On 19 March the concert performance of the opera The Tsar's Bride will be dedicated to the memory of Galina Kovaleva, People's Artist of the USSR.
“When I heard Galina Kovaleva it was impossible
to free myself of the force of her voice.
And that’s really why people go to opera.
That is the miracle of opera.”
Valery Gergiev
I first heard Galina Kovaleva ... in 1957 at the Moscow World Youth and Students’ Competition – she appeared at the student competition, representing the Saratov Conservatoire. From her childhood she had been taught to see the coloratura soprano as a fairy-tale heavenly voice, ever since hearing Valeria Barsova singing on the radio and listening to records of Antonina Nezhdanova, Amelita Galli-Curci and Toti dal Monte... I was amazed by her crystal-like yet warm and heartfelt timbre. She sang Alyabyev’s Nightingale in such a way that you were almost literally hearing this music that you knew by heart for the first time. Then came understanding: you are just hearing this voice for the first time – in itself it is a phenomenon of incredible beauty. Some years later Leningrad was lucky in its famous rivalry with Moscow – Galina Kovaleva was invited to join the Kirov Theatre. And Leningrad’s music-lovers were able to admire her Rosina and her Violetta, her Lyudmila and her Antonida, her Swan Queen and her Volkhova... To enjoy the magnificence of her voice, her phenomenal skill that was “innately” powerful and never seemed to assault you.
She loved Prokofiev – she loved him at a time when most singers avoided Prokofiev’s repertoire; singers are also conservative in their passions because they wish to preserve their capricious “instrument”, they are afraid of unusual intonations and “uncomfortable” tessitura. Galina Kovaleva was a mischievous Louisa in Betrothal in a Monastery, creating the character of a tender and loving girl who could also stand up for herself. Already a mature woman she sang as Natasha in War and Peace, enchanting the audience with the songful nature of Prokofiev’s “micro-ariosos” and the beauty of the musical speech.
It is impossible to forget her Marfa in The Tsar’s Bride, searing in its chaste virtue and trust, and it is impossible to forget another of her favourite roles – Lucia, Marfa’s “Italian sister”. It is impossible to forget the gentle remote prattle of the poisoned Russian bride and the virtuoso aria of the insane Lucia – the “bride of Lammermoor”. In these two roles, two such seemingly distant operatic parts, we see the facets of Galina Kovaleva’s great talent: the depth of her attainment of musical imagery and the absolute perfection of its embodiment on-stage.
Iosif Raiskin
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