The Elena Obraztsova International Festival of Classical Music “Carmen” ended with the dialog concert “Under Pushkin’s Star”. On December 3, the musicality of the literary word and the poetry of music were revealed to the audience by the Valeriy Mikhalchenko chamber choir (Chelyabinsk) and Oleg Baryshev, an actor of the Chelyabinsk Academic Drama Theater named after Naum Orlov.

The epigraph to the final days of the festival was Elena Obraztsova’s words that there is nothing higher than the Russian culture. “Russia is unique,” the great singer was convinced of that. As an epigraph to the final text on events of the festival, we’d like to tell you of our spectators’ emotions. Many of you have become true and faithful friends to “Carmen”. Besides, the last of the final interviews about the experiences of the spectators and the performers happened to become a small but important review for all of us as opposed to just feedback:

– “Each Carmen festival is unique and every one of them expands the space in the world of art for residents and guests of Satka,” says Irina Balysheva who attended the festival’s concerts on December 2 and 3. – This year’s festival highlights the high classics. Yesterday, we were introduced to the best examples of classical art in opera, and the art of singing the best music by Russian composers, and today – to the poetic word, the Sun of the Russian culture, the talent of our beloved Alexander Pushkin. There was a kind of a “duel” happening on the stage between the wonderful performing artist Oleg Baryshev with his impressive mastery of the poetic word and the chamber choir which sang Pushkin’s works that we have known since childhood. But the “duel” revealed that there can be no winner. The public were equally receptive to the art of choir singing and the recital of poems by Oleg Baryshev. The spectators would shout “Bravo!” – just as they did yesterday when they were listening to opera, arias and music by classical composers. It’s we, the audience, who are the winners! Moreover, I’ve noticed that Satka’s audience at the festival is more and more up its high level, its cultural height every year. I think that musicians enjoy visiting Satka because they like this preparedness and responsiveness of the public: we keep hearing “Encore!” and “Bravo!” constantly in the auditorium. But I wanted to say the same words to our audience as well. Bravo and encore to you! Come here again and again, to this festival which is taking us to a new level and opening new horizons in the world of high art for us!

As a careful listener, Irina remembered a quote, which set the tone to the concert Under Pushkin’s Star: “Today, many Russians are echoing Elena Obraztsova’s words about our culture. Many have been abroad and seen the world, while others can see it through the vasts of the Internet. We too, just like Elena Obraztsova, may claim that there’s nothing above the Russian culture, that Russia is unique! We should be reminded of this more often. That is what makes the Carmen festival and we become worthy of ourselves, our great culture!”

The big creative experiment, i.e. the synthesis of choir singing and poetry by Pushkin (the 225th anniversary of whose birth is celebrated this year) has become the development of this idea and the climax of the festival. Pushkin’s poems, such as The Autumn, The Winter Morning, The Antiaris, To a Poet, etc. have sounded in a new way, with memorable intonations, sensuality and musicality.

The performers won over the audience in the first minutes of their performances by having them experience unforgettable emotions. The choir and the reader didn’t just complete each other, they merged in their dialog, talking of simple and eternal things, going through the past and the future, joking; they were delighted, sad, pensive, triumphant and always had a response in the hearts of their listeners. This was an impressive combination of literature, Oleg Baryshev’s stage art and the power and beauty of the polyphony of the chamber choir, which under the baton of the chief conductor Olga Seleznyova sang the works of Russian composers inspired by Pushkin’s poetry. They “read” the Russian genius in an entirely new way and revealed his boundless literary talent. The concert didn’t just become an experiment confirming that art knows no bounds, but it also created the best example of the enormous power of our most delicate and fine instrument – the voice!

– “I love theaters, music, I love Carmen festivals! All this is my kind of thing since I finished the piano course in a children’s music school. Such concerts are a true delight to me!” says Olga Domracheva, one of the spectators. – “This year’s festival will be remembered by the beauty of the stage props, decorations, the special atmosphere and the magnificent performers! The highlight of the program, in my opinion, was the opera Mozart and Salieri. We’ve never had such a production before. Of course, the arias performed by the singers yesterday were good and Pushkin sounded wonderfully today. What a great dramatic actor Oleg Baryshev is! How much he recited from memory – excellent, with his charisma and perfect elocution! We’re so grateful to all the organizers for such events and experiences!

– “It’s my second day at the festival. Everything is just gorgeous! I used to know many poems by Pushkin. I love him; I have seen and heard how well his poetry goes with choir singing. I’m looking forward to today’s concert and I’m sure it will be wonderful,” Marina Belous shared her opinion. – “Unfortunately, I don’t attend such festivals very often. I’m not a great theater lover, but I like the Carmen [festival] for its special atmosphere, its sublimity, its high culture and the fact that it gives us the chance to meet talented people. My normal life is built around my work and my home. But here your mood improves immediately! Such festivals give us new emotions and experiences. What an incredible concert we had yesterday! The opera production was good as well as the performances of the young artists of the opera and ballet theater! I still feel the delight from the number “Mr. Bassman”! It was an incredible duet! I liked Aleksandr Matushkin, the conductor of the symphony orchestra. It was so unusual and unexpected when he conducted the audience and played the Radetzky March together with us! I’ve never took part in such a performance, where the rhythm is partly clapped by the audience and partly played by the orchestra. I can’t describe the emotions!”

Source: Magnezitovets Photo by Vasily Maksimov.