On 26 March and 1 and 4 April the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre will host the Russian premiere of Vladimir Tarnopolsky's opera staged by Arkady Gevondov.
Vladimir Tarnopolsky, composer:
”I want Cinderella to be an opera not just for children but with children as well. In the score, as well as a professional orchestra and performers there is a children’s chorus and orchestra. Children’s choruses always have stable singers – high and middle register voices, but with a children’s orchestra it’s more complicated. You never know in advance what instruments the children will be playing in this or that class. That’s why in Cinderella the woodwind parts are written not for specific instruments but conditionally, for the registers. The first part can be taken by the flute or possibly the clarinet – whatever is available will do. It also involves percussion which children love so much – ringing, pounding and rustling.
At the premiere in 2003 the huge stage of the Barbican Hall in London was filled with two hundred people, moreover of different ages. At times it was really curious. For example, one five-year-old girl who was sitting at the back of the violin section had to go off for a minute, she was led off and then she came back and continued to perform. And in Norway Cinderella was performed with a chamber orchestra – the ensemble and one singer.
Cinderella might be a children’s opera, but in terms of language it is complex. Several passages of the score feature a very avant-garde arsenal. And Dahl’s text is contemporary and paradoxical. It is full of childhood slang and risqué and curious words that are hard to translate into a foreign language. Dahl’s verse was transformed into a libretto by the writer and director Donald Sturrock. I looked at different translators and – in my opinion – only Yekaterina Shukshina was able to reproduce this wonderful British humour in Russian.
Dahl’s tale has a specific plot. But Russia and Britain are exactly the countries where apparently absurd jokes are accepted. I am certain that Dahl’s text will be understood in Russia. You can’t be a sanctimonious hypocrite and protect children from everything. I know so many stories of non-problem children who 'go out on the streets" at the age of thirteen or fourteen and fall into neglect. A fairy-tale is a kind of lesson that it always best to learn from. When I was working on this opera my son was thirteen and I wrote in the dedication of the score the words 'To Vladislav in all seriousness'.
I try not to interfere in the production process. If the composer begins to control every single detail then the imagination of the production team becomes paralysed. I really loved Arkady Gevondov’s idea. I’ve already worked a lot with Ivan Stolbov and I trust him absolutely – he’s a great stage director. In Great Britain at the premiere the tempi were not exactly the ones I’d envisaged. But when I heard it I understood that it was great, it could be done that way as well. Of course, it is hard for choristers to sing such complicated musical phrases, but with this material the children will slowly but surely learn modern musical language. And, I hope, the audience will find pleasure in it.”
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