On Saturday, November 30, the Elena Obraztsova International Festival of Classical Music “Carmen” began in Satka. 

The opening event of the festival’s program has been the interactive exhibition “Theaters, Roles. Spectators”, which is now open in the Magnezit Cultural Center. The art historian Natalya Vodoleyeva gave the first visitors a tour of the exhibition. She remarked that every day of the festival started with its own epigraph – words of Elena Obraztsova from her books and interviews, inviting all participants of the event to a creative dialog. 

The interactive exhibition has become a tour of the world’s major theaters and concert halls. Along with the great singer and thanks to reminiscences and amazing facts about her triumphant ascent towards the heights of excellence on the international Olympus, the visitors little-by-little immersed themselves into the atmosphere of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, La Scala in Milan, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Coven Garden in London, and the Vienna State Opera. Elena Obraztsova’s performances on every one of those stages were sensational as well as brilliant. Sol Hurok, the famous opera expert and the great opera impresario who even worked with Fyodor Shalyapin, called her a top-notch singer and offered her cooperation. She was acclaimed as one of “the great voices of the Bolshoi” and one of the “world’s most brilliant opera stars of the world”.

The tour ended with the history of Elena Obraztsova’s work at the Mikhailovsky Theater, where she led the opera company, initiated major changes and taken the Mikhailovsky Theater to the international level within a year. 

- “The kids and I have come to the festival for the first time. My daughter goes to the art school, playing the piano. But she’s not the only one with an interest in tours and concerts. My son and I are interested in that too,” says Dmitry Mysov, who came with his children – Tikhon and Vika. – “It was interesting to hear people talking about Elena Obraztsova herself. I noticed that, according to herself, she was afraid to appear onstage for the first time, and that other people had to take her by the arms and lead her onto the stage. This is an important fact, because children studying music, including my daughter, will have to perform on the stage as well. Perhaps, they will remember this then. We’ve learned a lot of interesting things today. I was especially impressed with the fact that Elena Obraztsova received a 20-minute round of applause in a foreign theater! That means her performance was that perfect! But she didn’t believe herself to be perfect or a diva. She said that everything she had had been given to her by God and that she had always remembered that and shared her talent with the people. A wonderful person! Unfortunately, we don’t have enough time to watch the movie about her, but we will be at the evening concert for sure. Our kids are going to perform there!” 

“Our kids” meant pupils of the Children’s Art School. Dmitry kept his promise: the Mysovs (all three of them) and dozens of other families attended the concert The Crescendo of Kindness, prepared by pupils and teachers of children’s art schools. We’ll discuss this event separately. Those who have had the chance to attend the open musical literature class The Life Line are now sure to recommend the movie they watched that day to their friends and acquaintances. 

- “We have an excellent opportunity to attend an open “lesson of life” taught by Elena Obraztsova herself. There is a show called The Life Line on the TV-channel Kultura. The show is about famous people in culture and art who lived on the cusp of the 20th and the 21th centuries, fighting to the right to express themselves, challenging established ideas in art, swimming upstream, following their life lines. In 2004, the project recorded a meeting with Elena Obraztsova.” After this brief announcement made by Natalya Vodoleyeva, the big screen came alive. From that moment, the auditorium of the Magnezit Cultural Center almost became that studio where the guests were so lucky as to be able to talk to Elena Obraztsova. And the Satkans joined this conversation, listening to her reminiscences and her answers to questions from the audience – important words about success, hard work, funny and fateful moments, happiness, love, the magical power of high hart, and the meaning of life…

This dialog format was chosen especially for the auditorium of the Magnezit Cultural Center, which remembers Obraztsova’s concerts in 2013 and became the main stage of the festival dedicated to the great opera singer were. 

The singer’s legendary voice will also welcome the guests of the Elena Obraztsova International Festival of Classical Music “Carmen”. Her voice flowing from a vinyl disk sounds so intimate, warm and profound, and the words of love from Russian songs are addressed to every member of the audience.

A small collection of vinyl disks made it possible to listen to records Elena Obraztsova made with the famous records company Melodiya. Those disks added a special atmosphere and the romanticism of the past to the journey through the Carmen Universe.

The exhibition presents a part of Obraztsova’s discography – an overview of well-known records that are available today. The visitors were looking at the disk covers with interest, reading information on the reverse side of the envelopes and taking photos of themselves with the ones they liked the most. Meanwhile, the record player was one, playing dynamically, warmly, with pleasant analog noises, and with that effect many people remember from their childhoods – the crackling of the specks of dust on the vinyl…

The scale and the depth of Elena Obraztsova’s concert repertoire is mind-blowing. She sang the works of more than 100 composers of the 16th to the 20th centuries in all the diversity of styles and genres: opera, chamber music, cantatas and oratorios, sacred music, Russian songs, old art songs, classical operetta, and jazz. It’s hard to list all the world-famous opera singers, musicians and orchestra conductors Obraztsova worked with. Her discography has over 50 vinyl disks and CDs recorded at the world’s major studios as well as during recitals and opera performances. This legacy allows us to immerse ourselves into the boundless world of Elena Obraztsova, to hear her unique voice and to feel her energy.

Source: Magnezitovets Photo by: Vasily Maksimov.