opera singing and vocal pedagogy are two different professions, similar in some ways, of course, but not in everything.

Just like there are, if we turn to medicine, a surgeon and a diagnostician. An excellent surgeon with “golden hands” may be poor at making a diagnosis, and vice versa. These professions require different knowledge.

Our pedagogical one is quite narrow when it comes only to vocal technique and requires a huge breadth of views when questions of the repertoire arise, knowledge of the singer’s profession from all sides. Yes, I don’t sing on stage, but I do it all the time in class, showing with my voice. I don’t play the piano in public, but I can accompany students well. I was a manager, so I can tell students about the pitfalls of contracts, about bad and good performance conditions. Except that I haven’t conducted or staged the opera myself, but, again, I perform these functions at rehearsals.

- And with all that, you, Dmitry, are an exception to the rule - a successful vocal teacher who has not performed on stage. Are there any other colleagues with a similar fate?

I can name Svetlana Grigorievna Nesterenko (the namesake of our great bass), we work together in the Youth Program of the Bolshoi Theater, she heads the vocal department at the Choral Academy. V. S. Popova. Among her students are Alexander Vinogradov, Ekaterina Lyokhina, Dinara Aliyeva and many other worthy singers. And the general public does not know many outstanding Western teachers as singers. And in general, we, vocal teachers, are fighters on the invisible front.

And despite all the complaints, the general level of singers in the world is now quite high, there is even a certain oversupply of them, but the shortage of worthwhile serious vocal teachers is constant, as it was a piecemeal profession, and remains so. That's the paradox.

At the beginning of the work, comments from experienced vocalists that I, they say, am not a singer myself, haven’t smelled makeup, haven’t tried this and that, they hurt, not too much, but they scratched me. And now I absolutely don’t care. I calmed down in this sense, I have so many tasks, and such responsibility for dozens of my successful students who have scattered around the world. We need to keep them from making mistakes, from trying to interfere with their repertoire, we need to write to them, call them, convince them. Up to the point of conflict - this is rare, but it has happened that it ended in a quarrel and a breakup (not on my part). Everyone wants to be adults, and at the same time everyone is vulnerable, like children! They sometimes don’t understand that their good singing is my deep interest, and not that I’m such a tyrant with a whip, I came to a play or concert to harshly criticize them.

- One very old and wise teacher at a music school always immediately after a concert only praised the students, and postponed the “debriefing” until the next day. Because the stage is adrenaline, they still won’t understand criticism seriously in the euphoria of applause, but the child’s wings and desire to play music can be broken off with a sharp remark.

In this sense, I have a difficult character. I know that I’m doing wrong, being an emotional and tough person, but I can’t always restrain myself, although I try.

Recently there was one concert that was extremely unsuccessful. This is how it turned out - a difficult situation, few rehearsals, poor contact with the orchestra. At the end, I went to the guys and simply quoted E.V. Obraztsova again: “Comrades, today we had not a theater, but a club named after Tsuryupa.” Everyone, of course, was very sad, but this did not stop the second concert the next day from going much better!

Sometimes, of course, you hurt your students. But at the same time I say: guys, but I also hurt myself and offend myself with comments, I don’t blame you for everything, these are our common mistakes, I myself don’t sleep at night, I suffer, I analyze.

- A teacher who does not scold is the same doctor who does not treat!

There are also issues of mental differences. One of my colleagues, a very famous pianist and a wonderful teacher in America, once raised her voice in anger and threw the notes towards a student. There is an investigation, police, scandal... Therefore, in the USA it was not easy for me to get used to working in this regard: well, sometimes I want to add emotions, raise my voice to the student, but this is impossible there.

But the students there are different! I was shocked on my first visit to the master class in Houston. A good young baritone came to me and showed me Eletsky’s aria. I offered him an extra lesson in the evening, after everyone else. He wanted to go through Figaro's Cavatina from Seville. But at 18 o’clock, minute by minute, the pianist got up and left - her working day was over, everything was strict. I myself realized that I would get too lost in Rossini’s bravura accompaniment, and said: “Would you like to sing Yeletsky again?” He readily agreed and amazed me - in the few hours that had passed since the morning class, he fixed everything! All my comments on phrasing, pronunciation, intonation, acting - everything has been taken into account!

“How are you doing this?” - I ask him. “Maestro, I sat down, looked at the notes for 15 minutes, listened to the recording of our lesson, comprehended what you said - and the aria is now ready.”

It was a joyful shock for me! Returning to Moscow - how he reproached his native students with this incident, until you tell them twenty times, they won’t do it! They come to classes without a recorder, sometimes even without a pencil and an extra copy of the sheet music to take notes. What can I say? You have to be tough.

- There are also girls in your class. Is there a difference in the approaches?

To some extent, it’s easier for me with guys, but without girls in the class it would be just boring! Of course, a woman’s voice requires me to have a different approach to vocal reality and greater concentration. Different material, and, accordingly, different tools. It requires more thought, more effort, and even technical knowledge and experience. But, as life has shown, in general, I can do it with women’s voices. And in the classroom, the presence of different genders gives a huge advantage in terms of repertoire; ensembles and duets can be performed.

- Is there a general crisis in world vocals at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries? compared, for example, with 60-70 of the 20th century and if so, why?

If you think about it this way, then the crisis has always existed. During the heyday of Callas and Del Monaco, there were people who spoke with longing about the times of Ponselles, Gigli and Caruso, and so on, going back into the depths of time, to the beginning of the 19th century, right down to completely legendary names. This is from the series: “The sky was bluer and the grass was greener.”

In principle, the school has become better and more equal in different countries, because we began to live in a single information space and got the opportunity to hear, often live or in very recent recordings, all the best on the world’s opera stages. For many music lovers, boarding a plane and within a few hours finding themselves in any music capital has become an accessible reality.

In my opinion, the crisis lies elsewhere. There are quite a lot of strong professionals now, the unemployed are increasing among the middle management, but there are very few outstanding, extraordinary voices. And not so much in beauty, but in power and volume of sound.

- I join you entirely - I can recognize few of today’s even the best opera singers without an announcement on the radio, although the “old men” - instantly, with two notes!

And these are also the costs of technology! Everyone began to sing too equally well. Many former greats were recognizable, extraordinary and beautiful not only for their merits, but also for their “divine irregularities,” like the incomparable Callas. There is a lack of not only bright timbres, but above all individuality, with rare exceptions. Partly because singers have now become extremely dependent on the director’s dictates and their profession is not in the first row in terms of importance for the opera theater.

- Oh, our favorite topic about the “director”! How do you feel about her?

Now is a period in musical theater that we all experience, like illness or bad weather. Remember when we studied the history of music and talked about the “fall of opera” in the Baroque era, about the “concert in costumes”? In the middle of the 20th century, along with Callas, Luchino Visconti reigned on world stages; opera began to merge with the world of drama and cinema, draw images from painting, and in some ways rise to the artistic level. But, as a result, the opera house went to the other extreme, mannerism. This is especially radical in Germany, so much so that Peter Stein already said somewhere when it came to German opera directing: “Sorry, but in this context I am uncomfortable calling myself a German director, I don’t consider myself one.”

But it’s interesting that for centuries there has been talk about the death of opera. She always indulges in some extremes. But when, it would seem, everything is over, suddenly she manages to find some new means and again appear in all her beauty.

- Yes Yes! That’s why traditional costume productions, like “Werther” in 2010 at the Opéra Bastille in Paris, “Adrienne Lecouvreur” last season at Covent Garden, or the most recent “The Enchanted Island” at the Met, draw applause from the first opening of the curtain. .

But I wouldn’t want to look like a complete orthodox, retrograde and conservative in this situation. There are amazingly subtle and profound modern opera productions.

Everyone determines the degree of persuasiveness and talent of the director himself, and I have also developed a personal opinion on this matter. I believe that if the production has its own deep logic, if every “gun fires”, then the production is a success. And if the director simply gathered into a play all the images and metaphors that he had saved up from previous years of inactivity, and could not make ends meet, and we sit and do not understand - then why is this? In theory, literally “walking on your head” can be convincing, as Nathalie Dessay demonstrated in Ariadne auf Naxos.

- But can’t vocal master Vdovin speak out that walking upside down while singing is difficult and not physiological, to stand up for his students?

No, unfortunately, I can’t say anything, although sometimes I get indignant at many things. In the theater, all people are dependent, and must be loyal to the director’s plan. I sometimes see that people are embarrassed to the point of shame on stage in some director’s arrangement. What artistic persuasiveness are we talking about here! And the saddest thing is that, apart from selfishness and whim, sometimes this does not make any sense. But on the other hand, I agree that it is possible to show an artist even in an ugly form, if there is a truly deep artistic purpose in this.

I am a theater expert by first education, whose first director was Pavel Aleksandrovich Markov, and whose main master was Inna Natanovna Solovyova, great people. I found good times for the theater - I went to performances by A. Efros, G. Tovstonogov, Y. Lyubimov, and there were so many tours in Moscow...

- Are there students who do not want to “bend under” the tyranny of directors and imagine themselves only in the pure, chamber-concert genre?

I met one such person, although he was not my student. He has everything to become an outstanding phenomenon of our time - this is bass Dmitry Beloselsky. He left the choir and for a long time sang only cantata-oratorio music and concerts. I didn't want to go to the opera. Only recently, at 34 years old, he changed his mind, came to the Bolshoi Theater, and, thank God, that’s the case. At this age, he has a better chance of not leaving the race prematurely, and of building a long, successful career with intelligence and understanding. Dmitry now has amazing success wherever he performs. From the Metropolitan to the Bolshoi. But, unfortunately, it is difficult for a “pure” concert singer to survive financially; the profession of a chamber performer is practically dying. Alas!

- Does the concept of “Russian vocal school” make sense these days? In this regard, at the graduation concert of the Bolshoi Theater Youth Program last spring, which you, Dmitry, head, it was unpleasantly surprising how much better and more convincing young singers cope with Western music, and how problematic it is for them to perform Russian.

The Russian school undoubtedly exists, since there is a huge opera heritage and the Russian language. And as a component - theatrical tradition. The Russian repertoire itself dictates a different technical approach than works of Italian, French, and German music. The problem, in my opinion, is that our music is mainly designed for very strong voices, for mature singers. Since most of the operas were written for the two Imperial Theaters, which were always famous for their powerful and deep voices. The question of where to find the real Herman or Marfa for “Khovanshchina” today is becoming increasingly difficult to solve...

By the way, in America Tatiana is considered a stronger age group than even Lisa in “Spade”. And Yeletsky is stronger than the Count in The Marriage of Figaro. Lensky and Onegin are also not considered youth roles, as is customary here, only because Pyotr Ilyich wrote his lyrical scenes for students of the Moscow Conservatory. But there is a very dense orchestration and a complex vocal tessitura, with large leaps to the top and bottom of the range, which, believe me, as a teacher, not all young singers can do. And considering how problematic the acoustics are in many halls, and how loud orchestras like to be, you need to have very powerful, strong voices to endure all this. Sorry, but I think that Glinka’s Antonida cavatina, for example, is so difficult to write that for its good performance the soprano should immediately be given a medal in the wings! Another delicate point is that Russian composers, for all their genius, did not always master the subtleties of vocal writing. And this is understandable - the opera tradition itself in Russia is not that old, and many of its representatives learned it themselves.

More about Glinka, in connection with the sensational last premiere of “Ruslan”, now I’m only talking about the vocal side, because there were statements in the press that, they say, there is no one really to sing in comparison with the previous production of the Bolshoi Theater in the 70s by B.A. Pokrovsky. I will say as a living witness and listener - yes, in that performance there were the brilliant Ruslan - Evgeniy Nesterenko, Lyudmila - Bela Rudenko, Tamara Sinyavskaya - Ratmir. But among the abundance of characters (and the performance was performed in 2-3 casts), there were singers who, for unknown reasons, appeared on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater, and, it is no secret that there were performances, upon going to which one could forever lose interest in opera as such.

Let me return again to the division of genres - there are wonderful singers who are unique in Mozart’s operas, and that’s all. And others should sing exclusively Russian music - this is their strong point. But when they start singing both this and that, it’s worse for Mozart, Glinka, and the listeners.

- Unfortunately, not all singers have their own sober analytical mind and the will to refuse adventurous projects, like your Dmitry Korczak, who was already offered to sing Herman!

Yes, Dima is great in this sense, but the fact that there is so little Russian music in his repertoire, because his voice is too light, is a pity, he does it very well. And Vasily Ladyuk, by the way, too. I remember the evening when he performed Russian romances - although I don’t like orchestrated chamber works, Mikhail Pletnev did it amazingly well; it was one of the best concerts for insight into the meaning of music!

In general, in order to sing Russian music well, you need to work very hard to get rid of a huge number of our own cliches, from losing the feeling of freshness. Sometimes foreigners come up with amazing new shades, and we sometimes unwittingly perceive tradition as an urtext, clicheing the recording of a recognized classic of the Russian scene from a long time ago.

- About “listening to” old recordings. The statement of Svyatoslav Teofilovich Richter has long sunk into my soul that modern youth, spoiled by the availability of recording equipment, get used to constantly controlling themselves from the outside, after performance. And previous generations of musicians, deprived of this benefit of civilization, developed the so-called “pre-hearing”, that is, the ability to feel the next musical phrase in advance, with the inner ear.

To the point. I recently heard an audio recording from the Met - “The Marriage of Figaro”. And during ensembles, sometimes I could not understand, sitting without notes, who was sounding now - the Countess, Suzanne or Cherubino. Because all three, sorry, are little Renee Flemings! Of course, the availability of sound recordings of everything and everyone, You Tube, etc. leave their mark on modern performers, and the clichéd interpretation comes from here.

- But do you personally allow students to use technology in lessons and performances?

I allow it, yes. As a theater person, I understand that when you start setting up tasks with the guys, looking for the origins of this or that musical image, causes and consequences, then the cliches go away, the pressure of other people’s audio and video recordings goes away.

- Do singers need a historical context, knowledge about the time and place of action of their hero, about the biography of the author?

Well, of course! An opera artist or singer must be an educated person! To fill a work, a text with meaning - even in your native language - you need to understand not only the words, but also the entire situation around the character, plot, historical connections, if such is the material. It is terrible when young people do not know the names of the poets who wrote the lyrics to romances, or are at a loss where Flanders is located, which is sung about in the aria from Don Carlos. Or he doesn’t realize that the aria is addressed to a partner and, essentially, this is a duet.

The most important thing is to develop artistic imagination in the singer, to make him see and understand what is in the depths and between the lines.

- Partly a provocative question: what do you prefer - the singer’s brilliant vocals combined with limited artistry and nondescript appearance, or, on the contrary, bright artistry with very moderate vocals?

Personally, I would now prefer to stay at home in such a situation! But, seriously, in opera, brilliant artistry combined with mediocre vocals is inappropriate; a vocalist may not be outstanding in terms of strength or timbre, but he must fully master his instrument. Otherwise, in no way, a slender figure, correct facial features and acting skills will not save you if you completely miss the notes - what to do, a synthetic genre.

That is why we so value the rarest examples of the harmony of everything: a phenomenal voice, musicality, enormous acting temperament combined with bright, very courageous beauty - such was Vladimir Andreevich Atlantov, who reigned on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater. I was lucky enough to communicate with him during my student years. Atlantov, probably, was not an example of an ideal, refined vocal school, but he gave me a lot in terms of understanding the process of opera singing, in what a real Artist should be.

Interviewed by Tatyana Elagina

Dmitry Yurievich Vdovin(b.) - Russian opera figure and vocal teacher, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, professor at the Academy of Choral Arts.

Artistic director of the Youth Opera Program of the Bolshoi Theater of Russia.

Biography

Born on April 17, 1962 in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg). He graduated from the State Institute of Theater Arts (now RATI) in Moscow, and then studied at the graduate school of this university under the guidance of Professor Inna Solovyova as a theater (opera) critic, published in major central newspapers and magazines. Subsequently, he underwent retraining and graduated from the Academy of Choral Arts. V. S. Popova as a vocalist and vocal teacher. From 1987 to 1992 - employee responsible for work in the field of musical theater of the Union of Theater Workers of the USSR. He trained as a vocal teacher at ECOV - the European Center for Opera and Vocal Arts in Belgium under the guidance of the head of the vocal department of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Michael Elisen (1992-1993). In 1992, Dmitry Vdovin became the artistic director of the Moscow Center for Music and Theater, an art agency that participated in joint creative projects with major international theaters, festivals and music organizations. Since 1996, D. Vdovin has collaborated with the great Russian singer I.K. Arkhipova as a teacher and director of her Summer School, co-host of her television and concert programs. From 1995 - teacher, from 2000 to 2005. - Head of the vocal department of State Medical University named after. Gnesins, in 1999-2001 - teacher at the Russian Academy of Music. Gnesins, since 2001 - associate professor, head (until 2003) of the department of solo singing at the Academy of Choral Art named after. V. S. Popova, since 2008 - professor at AHI. D. Vdovin gave master classes in many cities of Russia, as well as in the USA, Mexico, Italy, Latvia, France, Poland, Monaco, and Switzerland. He was a regular guest teacher at the Houston Grand Opera's Youth Program (HGO Studio). From 1999 to 2009 - artistic director and teacher of the Moscow International School of Vocal Mastery, which made it possible for the largest opera teachers and specialists from Russia, the USA, Italy, Germany, and the UK to come to Moscow to work with young singers

Member of the jury of many prestigious vocal competitions - the International Competition named after. Glinka, 1st and 2nd All-Russian Music Competitions, International Competition Le voci verdiane (Verdi Voices) in Busseto, International Vocal Competition named after. Viotti and Pavarotti in Vercelli, AsLiCo in Como (Italy), International competitions in Paris and Bordeaux (France), Competizione dell'opera Italiana in Moscow and Linz, International competition in Montreal (Canada), competition of the TV channel "Culture" "Grand Opera" ", Elena Obraztsova competition in St. Petersburg, vocal competition in Izmir (Turkey), International competitions named after. Moniuszko in Warsaw, "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" in Nuremberg, Opera de Tenerife in Spain.

Since 2009 - one of the founders and artistic director of the Youth Opera Program of the Bolshoi Theater of Russia. Since 2015 - guest teacher at the International Opera Studio of the Zurich Opera. Master classes at the Metropolitan Opera, New York (Lindemann Young Artist Development Program).

Musical consultant for Pavel Lungin's film "The Queen of Spades" (2016).

Also D. Yu. Vdovin was the deputy manager of the creative teams of the Bolshoi Theater opera troupe (2013 -2014)

“We, vocal teachers, are fighters on the invisible front”

The head of the Bolshoi Theater Youth Opera Program, teacher Dmitry Yurievich Vdovin was appointed deputy head of the Bolshoi Theater opera troupe Makvala Kasrashvili

Dmitry Yuryevich Vdovin was born in Yekaterinburg, where his professional development took place.In 1984VdovinGraduated from the State Institute of Theater Arts (now RATI) in Moscow, and then studied at the graduate school of this university under the guidance of Professor Inna Solovyova as a theater (opera) critic, published in major central newspapers and magazines.

From 1987 to 1992 - employee of the Union of Theater Workers of the USSR, responsible for work in the field of musical theater. Trained as a vocal teacher at the European Center for Opera and Vocal Arts in Belgium (1992-1993).

In 1992, Dmitry Vdovin became artistic director of the Moscow Center for Music and Theater, an art agency that collaborated with majorthe world's leading theatres, festivals and music organisations.Since 1996, for several years, Vdovin collaborated with the great Russian singer Arkhipova as a teacher and director of her Summer School, co-host of her television and concert projects. Since 1995 he has been a teacher, from 2000 to 2005 - head of the vocal department of the State Medical University named after. Gnessins, in 1999-2001 - teacher at the Russian Academy of Music. Gnesins, from 2001 - 2003 - associate professor, head of the department of solo singing at the Popov Academy of Choral Art.

According to colleagues and students, Dmitry Yuryevich is one of the best and most sought-after vocal teachers in our country.

Dmitry Vdovin gave master classes in many cities of Russia, as well as in the USA, Mexico, and Italy. For the last 10 years he has been a permanent guest teacher of the Youth Program at the Grand Opera Xewston.

Since 1999 - artistic director and teacher of the Moscow International School of Vocal Mastery, which made it possible to invite the largest opera teachers and specialists from Russia, the USA, Italy, Germany, and Great Britain to work in Moscow. The brightest young Russian opera stars of the first decade of the new century passed through this School.

Vdovin was a jury member of many vocal competitions - Bella Voce in Moscow (2004-2007, 2009), as well as the International Competition named after. Glinka (2003-2007). Since 2009 - artistic director of the Youth Opera Program BBolshoi Theater of Russia.

Students of Dmitry Yurievich Vdovin: Ekaterina Syurina, Alina Yarovaya, Albina Shagimuratova, Dmitry Korchak, Vasily Ladyuk, Maxim Mironov, Sergei Romanovsky...- laureates of many prestigious competitions, soloists of the largest theaters in the world, including the Bolshoi Theater, La Scala, Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, Vienna State Opera, Paris Opera, Real Madrid.

The famous vocal teacher, head of the Bolshoi Theater Youth Program Dmitry Vdovin conducted an interactive master class at the Yuri Bashmet Winter International Music Festival in Sochi.

When I came here, I wasn’t sure that anyone would be interested in a vocal teacher’s master class during the Olympics,” Vdovin admitted straight away. - But you got together, and that means there is interest in music even at the Olympics. We work with the voice, and this is not an instrument that can be cleaned with a cloth and put in a corner. This is the whole difficulty of our work.

A special feature of master classes at Yuri Bashmet festivals is geography. Thanks to cooperation with the Rostelecom company, a teacher who comes to the festival conducts a master class in many cities at once. Video sets are installed in the halls of music schools, and the sound and picture goes to the organ hall of the Sochi Philharmonic without any delay. This time the master class was visited and, most importantly, Rostov, Yekaterinburg, Samara and Novosibirsk took part in it.

But we started with Sochi. The first to dare to go on stage was David Chikradze, a 2nd year student at the Sochi College of Arts; he sang an aria from Handel - the second romance of the Demon - to the famous teacher.

You have a beautiful baritone, but for public performance you chose a piece where you had to go beyond your range. But first, an important note. When coming to a master class, you must have three sets of notes - one for the accompanist, one for the teacher, and the third for yourself. Why for yourself? Because you are worried, and you will probably forget a lot of what was said, so you need to make notes on your copy.

Dmitry Vdovin reprimanded young artists especially strictly for unclear or incorrect pronunciation - both Russian and Italian.

Pronunciation is very important. Often you have to sing in Italian, in addition, several hundred million people speak this language. Correct pronunciation will give you the key to performance, listen to the beauty of the Italians' pronunciation of phrases!

Another quality that Vdovin did not ignore is the organic nature of the singer.

Singing should be spontaneous and natural. As Oscar Wilde said, the hardest thing is to be natural. Likewise, for singing, the main thing is to remain natural. Now in opera, the role of the theater director has become more important, opera artists need to work a lot on their characters, and naturalness is the most important assistant for the role. Sing with a great feeling of pleasure - enjoy the flying beautiful sound.

And the master reminded the baritone David:

Handel does not have any parts for baritones; baritones themselves appeared only in the 19th century. We will leave this aria to tenors and counter-tenors, and you will look for something more suitable for your voice.

The next audition was a 12-year-old boy from Samara, Valery Makarov, who demonstrated a beautiful treble beyond his years.

You have a beautiful voice and musicality, and this is important. Individual specialists work with children; I do not do this, but I will say a few thoughts. This is a tender song! Not the one where you need to show the strength of your voice, pressure. As soon as you switched to soft colors, it immediately became clear what you were singing about. What is the song about? The hero of the song has an old mother, and he sings to her that he will definitely return to her and hug her. You probably have a young mother?

Yes! - Valera answered without hesitation.

And the hero of this song is already old. And as for pronunciation. There are words in Italian that are pronounced "mamma" and "mama" - they have different meanings - "mama" and "I love you", respectively. In this song - "mamma". Try to sing more soulfully. You have a beautiful timbre - and timbre is the most beautiful thing in a voice.

Another representative from Samara sang with excessive pressure. Vdovin began to explain about frugality in visual media.

Before the melody rises, the voice is covered. Covering up is not to push the voice back and down, but to make it brighter! You need to sing more musically. When a young man comes out, naturally, everyone expects a voice, but even more, they expect talent. There are many voices. But it happens that his voice is small, but everyone says - how he sings! Pay attention to the presentation of the material itself.

Novosibirsk was represented by 18-year-old Irina Kolchuganova, tenderly and timidly singing Gilda's aria from Verdi's Rigoletto. Vdovin noticed how she called the work.

When you announce which aria you will sing, always add the first words of the aria to the title - and all listeners from different countries will understand what exactly you are going to sing.

You sing tenderly. The problem with our singers, whom I listen to at auditions at the Bolshoi Theater and at competitions, is that they do not appreciate tenderness. The performers immediately want aggression, a powerful presentation, and try to sing those parts that were written for singers of a stronger apparatus. And tenderness - it touches the listeners’ heart. Preserve this tenderness and fragility in yourself - make it your advantage.

Vdovin gave another valuable advice about the ability to present material.

Another name for this aria is “Story”. You need to see the person to whom you are telling this story, and it is to him to tell the aria. Gilda tells how she sneaked behind her lover - well, you can’t sing forte here! Everyone knows how it happens during first love - sneaking around, this is a special emotion - and it must be shown to the listener.

Rostov was next in the video broadcast. 21-year-old baritone Vadim Popechuk sang Leoncavallo extremely emotionally. The first thing Vdovin noticed was the thunderous applause in the hall of the Rostov music school.

An artist is such a difficult profession that he needs to be supported and - clap! Often many specialists sit in the hall of the Bolshoi Theater during auditions, but the artist sang and no one clapped. Below their dignity. And you have to clap!

The master said about Vadim’s performance:

21 years old is still young for a baritone. The aria is written for a full voice, a mature baritone. Leoncavallo already has a lot of emotions, and you don’t need to lean on emotions, stay legato, otherwise it’s not Italian, but gypsy intonation that appears.

Next, Dmitry Vdovin formulated another important postulate:

Our profession is related to mathematics, oddly enough. You have to calculate every pause, every note, the duration of every fermata. For what? It is important for the audience to be infected by your emotions in the proposed circumstances - we are in the theater. The vocalist must know in advance exactly the duration of each note, know when he will inhale - calculate everything down to the millisecond.

And then the real attraction began. In the hall, Vdovin noticed baritone Andrei Zhilikhovsky, who participates in the Youth Program of the Bolshoi Theater, which he supervises, and came to Sochi to sing in Yuri Bashmet’s production of Eugene Onegin. And Andrei Zhilikhovsky invited him to the stage, inviting him to sing a duet with Vadim, verses in turn. Noticing Zhilikhovsky’s perplexed look, he explained that the accompaniment would be from Rostov. And it worked! The connection turned out to be stable, without the slightest delay (which we often see in live broadcasts of TV channels) - two baritones sang in turn, merging in unison on the code.

I don’t really like master classes, because there’s little that can really be fixed. But let me give some thoughts... Now the situation is amazing, we are sitting on the shores of the Black Sea, Andrey is from Moldova, Vadim and the accompaniment are in Rostov. We have our own Olympic Games!

Another inclusion from Yekaterinburg. 15-year-old tenor Alexander sang Tchaikovsky's romance “Among the Noisy Ball.”

The material chosen is a little inaccurate - there are a lot of good songs, but this romance is for many older people, with a lot of life experience. But you sang so touchingly that it is very valuable, and you need to preserve this thread for the rest of your life. Sing all the phrases in Russian. Not “svirelli”, but “flutes”. Not “thin,” that’s an outdated pronunciation, but “thin.” Sing all the phrases as they should sound according to the rules of the Russian language - and it will turn out much more understandable and powerful. You can’t sing the vowel “U” - it goes into “O”, and the perception of the text suffers from this, which is especially important for a romance.

Finally, Dmitry Vdovin gave advice to all young performers.

I always advise young artists to sing everywhere and to everyone you can. Show up everywhere, take part in competitions. The country is big, and it’s very difficult to get through. Anyone can apply for admission to the Bolshoi Theater Youth Program. An announcement about recruitment to the Youth Program will soon appear on the Bolshoi Theater website, submit an electronic application - and we will listen to you. Remember that there will always be a person who will listen to you somewhere at the festival, advise you, invite you somewhere, help you - this is how our professional life works.

The master class ended with Tchaikovsky’s romance “To the Yellow Fields” based on the verses of Alexei Tolstoy, performed by baritone Andrei Zhilikhovsky.

Vadim Ponomarev
Photo - Alexey Molchanovsky

From 1987 to 1992 - employee responsible for work in the field of musical theater of the Union of Theater Workers of the USSR.

In 1992-93 Trained as a vocal teacher at the European Center for Opera and Vocal Arts (ECOV) in Belgium under the guidance of Michael Elisen, head of the vocal department of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

In 1992, Dmitry Vdovin became the artistic director of the Moscow Center for Music and Theater, an art agency that collaborated with major theaters, festivals and music organizations.

Since 1996, Dmitry Vdovin has collaborated with the great Russian singer Irina Arkhipova as a teacher and director of her Summer School, co-host of her television and concert projects.

Since 1995 - teacher, in 2000-05. - Head of the vocal department of the State Music College named after. Gnesins, in 1999-2001. - teacher at the Russian Academy of Music named after. Gnesins.
In 2001-03 - Head of the Department of Solo Singing at the Academy of Choral Art named after. V.S. Popova (since 2001 - associate professor, since 2008 - professor at AHI).

Dmitry Vdovin gave master classes in many cities of Russia, as well as in the USA, Mexico, Italy, Canada, Latvia, France, and Poland. He was a regular guest teacher at the Houston Grand Opera Youth Program (HGO Studio).

In 1999-2009 - artistic director and teacher of the Moscow International School of Vocal Mastery, which made it possible for the largest opera teachers and specialists from Russia, the USA, Italy, Germany, and Great Britain to come to Moscow to work with young singers. The brightest young Russian opera stars of the first decade of the new century passed through this School.

Member of the jury of many prestigious vocal competitions - the International Competition named after. M. Glinka, I All-Russian Music Competition, International Vocal Competition named after. G.B. Viotti (Italy), International Competitions in Paris and Bordeaux (France), International Competition Competizione dell’opera, International Competition in Montreal (Canada), Competition of the TV channel “Culture” “Grand Opera” and many others.

Since 2009 - artistic director of the Youth Opera Program of the Bolshoi Theater of Russia.

Among his students are winners of the most prestigious competitions, leading soloists of the largest theaters in the world, such as the Bolshoi Theater, La Scala, Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera Covent Garden, Vienna State Opera, Berlin State Opera, Paris National Opera, Teatro Real in Madrid and many others .