An interview with Anna Matison, Stage Director and Production Designer of Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Golden Cockerel, which will be premiered on 25, 26 and 27 December at the Mariinsky-II.
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov composed the operatic fairy-tale The Golden Cockerel with elements of irony and grotesque and infused it with witty musical discoveries with the unusual ease that one associates with an experienced and wise man. And, of course, he had every right to hope that his fellow Russian performers would present the audience with a dazzling display of his opus. Soon the tale is told, but the deed is long undone, and choosing singers for the roles is just the start, while bringing the score to life is half of the entire process. Everything that is important occurs when music and theatre unite, when physical time becomes music and stage time. For audiences this is a kind of religious rite, though for the production team, singers and musicians it is hard work, and the criteria to evaluate it are very high. Anna Matison, the Production Director, has shared her vision of the opera The Golden Cockerel in an interview.
– Anna, this production of The Golden Cockerel marks your debut in opera, though you have already worked in drama theatres and film. Tell us a little about your other work.
By education I am a script-writer and dramatist, and this education was based on my experience as a director. I worked on a TV station in Irkutsk, then in studio production and I wrote scripts myself. Then, once I had come to Moscow to work with Yevgeny Grishkovets, I wrote the plays Home and WEEKEND which are currently performed at the Modern Play School of the Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre. In film I have been a script-writer for the films Yolki-2, Yolki-3 and Yolki-1914, and on the last I was also creative producer; apropos, it also involved the participation of Ildar Abdrazakov, and I am thrilled that this singer will be known not just in the world of classical music but throughout the country.
This franchise has attracted the greatest number of viewers in the history of contemporary Russian film. The film Satisfaction, which unlike the Yolki films not everyone has heard of, was an attempt to produce an original film albeit for a mass audience. I tend to avoid such genre labels as “art-house”. Although initially art-house was just original cinema, and the concept has, unfortunately, become devalued. This work is incredibly dear to me, just like my first experience in film.
I have also worked on several documentary projects about classical music, such as The Musician (about the pianist Denis Matsuev), The Mariinsky Theatre and Valery Gergiev, Prokofiev: On the Way in which the role of Prokofiev was performed by Konstantin Khabensky, To Be Continued, The Thirteenth and the opera films The Lefthander, Semyon Kotko, Les Troyens and Don Quichotte.
We are currently completing work on a feature-length children’s film called The Grand Adventures of Little Sashenka Krapivkin – about a boy whose mother takes him on a performance tour as there is no-one to leave him at home with. The plot of the film includes a story about a conductor’s baton – it is a magic one. And Sashenka enters a magical world which he liberates from an evil villain (brilliantly performed by Yevgeny Grishkovets) who wants to destroy music. It’s not a very complicated plot but we wanted to produce a story that lets viewers follow the adventures of a six-year-old boy with whom they can identify as well as listening to some great music; the film features Tchaikovsky’s Second Piano Concerto, Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, the introduction to Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan and works by Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Verdi and other composers. It is a joint project with the Mariinsky Theatre featuring the orchestra’s musicians, Ildar Abdrazakov, Denis Matsuev and Valery Gergiev.
– Rehearsals are in full sway. For you, is there any difference – or, indeed, any similarity – between the rehearsal process for opera and for film?
In essence, rehearsal processes in theatre and in film are not terribly different – the rehearsal periods are practically identical. In my opinion, opera is really quite close to film. We don’t produce a film in order, scene by scene – we see it all in order as a complete film – all made from a vast number of individual cuts. And so at rehearsals before filming we try to imagine the scene in its entirety so that during the filming of an individual episode the actor understands the nature of his character at an exact moment in the film. And so it’s very important to create a line for each character, they have to feel free and motivated in each and every episode. In opera we have more or less the same thing. Speaking with stage directors who have come to musical theatre from film I understood that for them the unusual side of the situation is that all the performers sing. But for me the music is the main part of the “script”; it all has to be the way I want, the way I envision it to be. And so I believe I have been very lucky, and I am truly grateful for the chance to be making my debut as an opera stage director at the Mariinsky Theatre.
– What kind of audience is your production of The Golden Cockerel aimed at? Is it for children?
Yes, that’s quite right. It’s for the so-called “family audience”.
– Despite the fact that in both Pushkin’s tale and Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera there are double and possibly even triple subtexts that mean this can be interpreted as an adult fairy-tale and not for children? Tell us something about your concept – why is it for children? Because “a fable in persona” (as the composer described his opera) was seen by contemporaries as a political pamphlet. Do these subtexts exist in your production, though children will see it for what it is while adults, because of their life experience, will see this significance?
First of all, the composer really called his opera a “fable in persona” and not satirical scenes. Satires and fables are different genres. Seeing satire in this fable is the familiar and traditional route, a path taken by directors on several occasions. But first and foremost I take as my basis the fact that we all remember this tale from childhood. It’s not important if we read it ourselves or if our parents read it to us – in neither case did we see it or discuss it as a political satire, we just followed the plot. I really wanted to produce a fairy-tale because I can hear a fairy-tale in the music as well. What else do you take children to other than to such beautiful music, such a vivid, clear and amazingly beautiful and very imagistic and visual work? The Golden Cockerel might be the first opera a child sees at the theatre, and the music helps make this first encounter a magical one, revealing a new interest to children. That’s first. Secondly, regarding the concept and hints at political satire, the fact is that the action takes place in the Thrice-Tenth Kingdom both with Pushkin and Rimsky-Korsakov. But neither the poet nor the composer states categorically that the Thrice-Tenth Kingdom is Russia, we just understand this intuitively. Of course, in the context we see archetypes of our tsars and political situations, but nowhere is this ever directly interpolated, there are no allusions or jokes that would define the genre as cold and cruel. What is the difference between satire and humour? When a production is staged in a satirical manner it often has features of actual historical characters. As soon as definite features are added and we become immersed in specific details and transfer situational aspects, for me it is of the present, temporary, it’s something that in twenty years will not be regarded as keenly as it is now. In the music of The Golden Cockerel first and foremost I hear a very beautiful fairy-tale world. The drama of the opera is constructed around certain canons, there is the notion of “logline”, or summing up what an opera is about in one line. Possibly, I may be wrong, but for me the main theme is female power. If we staged a production about a silly tsar then in accordance with plot laws only the tsar should die, or someone else be an unexpected victim of chance. But when absolutely all of the men die, young and old, clever and foolish – this tells us that female power is boundless. For children we are building the plot around the princess and the adventures in a magical land, while adults should be able to see the story of female power. Not about an attempt to stand in the way of evil, but to reject it. After all, we give the Queen of Shemakha a chance, but she doesn’t take it – out of fear of being her own self... Such a concept can be reflected in the performers. It’s a tremendous pleasure when the work is a mutual process and everything that I try to convey and stage in terms of the performing relationships receives not only understanding and embodiment but development too: the singers think about the images and get under the characters’ skins.
– Why did you choose The Golden Cockerel for your debut in opera? It can’t be easy to stage a production after almost a hundred years (the premiere took place in 1919), because this is only the second production at the Mariinsky Theatre, not counting the co-production with the Théâtre du Châtelet in 2003 (mounted in the kabuki style by a Japanese production team). Knowing the story behind productions of the opera, both Russian and international, which have been incredibly vivid I think it’s an incredibly responsible task.
It’s very simple, I didn’t choose it, Valery Gergiev did. He said that he really wanted to stage The Golden Cockerel. I was lucky: I had already done several film projects with the maestro although I’ve never staged an opera. As Gergiev likes the working process and the result it must mean that he likes what I have done in children’s films, and he offered me the chance to consider the production. I asked for the chance to do some sketches first and write a concept before continuing our discussion. After all, film and opera are different planets. And once he saw that there was an integral vision Valery Gergiev confirmed his intention to work on this production.
– What guided you when you selected such a young production team for this opera?
Everyone who is working on the production is united by their interest and great passion. Age here is irrelevant – that’s just the way it came together. I like syncretic forms of art – film and opera – because they draw together many talented people who are attracted by an idea. My colleagues in this production love music, they feel it and consider this world absolutely to be their own.
– Will the production make any use of new technologies in the set designs to underscore the individuality of the protagonists and define their characters more clearly?
For me theatre is a very conservative space, and that’s one of the things I like about it. Even a modern highly equipped theatre – as a phenomenon it’s still conservative and it has limitations dictated by the stage. In film you can see an incredibly far flight into outer space without being affected, while in theatre you might see two or three very simple images but feel everything. In theatre you can’t hide behind special effects – as has always been the case, theatre requires talent first and foremost. I don’t really like special effects in film either because very quickly they become dated. Advertising develops techniques that are then adopted by film, but if you watch Lord of the Rings today you’ll be amazed at how cheap the graphics look. Because technology instantly becomes outdated, it develops at the speed of light, and we accept it immediately and believe it was always that way. But I’m not a fan of bringing computer effects into the theatre which definitely age. Mikhalkov says that in film the best special effect is splicing, and I agree with him. If you have classical means at your disposal and can achieve a strong impression then that’s a guarantee that the impression will remain the same ten years later. It’s the same in theatre. I hope that we will succeed in creating vivid impressions with the use of the modern technology that will aim not to shock but delicately, or even imperceptibly, fit into the context of the opera, technology that will look contemporary even with the passing of time. I would say that The Golden Cockerel is a classical production made using contemporary means, and I really hope that the efforts of the people working on it will result in an integrated look and that it will be an interesting production.
Speaking with Natalia Kozhevnikova and Inna Rodina
| user_name | | Exit |
