If you hear this voice in the street, you will turn around for sure: the air will be all vibrant around you. Once you hear this stately baritone on stage, you will remember his name – Andrii Maslakov – and you will be eager to go to an opera theater or philharmonic society to hear once again a performance of the soloist of the National Opera of Ukraine, a winner of international competitions.
In common life Andrii is sharp-tongued and likes to joke, but on stage, he is serious, highly-qualified professional singer and talented performer. Maslakov was accepted to the company of the National Opera after winning in the Second Borys Hmyria International Singing Competition in 2009. The baritone singer made his debut in Sergey Rachmaninoff’s opera Aleko as a protagonist and secured his dramatic line as an actor. Later he vivified with his participation in the play Carmen, presenting to the audience a very convincing image of a lover, bullfighter Escamillo, whose attractiveness leaves his rival Don Jose without a chance to win the love of the femme fatale, which is the reason of their violent hostility.
Currently Maslakov is leading an intense concert activity. During the concert in the National Philharmonic Society of Ukraine he devoted his solos to the creative work of his favorite composer Richard Wagner, whose compositions are rarely performed in our country, and was greeted with a storm of applause (he even had to sing encore, though he does it rarely because the music is extremely rich and somewhat difficult for inexperienced people). It is no wonder. Only Wotan’s parting scene from The Valkyrie lasts for almost 17 minutes (!) and the aria from The Flying Dutchman is no shorter. The audience gave a really warm welcome to the premiere of the alternative production of Verdi’s La traviata on the stage of the Municipal Opera House, where Maslakov was performing one of the leading parts, Giorgio Germont, in a most amazing way (both in terms of singing and acting). Presently the singer is a welcome visitor of concert organizers, because his repertoire is versatile, ranging from complicated arias and vocal cycles to folk songs.
OUR MUSIC “GANG”
“When I am asked whether I have been singing for long, I reply (with my enthusiasm gradually decreasing): ‘For quite a while,’ Andrii MASLAKOV admits. “I have sung with my grandfather, Andrii Musiienko, who accompanied us on his bandura, the reason why he was repressed as a Ukrainian nationalist in the 1930s and served a three-year term in Solovky. Actually, no politics was attached: grandfather wore an embroidered shirt, spoke Ukrainian, liked folk songs and suffered because of this. However, my mom, Lilia Andriivna, likes more urban, savage Gypsy romances, which touch to heart. She accompanies herself on the guitar. My father, Mykola Kostiantynovych, told me that when he swaddled me as a baby and I was crying, he sang the song ‘Give me freedom.’ When I was five, my parents brought me to the choir in the House of Pioneers, and from there I got to the boy’s choir at the Ukrainian Radio and Television, as well as in the House of Teacher, where I have sung for almost ten years. I studied as much as I could: at a music school, then – at the Ushinsky Pedagogic College for Piano. I recall the studying at the Drahomanov Pedagogic University, music pedagogic department (I studied and simultaneously attended rehearsals of the Veriovka Choir), with a mixture of warmth and humor. I tried to enter the Kyiv Conservatoire as well.”
You have studied for long. Can you say that singing is your “only passion, but an ardent one”?
“Once in a summer I went with my friends to work in Germany. We united into a music ‘gang’: a violin, a button accordion, a drum, and I borrowed from my teacher a staggering instrument, a bass kobza. I won’t tell how hard it was to bring the instrument across the border. Bass kobza met a sad end. It was too big to be put inside the car, on which we were traveling across Europe, so we tied it to the trunk, but apparently we did not fix it strong enough. Once it fell under the wheels of the cars behind ours (only a pin remained as a memory). Since I did not have a working instrument anymore, I had to sing. We often sang Ukrainian songs, and people liked them. But since we did not have any permission for concert activity, we were put in jail a couple of times… and newspapers wrote about us (strange as it may seem, local media wrote positive articles about us).”
Foreign music critics call you a “Ukrainian Caruso.” Hasn’t the popularity turned your head?
“Trying to impress some tourists on a square is one thing, and singing on a stage before the audience which may include music lovers, musicians, and singers is quite another thing. One thing is to love singing and quite another thing is to be a skillful singer. Once in Nuremberg I saw an announcement of workshops to be held by a renowned singer and pedagogue Anna Reynolds. I did not have enough money for active participation, but I was present as a passive listener. However, they agreed to listen to me, and be it not for that, I don’t know what my future life would have been. Frau Anna recommended me to her pupil Jan Hammar, who taught singing at the Hochschule fuer Musik Nuernberg-Augsburg.”
What is the difference between studying abroad and in Ukraine?
“First and foremost I had to make my living. I have worked for three years at a Nuremberg paper mill, and after work I used to go on train for two hours to Augsburg to take singing lessons. As a result I was not able to distinguish between day and night anymore, sometimes I did not understand at first where I came – from or to one of those places. After all I understood that I could not stand it anymore – I had to stop. But my teacher obtained a scholarship for me from the Leon Club. It made as much as 500 euros. For this money I could lease a small house with hypothetic facilities, but it was suitable for living. I continued my studies and signed my first contracts. I have worked in many German theaters: in Augsburg, Nuremberg, Mainz, Dessau, Munich, Eisenach. I sang Papageno’s part in Mozart’s Magic Flute, Marcello – in Puccini’s La boheme, Germont in La traviata, Francesco in Verdi’s The Bandits, Hobson in Peter Grimes by Britten, Belcore – in The Elixir of Love, Malatesta – in Don Pasquale, Procolo – in Viva la mamma by Donizetti, and baritone’s part in Orff’s cantata ‘Carmina Burana.’”
“THE WORKS OF GREAT COMPOSERS ALWAYS OFFER SPACE FOR CONTEMPLATIONS AND EXPLORATION”
When did Wagner appear in your repertoire? You gave a very convincing performance at the concert in the philharmonic society, though few Ukrainian artistes take up the works of this classic.
“I had to study enough before performing Wagner. I did not understand him at first, but the years of studies did not come in vain, and while analyzing the music of all times, I thought that Wagner’s works generalize the whole world store of music. You have to approach Wagner through studying and deep understanding of the styles and music thought of all of his predecessors, and not to love him after all of that will be the supreme manifest of stubbornness. I am close friends with the German Wagner Society, owing to which I have not only visited the Beirut Festival, for one, and to go there people book for several years in advance. But the main thing is that I can sing Wagner’s works wherever I want, because my task is to popularize the creative work of Wagner, this music mischievous child, who was ahead of his time and made a revolution in opera. I succeeded in realizing my desire – to sing extracts from The Valkyrie, The Flying Dutchman, and Tannhaeuser.”
The new production of La traviata staged by the Municipal Opera House came as a shock to Kyiv music lovers. The success of the premiere show depended largely on the performers, specifically on you. What do you think, why did director Palchykov changed the accents, making the image of Giorgio Germont more explicit?
“All the performers were so much thrilled with Vitalii Palchykov’s idea that we took an active part in its development. My hero, Germont, is more modern and more experienced. He is a living person with a character, which depends on stage on a specific performer. Of course, there is a cliche of the image, but I don’t think Verdi was really concerned about it. I am grateful for being given an opportunity to show not only an absolutely living personality capable of various actions and situational reaction not only as a father, but also as a man. Besides, when you play the scene, not simply stand, the music acquires new colors. You know, the works of great composers always offer a space for contemplations and exploration. But you should know what to look for.”
You have made a great carrier in the West, why have you come back to Ukraine?
“After finishing the course, I entered a post-graduation course, which enabled me to teach singing in higher educational establishments. Of course, I was faced with the question: what am I going to do next? I was doing okay in Germany, I had an agent who resolved the organizing questions, and I was popular among the audience. But I have always remembered about my homeland. I don’t want to use pompous words about nostalgia and patriotism, but I have always included Ukrainian repertoire in my concert programs. But my father died in Kyiv, leaving my mother alone. Not only did she grant me life, but she dedicated herself to her family, refusing from a high post at the ministry, because as a child I was in poor health for a long time. My lungs did not develop well, so to develop them my mother saw to it that I blew up balloons. Maybe that is the reason why my diaphragm is able to hold breath so strongly. Could I leave my mother alone? I have come back. After winning in the Hmyria Competition I found myself in the theater, but the most important thing is that I sing and now I have admirers not only in Germany, but also in Ukraine.”
