Financial Times / Пятница 01 апреля 2005

In western Europe Calixto Bieito laces his opera productions with bits of hardcore porn and wins job offers. Russia, on the other hand, has been rocked by allegations that pornography has tarnished Moscow's venerable Bolshoi Theatre, because of a new opera that, it turns out, is utterly bereft of porn.

Leonid Desyatnikov's The Children of Rosenthal, the Bolshoi's first world premiere since 1979, was proceeding uneventfully through rehearsals in early March when a deputy of the state duma (the lower house of Russia's parliament) made headlines by saying the opera was unfit for the Bolshoi and should be banned.

In part, it was a question of guilt by association. The opera's librettist Vladimir Sorokin, a popular writer, had previously been targeted by guardians of Russia's morals, in particular a murky organisation called Moving Together, said to be a pro-Kremlin youth group. It attacked his 1999 novel Blue Lard for pornographic and homosexual content (the book is said to include a sadomasochistic encounter between clones of Stalin and Khrushchev). Although the duma deputy eventually admitted that he was un-familiar with the opera and had read none of Sorokin's other works, Moving Together's demonstrators took to the streets. The move to ban the opera came to nothing, but even after discovering just how innocuous The Children of Rosenthal is, duma members who attended the dress rehearsal at the Bolshoi's invitation continued their attacks. One called it a "triumph of devilry on the opera stage".

The controversy may simply reveal the lengths legislators will go to curry favour with the religious right. It has been suggested - presumably tongue-in-cheek - that the Bolshoi orchestrated the attacks itself to boost interest in a lacklustre opera. But a growing consensus has it that the controversy is linked to the Bolshoi's $1bn federally funded reconstruction programme. Many people want a piece of the action, and if ousting the current Bolshoi management helps them get it, so much the better.

No less a figure than Mikhail Shvydkoi, head of the Federal Culture and Cinematography Agency, endorsed this rationale the day before the opera's March 23 premiere. The Bolshoi's general director, Anatoly Iksanov, has also drawn a link between the controversy and the reconstruction project but has mostly limited his comments to charges that the attempted ban smacks of Soviet-era censorship. When appointed by Putin to run the theatre in 2000, Iksanov was touted as the kind of hard-nosed businessman needed to manage the reconstruction. His qualifications are likely to be sorely tested.

The $1bn earmarked for the Bolshoi is an enormous sum in comparison with the costs of other opera-house rebuilding projects - Covent Garden, La Scala, La Fenice - or even Copenhagen's brand new opera house. Perhaps the figure has a slush factor built in, but a spokesman for the Bolshoi insists that it reflects the company's special needs. The theatre, it seems, sits above an underground river and is gradually sinking into marshy terrain. The estimated cost therefore includes support structures, as well as the company's wish-list for technical and aesthetic improvements. Assuming the money comes through, current plans call for the Bolshoi to close after the current season in late June and not reopen until September 2008. Meanwhile the company will continue to perform in its auxiliary theatre, called the New Stage, where The Children of Rosenthal is in repertoire, and in other Moscow venues, including the mammoth Kremlin Palace Hall.

The Bolshoi may wish it had scheduled Children in the Kremlin Palace, given the pumped-up demand for tickets. I doubt that, on its own terms, the opera would have become a hit, though not because Desyatnikov and Sorokin have not tried to please their audience. New operas, especially in America, tend to include occasions for displays of diverse musical styles, but The Children of Rosenthal takes the idea to unheard-of heights. The "children" are clones of no fewer than five opera composers - Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky - so they supply a staggering opportunity for musical eclecticism.

But Desyatnikov, a St Petersburg composer best known for collaborations with the violinist and conductor Gidon Kremer, says he regards Children as serious opera rather than farce.

The opera itself, though, cannot make up its mind. Rosenthal, a scientist, gains Stalin's favour after learning to clone humans but creates the composers (known as "duplicates") for his own gratification. Rosenthal's death early in the post-Soviet period leaves the duplicates adrift on the streets of Moscow. Mozart marries a prostitute, but her offended pimp mixes poison with the wedding vodka and all but Mozart die in a scene that could easily be mistaken for black Russian humour. Desyatnikov is at his most engaging in evoking the languid ambiance of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin and in a La Traviata-like love duet; Mozart and Wagner are all but ignored stylistically. Otherwise the score is easy on both performer and listener.

Eimuntas Nekrosius's staging adds a host of absurdist touches. The radiant soprano Yelena Voznesenskaya gives the opera a lift as Tatyana the prostitute, Maxim Paster's lyric tenor makes for a sweet-voiced Tchaikovsky and basses Vadim Lynkovsky and Valery Gilmanov are imposing as Rosenthal and Mussorgsky. Alexander Vedernikov presides over a spirited reading of the score that conveys the joy of having a new opera at the Bolshoi, whatever its shortcomings.

В то время как в Западной Европе Каликсто Биетто внедряет в свои оперные постановки элементы жесткого порно и в итоге получает новые заказы, в России в порнографии обвинена опера Большого театра, которая, как пишет газета, на поверку никакой порнографии не содержит.

Газета пишет о масштабном проекте реконструкции театра, на который обещают выделить миллиард долларов.

Это огромная сумма по сравнению с теми средствами, на которые реконструировались такие театры, как Ковент-Гарден или Ла Скала. Даже новый оперный театр в Копенгагене обошелся намного дешевле.

Но руководство Большого заявляет, что театр стоит на подземной реке, почва под ним проседает, и поэтому в миллиард укладываются не только запросы театра в том, что касается новой техники и интерьеров, но и работы по укреплению фундамента.

Если деньги действительно поступят, Большой закроется после окончания сезона и вновь начнет работать не ранее сентября 2008 года. А все это время он будет давать представления на других площадках, в том числе и в Кремлевском концертном зале.

Как пишет газета, руководство Большого, возможно, жалеет, что не запланировало премьеру "Детей Розенталя" в Кремле - настолько велик сейчас ажиотаж вокруг спектакля. Однако, по мнению газеты, подобный успех вряд ли бы стал возможен без скандала.

Давая свою краткую рецензию на спектакль, ФТ пишет, что "Дети Розенталя" поднимают на неслыханные высоты тенденцию, сложившуюся в современной опере, особенно американской, где часто сочетаются разные музыкальные стили.

Здесь, как известно, сосуществуют клоны сразу пяти оперных композиторов. И хотя два из них - Моцарт и Вагнер - стилистически почти проигнорированы, партитура оперы легко дается и актерам, и слушателям.

Газета отмечает радость актеров от того, что в Большом состоялась новая опера, каковы бы ни были ее недостатки.

Современные русские композиторы: Леонид Десятников