On Saturday before last a gala concert of opera stars launched the international Ave Verdi Festival dedicated to the centennial of the great Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi’s death, which stirred unprecedented excitement among Kyiv’s opera fans.
The gala started with the performance of the overture to the opera Nabucco by the Kyiv National Opera orchestra conducted by Volodymyr Kozhukhar. Then the stage saw a string of the best performers, including our masters and some visiting celebrities. What really brought the house down was the singing of soprano Francesca Scaini, winner of the Grand Prix at the Maria Callas International Contest of Vocalists in 2000. “Francesca has a fantastic manner of singing,” Ukrainian prima Mariya Stefyuk thinks. “Besides possessing a brilliant singing technique, she feels the nuances, maintains proper intervals, has an acute feeling of orchestra, and spares no effort on the stage. Here is an Italian term mezzo-voce, i.e., a note a singer can only hit on the low. I think Scaini has a brilliant future in store, for she is only 32, a nice age for a soloist.” It is worth mentioning that Francesca’s performance was listened to attentively by Ukrainian artists. In truth, our opera stars Olha Mykytenko, Anzhelika Shvachka, Lidiya Zabiliasta, Ivan Ponomarenko, Mariya Stefyuk, Oleksandr Diachenko, and Liudmyla Yurchenko did not give way to the Italian singers Francesca Scaini, Bruno Sebastian, and Antonio Salvadori; they sang just as magnificently. They seemed to be suddenly full of vigor, much to the audiences’ delight.
It is only natural that so powerful a beginning kept the audiences enthusiastic on the next day, too. The more so that the La Traviata advertisement promised a rendezvous with Japanese conductor Chosei Komatsu, Volodymyr Hryshko (Alfredo Germont), Canadian singer Christine Komatsu (Violetta), as well as the Italian baritone Antonio Salvadori whom the Kyivans love so. This time the artiste sang the part of Giorgio Germont, Alfredo’s father. The enchanting music of Verdi filled the hall, act one began. But what then? You could not hear the soprano at all! The point is that the part of Violetta was in fact written for two voices. The vocalist must display coloratura soprano in the first act and dramatic soprano thereafter. Not every singer can cope with this difficult task. Perhaps Christine Komatsu was not at her best or simply fatigued. But there was no question of her truly portraying her character. The singer tried hard to sing her part to the end. She was simply at a loss facing the magnificent vocals of Volodymyr Hryshko and Antonio Salvadori. Opera aficionados, sharing their impressions in the interval, expressed surprise: did we need to invite a foreigner if we have such beautiful singers of our own? Yet, we can agree with conductor Mykola Diadiura that the festival presupposes participation of various vocal schools and the organizers made every effort to expand the geography of the soloists invited rather than demonstrate the best. “Of course, Violetta was not up to par,” Mr. Diadiura believes, “but, on the other hand, the maestro was superb. I’ve known him for a long time. We first met in 1989 at a Budapest contest of conductors. Last September Chosei Komatsu performed in Kyiv with Ukraine’s Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. He is a very good professional who appears on the world’s most prestigious opera stages.” As to his wife Christine, she made her Ukrainian debut in 1994 at the Lviv Opera House, singing the part of Mimi in Puccini’s La Boheme. Yet, although Christine Komatsu failed to be at her best last Sunday on the National Opera stage, we cannot help but note the superb mastery of Volodymyr Hryshko and our choir who in fact saw the production through to the final note.
