PERFORMERS:
Tatiana Pavlovskaya (soprano)
Alexander Gergalov (baritone)
Edem Umerov (baritone)
Vladimir Vaneyev (bass)
Alexander Morozov (bass)
On 4 November 2014 baritone Viktor Mikhailovich Chernomortsev, People’s Artist of Russia, died at the age of sixty-six. The concert Portrait of a Singer in an Interior in which Viktor Chernomortsev was due to take part will be dedicated to the performer’s memory.
Born in Krasnodar, Viktor Chernomortsev studied vocals at the Moscow State Conservatoire. After graduating he was “assigned” (a defunct Soviet term) to the Kirov Theatre. But the Saratov Opera suited him better. After almost twenty years singing lead roles in Russian and European operas in provincial theatres – in Saratov and later in Kuibyshev (now Samara) – in 1992 he moved to Israel. Immediately upon his arrival he received an invitation to appear in a production of the opera Weiße Rose by the contemporary German composer Udo Zimmermann. Following that performance, a tremendous success in Tel Aviv, he was invited to audition for the Wiener Staatsoper where he soon appeared in Puccini’s opera Il tabarro alongside Plácido Domingo... And suddenly – one never knows what lies ahead! – the Kirov (by then already the Mariinsky) Theatre again appeared on the horizon. In 1994 during a tour by the Mariinsky to Vienna Viktor Chernomortsev met Valery Gergiev, and the same year he made his debut in a St Petersburg premiere of Tosca as Baron Scarpia. Since 1995 Chernomortsev has been a soloist at the Mariinsky Theatre where he has performed such diverse roles as Giorgio Germont, the Conte di Luna, Amonasro, Rigoletto, Macbeth, Nabucco, Alfio in Cavalleria rusticana and Tonio in I pagliacci... He has appeared as Prince Igor, Mazepa, Gryaznoi in The Tsar’s Bride, Shaklovity in Khovanshchina, Shchelkalov in Boris Godunov, Renato in Un ballo in maschera, Rodrigo in Don Carlo and Tomsky and Zlatogor in The Queen of Spades... For a great performer there is no such thing as a small role – the singer also takes on “secondary” roles and tackles them with gusto. The role of Jochanaan in Richard Strauss’ Salome proved a step towards assimilating the Wagnerian repertoire. Here Viktor Chernomortsev has dazzled both at home and on foreign tours – Telramund in Lohengrin, Amfortas in Parsifal and Alberich in Der Ring des Nibelungen. For the latter role the singer received Russia’s national Golden Mask theatre prize (2001). His Falstaff and his Tsaryov in the opera Semyon Kotko remain unforgettable.
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