The celebrated opera star will give only one concert at the Ukraine Palace in Kyiv, and music lovers are eagerly anticipating the event, with tickets being ordered from all regions. Mrs. Caballe will produce her program and will have two partners onstage, Nikolai Baskov (Russia) and Volodymyr Hry shko (Ukraine). Her concert program will include world masterpieces and surprise duet renditions. Perhaps we will see the birth of a Spanish- Russian-Ukrainian trio. The singers will decide on what they will be performing in the course of rehearsals. While the Euroshow Company was conducting negotiations about the concert with Montserrat Caballe, the prima donna decided to invite two male vocalists. She was offered a list of several names and chose Nikolai Baskov (she performed with him in Moscow and recently conducted master classes with him) and Volodymyr Hryshko (currently a soloist with the National Opera of Ukraine, he has toured a number of countries, appearing at the Metropolitan Opera and the Mariinsky Theater). Montserrat Caballe kept him in mind after the Francisco Vinas International Singing Contest in Barcelona, where Hryshko won the Grand Prix. During the telephone negotiations, Ms. Caballe asked for his latest recordings so that she could decide on the repertoire.
The National Philharmonic Society’s Symphony Orchestra (directed by Mykola Diadiura) is working under a very tight schedule, preparing for the concert. Maestro Miguel Ortega has come from Amsterdam on Saturday to check the cast and orchestra. Too bad the tight schedule will not allow Montserrat Caballe to take in a sightseeing trip in Kyiv, but she promised she would use the very next opening in her schedule to visit the Ukrainian capital again, this time as a tourist.
THE DAY’S NOTES
Montserrat Caballe: Spanish singer (soprano). Made her debut as Mimi at the Basel Opera in 1956, later giving successful performances in the most prestigious opera houses in the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, and Covent Garden.
Caballe is one of the most spectacular vocalists of the second half of the twentieth century. Her repertoire is encyclopedic and includes roles in Mary Stuart, Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia, Tosca, Adriana Lecouvreur, and Salome. She has given concert tours all over the world and recorded some thirty operatic roles on audio and videotapes and CDs. Her best recordings include William Tell (French version, role of Matilda, conducted by Lamberto Gardelli, EMI), the role of Liu in Puccini’s Turandot (conducted by Zubin Mehta, Decca), and Salome (conducted by Erich Leinsdorf, RCA- Victor).
