|
The Requiem is not an opera, here there is no plot and there are no characters. Tell us about the idea of the production – what is most important for you in this Requiem?
First and foremost, the Requiem carries within it some musical tension, a search. It is a prayer that has such power of expression that it allows us to seek out some other expressive form of interpretation not always possible in a concert performance and to regard the Requiem as an operatic work. This work gives the soloists and the chorus the opportunity to consider the meaning of life. There are pieces of music that literally demand visual images. The scenes that we are attempting to create in this production of the Requiem are not narrative, rather they form a dialogue with the meaning that we give to our image of God.
Meaning that you transform some kind of non-verbal content that lies in the music into images in order to increase the effect of that very music?
In a sense, yes. But we should remember that religious ceremonies lie at the roots of theatre’s existence. Even in its embryonic state theatre was already linked with rituals and rites. You don’t have to have specific characters in order for a theatrical form to emerge. And in any work there is always a certain narrative, abstract aspect.
You often include circus elements even in serious productions, as you did, for example, in Aida. Here there is to be a boy flying atop some balloons...
In this production there is no circus as such. There are just surprising images, an attempt to enter a light and airy dialogue with the drama being sung in the Requiem. The child enters a space which is theatre, or the transition from life to death, a space in which each person has a role that he or she has chosen personally or been allocated by someone. The child observes this expression of an image of the fear of God. But in his naïvety he does not understand fear. I believe that quite often in attempts to speak about life and about life and death gloomy colours are chosen. Being a witness to a drama doesn’t mean having to see it in bloody hues. There is always room for something bright and light-affirming. I always tell tragic stories, but I try to do it with lightness. That is a need and humanity demands it.
There was a time when theatre immersed people in dramatic suffering in order that they feel catharsis. Nowadays we have forgotten how to create and survive catharsis. Is that effect substituted by what you call lightness?
When an osteopath has to align someone’s spine he uses an entire series of preparatory massages that relax the tissues and when the patient is no longer expecting any sharp moves he’ll suddenly do some modulation. The same way as the soul that we try to reach out and touch. And when we speak about catharsis you have to engage it and entertain it so that it doesn’t expect a mean punch from you. A child making some small but very touching gesture may have a very powerful effect on us if we’re not expecting it.
Touching the soul and soothing it, seeing the child in every adult – are these principles of your “theatre of the caress” retained in all of your productions?
Sometimes monsters come at night. Good stories can help them get over that feeling of fear. With adults, you have to speak about monsters in a rather special way. But a child who is afraid of the dark needs a story to calm him. There are people who can tell stories in such a way that they calm children and calm the fragile part in all of us.
Most of the chorus has its eyes blindfolded in your production – is this to be seen as a desire to hide from fear or is it the inability to see what appears when a person leaves childhood behind?
Right up to the Offertorio (Offertory) , the eyes of the chorus are bound, they can’t even see the light they are holding in their hands. But with the Lacrimosa (This Day of Tears) they suddenly become aware that they are surrounded by angels who try to calm them. I have the feeling that if God exists he cannot be an evil judge. Then the entire world would be the most gloomy Shakespearian tragedy of all.
Do the soloists become the embodiment of some idea or are they part of the chorus?
The soloists are part of the chorus, they are separate from the mass of the chorus but they have the clearest and most powerful voices. And they belong to those souls who have already removed the bandages from their eyes, who are quickly learning to see and who possibly already understand that mysteries are nothing to be afraid of.
Was the idea for this production of the Requiem which came about straight after your production of Aida inspired by Aida or the Mariinsky Theatre?
My wife Julie and I have dreamed about the Requiem for a long time. This Requiem was conceived with the Mariinsky Theatre in mind. In this production I want to denude the stage. And we’ll see the full beauty of the old theatre, like a living being. Old theatres – like ships – are as close to Heaven as it is possible to be.
Speaking with Natalia Kozhevnikova
| 
