The National Opera of Ukraine played Verdi’s Aida Sunday to mark Chief Choirmaster Lev Venedyktov’s 80th birthday.
He has been with the Kyiv Opera for 50 years, taking part in many world classical productions, and it was thanks to his dedicated effort that modern Ukrainian composers could have their operas staged - e.g., Hryhory Maiboroda’s Yaroslav the Wise, Leontovych’s Mermaid’s Easter [Rusalchyn Velykden], Verykivsky’s The Farmhand [Naimychka], Shostakovich’s Katerina Izmailova (the author said Venedyktov’s rendition was the best ever); the legendary opera returned to the repertoire last year. Lev Venedyktov combines work at the Opera with teaching; he is a reputed professor with the National Music Academy of Ukraine, working to uphold and develop traditions inherited from his Kyiv Conservatory teacher Hryhoriy Veriovka. He has raised a number of experts in choral singing currently with various drama companies and performing groups in Ukraine and abroad.
We called the maestro to wish him many happy returns of the day and to ask several questions which he kindly agreed to answer.
Mr. Venedyktov, you are a veteran at the Kyiv Opera; would you please comment on aspects making you feel happy and otherwise?
Venedyktov: Somewhere in Asia they would refer to me as aksakal [i.e., an old and very respected man]. The theater is my life and I’ve dedicated half a century to the Kyiv Opera, where I was offered an opportunity to take up creative work, my lifelong obsession. Here I have been fortunate enough to meet excellent musicians, singers, stage directors, conductors, and composers. At a certain point, the Opera became off-season creatively, a period of generation change. I felt very depressed. Now the situation is improving. New singers have joined the company. Watching and listening to them, I have reason to hope that the Kyiv Opera will once again take the lead in Ukraine, and that it will have very good international ratings.
The National Opera’s choir is generally considered very professional. International operatic stars say that it is superb, after performing with your choir. Is the membership stable? What’s the rotation rate?
Venedyktov: When I joined the company in 1954, the choir numbered 97. It is 117 now. Rotation is necessary, of course, because the choir must stay young. On the one hand, there must be a balance between the older experienced and the younger talented generations of singers; young voices are needed, so as to make the choir sound as though playing with all rainbow colors. It is very difficult to add new singers to the choir; each must learn the repertoire and be given the right place on the team, in every production; this usually takes between three and four years. Meaning that every replacement is a painful process. But rotation is necessary for the choir to combine young strength and old experience.
Soloists play the leading role, of course, with the choir remaining in the background, but you have apparently succeeded in forming a highly professional team. Your choir boasts separate concert programs and more often than not plays to full houses. How did you do it?
Venedyktov: I saw that the choir needed a creative impetus, and that its repertoire had to be diversified; that we needed concert programs in addition to our routine opera appearances. Performing Mozart’s Requiem with Vladimir Spivakov last year was a very important occasion (by the way, I have received a very touching message of greetings from him). In fact, our choir sounded so very different, we had achieved an altogether different music palette, nothing I’d ever heard from our vocalists previously. I was also honored to hear Nicki Sutherland’s warm words addressed to the choir, after this prominent singer appeared in our recent rendition of Puccini’s Turandot. She had performed with most opera houses all over the world, but said that few European companies could boast a choir as professional and captivating as that in Kyiv. I consider this as proof that I have not wasted all those years.
Mr. Venedyktov, you have worked and remained friends with Iryna Molostova for many years. Her productions are still in the repertoire. We know that there are big problems involving stage direction, especially with regard to operas. Who do you think can uphold Molostova’s tradition?
Venedyktov: She was Irene to me, since the first time I’d seen her at work as stage director forty-five years ago. Her first production was Shabalin’s Taming of the Shrew. We worked together and even then Irene proved a very interesting stage director, with a great creative potential. She would later stage dozens of operas, but her creative peak was Shostakovich’s Katerina Izmailova.
We also worked on it together. And I conducted her Manon Lescot. I was always happy to watch her creative progress. It was spectacular, showing genuine talent and inspiration. That’s why her productions don’t age with time and remain so very popular. Her passing was a great loss suffered by me personally and by the Kyiv Opera. I think that there shall never be another Iryna Molostova.
As for stage direction, we can only rely on young blood. There are good promising young stage directors. Staging operas is a problem experienced not only by our company, but also by those in many countries. We have had guest star directors — e.g., Michael Henzel’s Romeo and Juliet and Carmen; Nikolay Kuznetsov’s Love for Three Oranges, as well as Mario Corradi’s Turandot and Gioconda. Each such production was good in its own way, but I can’t say that a single one reminded me of the remarkable renditions by Leonid Varpakhovsky, Volodymyr Skliarenko or Iryna Molostova. I can only hope that we’ll have a truly celebrated stage director before long.
The National Opera marked your birthday by playing Verdi’s Aida. Was it your colleagues’ choice or your own?
Venedyktov: The management consulted with me and I suggested Aida, primarily because the emphasis in this opera is on the choir, what with Verdi’s excellent music. It’s a spectacular opera and I wanted to let the choir show its best.
Your posters show Tchaikovsky’s opera Mazepa as scheduled for October 29. You know the score only too well, considering your past experiences. How is this rendition different from the previous ones?
Venedyktov: I took part in two previous renditions. I can hardly return an unbiased verdict, because I’m so very much involved in the creative process. We’re rehearsing, certain things have to be changed and adjusted. Our production is conceptually different, shifting the emphasis from the political sphere to that addressing general human values; we are portraying the tragedies of Mazepa and Kochubei clan. The stage director is Dmytro Hnatiuk. He deleted three words from the libretto and kept the original music. Production designer Mariya Levytska changed the stage props and wardrobe, completely discarding her previous concept. The leading parts will be performed by young premiere vocalists. There will be the principal and several standby casts. Let me mention several names: Roman Maiboroda, Ivan Ponomarenko, Ihor Mokrenko, Volodymyr Openko (Mazepa), Mykola Shopsha, Taras Shtonda, Serhiy Mahera (Kochubei), Svitlana Dobronravova, Oksana Dyka (Maria). Forty-six singers will be added to the choir. I hope that this production will not disappoint our audiences.
