Greatly anticipated by admirers of academic singing, the world opera star, the Georgian bass singer Paata Burchuladze has come to Kyiv at last. The artiste sang to the accompaniment of the National Symphonic Orchestra, conducted by its artistic director and chief conductor Volodymyr Syrenko, in the National Opera House of Ukraine. The performers were greeted by a full house. Among the audience was the Georgian president’s wife Sandra Saakashvili, diplomats, the Ukrainian opera singers Lilia Zabiliasta, Susanna Chaokhian, Serhii Mahera, Taras Stonda, conductors, and directors. Many teachers and students of higher music schools were given the possibility by Burchuladze to come to the concert free of charge.
The orchestra overture to Giuseppe Verdi’s opera La forza del destino preceded the appearance of the stately and elegant singer. Its dramatic effect and conflict of musical images was a good preparation for the part of the concert that was based on Verdi’s works. The famous bass singer showed high music culture, which is not a common thing. The subtlety and rich emotional palette, wonderful art of delivery and artistry are the strong qualities of the the Georgian singer. He sang the arias of Banco from Macbeth and Philip from Don Carlos. Alternating the vocal performances with orchestra numbers, the orchestra brilliantly played the overture to Nabucco, which allowed the singer to relax. The soloist performed two bass “hits”: Zaccaria’s prayer from Nabucco and Attila’s aria and cabaletta “Metre gonfiarsi l’Anima” from the opera Attila. Nobody could stay indifferent: Verdi’s music is a huge layer, without which the history of theater is impossible. It is simple, easy to remember, melodious, and based on the Italian songs and popular genres of that time: tarantella, polonaise, mazurka, and march. Verdi’s characters are not stilted persona or masks; rather, they are living people with a complicated inner world. The talented artistes playing them knew them almost as well as Verdi himself.
No less exciting was the second part of the concert, which was launched by “The Down on the Moscow River,” the prelude to Modest Mussorgsky’s opera Khovanshchina. It prepared the audience for the “Russian wave” (the concert’s dramaturgy was well built). The guest sang on one breath, without a break, the four central solo scenes of Tsar Boris from the opera Boris Godunov: Boris’ coronation, the monologue “I have reached the pique of power,” the scenes of insanity (with chimes), and death. Mussorgsky’s masterpiece is the summit of the Russian opera dramaturgy, the favorite work of many generations of admirers of music theater. Boris’ part is one of the crowning bass numbers, is very complicated both in terms of singing and dramatic tension, it requires special responsibility and mastery. Burchuladze gave himself up to the image, plunged into the role before the eyes of a silent audience completely engrossed with his character. Although scenic space is relatively static and limited, and the concert performance of theatric work limits the ways of expression, the tsar’s character was shown in all of its contradiction, human complexity, beauty and ugliness.
The audience expressed its gratitude with furor, and the artiste sang two more famous pieces in response: Don Basilio’s aria “La calunnia e un venticello/Calumny is a little breeze” from Il barbiere di Siviglia by Gioachino Rossini and, as a final chord, couplets of Mephistopheles in Charles Gounod’s Faust.
After the concert Burchuladze kindly answered The Day’s questions.
Your legendary encounter with Herbert von Karajan who called you the “second Chaliapin” has determined your fate. Who else has played a significant role in your life?
“I was close friends with Luciano Pavarotti for a long time, since 1984. He supported me for all those years, when I needed help. He brought me to his performances and ‘opened America’ for me. There I sang for the first time in Verdi’s Requiem with the conductor Lorin Maazel. Pavarotti was a great friend of mine.”
Who do you like to work with?
“I have had many partners. I don’t want to offend anybody, but it is interesting to work with those who live the character’s life on stage, with whom I have a good creative contact.”
What kind of direction do you prefer?
“Today traditional productions have grown roots on stage, whereas modern ones produce a feeling of insanity. When something in the middle appears, I support it. I rarely happen to see modern pieces that are successful. Sometimes I simply miss traditional performances, and I want to play a person, not a fool.”
Tell us about your teachers.
“For six years I was taught by Olimpii Khelashvili in Tbilisi, then a year in Moscow, by Larisa Nikitina, three years in La Scala by Giulietta Simionato, and already as an adult I came to Yevhen Mykolaiovych Ivanov, professor at the Odesa Conservatory. He added the final touch in my development as a singer. Of course, I am a Georgian singer, I feel myself Georgian in my blood, in everything. But the world does not have the notion ‘a Georgian bass singer.’ Georgia does not have opera bass singers, there is no national bass repertoire. Abroad, all those who come from the former USSR, are called Russians, the Russian singing school enjoys an immense recognition. Therefore I am a Russian bass singer in the West (smiling). And I am proud of such recognition.”
Then I will ask you a delicate question: do complications in Georgian-Russian relations impede you in your work?
“It is very mild to call the relations between Georgia and Russia ‘a complication.’ However, as an artist I have no such complications, as the Russian audience continues to love me as much as before. Clearly, this is a political conflict, not one between two nations. I try to come to Moscow, where I am a welcome guest, and give performances there. Now I have a foundation that raises money for orphans. After the tragedies in Abkhazia, in Tskhinvali their number have grown, and I invite Russian performers to Georgia, where they actively assist us. On December 5 Dmitri Hvorostovsky will come, he will give a concert there to raise money for our children. The workers of art should not fuel the political flames; rather, they should pour water on them.”
Which of your characters do you like the most?
“Like all bass singers, I like Boris Godunov, Philip in Don Carlos by Verdi, Mephistopheles in Gounod’s Faust, Attila’s heroic part. In the next season I will sing for the first time Vasyl Sobakin’s part in Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride in the Royal Opera House’s production. I also have other plans.”
Mr. Burchuladze, why don’t you take up teaching?
“I will give you a short answer. It is a huge responsibility. I would take up it, but I think that it is not serious to give a single lesson and go on tour for a month, then a second one – and go again, for two months more. This is disrespect to a student, for the person’s destiny is in your hands. I cannot afford to treat people this way. Perhaps, some day I will become a teacher.”
