High art is above all perspiration
The National Opera of Ukraine is a large and complex structure consisting of 38 service units: construction staff (scenery, costumes, and props), sound and electrical technicians, running crews, and management. Each plays a certain role in achieving the end result, performance, says General Director Petro CHUPRYNA, adding, “We have over a thousand on payroll. We are aware of President Kuchma’s helpful attention and that of the Ministry of Culture and the Arts. We are provided with all the needed conditions for creative and managerial work. In January we were able to raise salaries, so that our premier danseurs are paid 2,500 hryvnias, including mastery and complexity allowances, and so on.”
This is very good money by Ukrainian standards, although if all those dancers and singers worked abroad they would earn many times this. For example, an ordinary instrumental soloist is paid between two and three thousand dollars a performance in Europe. And world acclaim is much, much more expensive. However, there are only about twenty such names among the conductors, and thirty or so among the musicians, singers, and dancers ranking as highly paid international stars. A maestro like Claudio Abbado or Zubino Meta is paid up to $70,000 for a concert plus $25-30,000 for the season. Two years ago, Dr. Gere, an impresario, published the book, Who Costs How Much in Germany, specifying the fees paid various celebrities, causing a terrible scandal. The Three Tenors, Domingo, Carreras, and Pavarotti, had a host of problems afterward. Since then revenue services have been on guard for such publications and the performers have likewise been careful to keep a low financial profile.
ENVY IS FOR CRAFTSMEN, NOT STARS
“Our ancestors chose a very good site for the theater,” says Dmytro HNATIUK, the chief stage director of the National Opera. “It has a special aura and I think that’s why our cast has always been rich in talent. At present, we have 68 vocal soloists, a choir of 120, an orchestra of 150, and as many ballet dancers. A team capable of handling a most diversified repertory. My debut on this stage took place back in 1948, while still at the Kyiv Conservatory of Music. Actually, it was an emergency. Natalka-Poltavka was playing that night, and all four baritones singing as Mykola had taken ill, so I had to fill in. I was very nervous, but I sang nevertheless and my professors said it was good. Three years later, fresh from the conservatory, I was invited as a soloist. Believe me, I’ve hardly noticed the passage of time. I’ve been with the company for over half a century and it’s really my second home. I was fortunate enough to see and hear vocal giants like Patorzhynsky and spectacular personalities like Oksana Petrusenko. Watching and hearing them on stage was a blessing. They cultivated a profound respect for the audience and really gave of themselves. Their virtuosity was unmatched.
“ Opera means harmony, but if a soloist concentrates on just his own voice, forgetting about dramatic identification, he will lose. There was a reputed tenor known backstage as a perfect dunce; they would even tell him that, but he would reply so what, I have a great voice. Today’s audiences are not content to hear a good voice, they want to see good performances and a good plot.
“There are legends saying that actors used to have closer and warmer relationships; that prima donnas and premier danseurs were sincerely happy about others’ success. To say that the people on the National Opera payroll are a solid and friendly team would be untrue. Some are friends and meet informally; others stay aloof. They appear in a performance and then just leave. A creative team is said to be a terrarium of like-minded creatures. Arrogance, conceit, and envy are the travel companions of success. You aren’t likely to achieve much unless you trust your own abilities and keep telling yourself that you’re the best. However, if an actor has a bad character and does on stage only what he figures is best for himself, that actor makes a very poor partner and conflicts are inevitable. It’s hard to work with a boor, but the theater’s old-timers will tell you that such characters do not stay on long. Envy is a feature of craftsmen, not stars”.
TO DRINK OR TO SING
Previously, opera devotees worshipped their idols. Even though the Kyiv public, unlike that of Moscow with their Bolshoi, was not divided into fans of Lemeshev and Kozlovsky who meticulously recorded the number of baskets of flowers and bouquets, and the duration of applause at and after every performance, we also had our opera Quakers. There were exalted ladies who worshipped Yevheniya Miroshnychenko and Bella Rudenko. It never came to fisticuffs, but extremist fans did demonstratively leave the audience if their idol did not appear onstage. There are stories about the great bass Borys Hmyria. The crew would meet him lined up and at attention, eager to take orders and run errands. Or the famous baritone Mykola Vorvuliev who stepped down so dramatically before his time. Eyewitness accounts have it that he was tempestuous, had great talent, but regrettably also a great fancy for the bottle and it cut his spectacular career short. Incidentally, there is widespread belief that a couple of fingers of cognac make the singer’s voice sound better. Some wholeheartedly believe this, while others adamantly object. Dmytro Hnatiuk says that drinking before stepping onstage is out of the question and he always tells his younger colleagues this. Otherwise their career might be spectacular but very short, followed by years of bitter disillusionment. An operatic career requires a great deal of self-discipline. Female vocalists must keep a strict diet if they want to look attractive onstage: no dough and sweets, and go easy on ice cream or you could get a sore throat.
PREMIERE IS GOOD, BUT THE DAILY ALLOWANCE IS BETTER
We are accustomed to cliches. Almost every performer is referred to as a star, prima donna, or premier danseur. Quite frankly, current singers and dancers are best described as talented but not legendary. Ordinary people in the operatic audience do not know one singer from the next. Regrettably, the fact remains that we no longer have spectacular personalities, just top-notch performers. They all sing and dance correctly, show good technique, but they do not put their heart into the performance and the audience is always keenly aware of such halfhearted effort.
For every performer there comes the painful time to end one’s career. Some become teachers, coaches, stage directors, or begin to give concerts. Dmytro Hnatiuk, while still a soloist, mastered stage direction (among his productions are Borodin’s Prince Igor, Hulak-Artemovsky’s A Cossack beyond the Danube, Tchaikovsky’s Mazepa and The Queen of Spades, Rossini’s Barber of Seville, Puccini’s Tosca, Liatoshynsky’s The Gold Headband, and Verdi’s Aїda). It was some time before he started directing. “I have been onstage for 53 years,” says Hnatiuk, “practically all my life. To me, opera is like a first love. It can’t be forgotten. I am well aware that my popularity comes from performing folk and popular songs.” He finished his operatic career six years ago, starring in Prince Igor and directing the production.
“Many retired dancers have stayed with the company as coaches, helping young performers prepare their parts, polishing their choreography and dramatic skill” says Valentyna KALYNOVSKA, director of the ballet troupe. “People start early in the ballet, even as students of dance schools, first as corps de ballet and then they can become soloists and premier danseurs.”
There is no way to use soundtracks in opera or a double in ballet. Everything is live. Funny things happen. Take one such case. A young and talented bass (I will not identify him for ethical reasons, the more so that what happened was a lesson he learned well and is now a leading member of the cast) made his debut in The Barber of Seville. It came time to sing the famous Don Basilio’s aria about slander. The orchestra started, but the actor was not onstage. The orchestra started twice, but still no actor. No one knows even now where he was or what happened, then he came running and said breathlessly, “I’m coming out onstage,” but it was too late. The performance went on without the aria and the singer got a reprimand. Actually, he got off lightly, they could have fired him.
During the Verdi festival last year, one of the cast in La Traviata forgot his Italian lines and sang “Here is a letter for you” in Ukrainian. Despite the drama of the scene, the audience laughed.
Many young performers have been added to the cast, but experts say the company lacks bass, baritone, and tenor. Soloists leave Ukraine looking for jobs abroad and more often than not never return. Among them are Anatoly Kocherha, Victoria Lukyanets, Valentyn Pyvovarov, and Volodymyr Hryshko who are doing fine, performing with the world’s most prestigious companies. Mykhailo Didyk joined the crowd recently. The only consolation is that our performers are in great demand. Denys Matviyenko, a good dancer, is now with the Mariyinsky Ballet considered the world’s best. Nadiya Honchar and Leonid Sarafanov are negotiating contracts there. The loss of such soloists is irreparable for the troupe. To prevent this exodus, the National Opera’s management is struggling to improve working conditions. A new method of remuneration is being introduced. It is no secret that our performers traditionally live on what they can earn during concert tours where the daily allowance is kept in conformity with set standard (for example, $69.00 in the United States). They never spend this money on food, bringing food with them, so they can add the money to the family budget.
On January 30 part of the ballet troupe left for Spain. The tour will last two and a half months and the repertoire includes the best: Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Scheherazade, and Carmen. Other dancers flew to Germany on February 18. In March, they will be joined by the group returning from Spain and together they will give a large series of concerts and dance in The Nutcracker in Switzerland. March 5 starts operatic tours of Switzerland, France, Denmark, and Germany. The repertoire includes The Love of Three Oranges, The Queen of Spades, and The Fair at Sorochinsk.
The company stages at least six premieres every season. This year it started with The Vienna Waltz and Carmen. Stravinsky’s Petrushka is being rehearsed. Chief choreographer Viktor Yaremenko is working on a modern arrangement of Fokine’s universally accepted interpretation. After that he will start on Corsair, to be followed by Prokofiev’s War and Peace. The company is looking for a stage director and there are candidates from Ukraine and other CIS countries. They want to revive Dankevych’s ballet Lileya (there are three choreographic versions and a musical film). Yuri Stanishevsky is working on the libretto and Viktor Yaremenko will take care of the choreography. Actually, the whole national repertoire will be rejuvenated (such as Taras Bulba, A Cossack beyond the Danube, Natalka-Poltavka; the ballets The Little Mermaid, Song of the Forest, Christmas Eve). All these productions are invariably popular and the National Opera’s calling cards.
