By Liudmyla Zhylina, The Day
At the Staatsoper in Sankt Gallen he sang the title part in Verdi’s Attila. Unfortunately, being a soloist with the Ukrainian National Opera, he has never done it at home. And nor have the Ukrainian audiences ever heard and watched him as Pagano in I Lombardi. But we can just picture Valentyn Pyvovarov there, because Verdi is his favorite composer. In Kyiv, he sang the title part in Don Carlos and will soon appear as Zacharia in Nabucco and Count Monterone in Rigoletto. Quite recently he started with Ramphis in Aida.
World acclaim came his way only after the totalitarian regime when men of the arts found themselves free to travel and work abroad. He has performed in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Egypt, Holland, and Hungary. Western critics compared his remarkably flexible noble bass to a “powerful bell as though cast in bronze.” His part in Verdi’s Requiem Mass, accompanied by the French Radio and Television Choir was called almost ideal.
Valentyn Pyvovarov has a beautiful voice. Moreover, he is a gifted actor. His impersonations are free from the traditional operatic stiffness and falsity. On a recent tour at the National Opera in Germany he acted out the death scene from Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov. It was a concert number and when his aria ended the audience was dead silent. Later he said it was so quiet he got scared. A long pause and then a deafening ovation. After the concert girls from the choir came up and complained, “Valentyn, don’t do that again. You made us cry, we could hardly sing. And the mascara! Look at the mess!” A complaint worth a hundred praising reviews.
Photo:
Attila, a new character in Valentyn Pyvovarov’s repertoire
