1. In my life I like to go along the ways, that someone has already laid for me. I’m not a revolutionary by nature, no a discoverer, no innovator. I am a conservative. The destiny has said - here is the line, but you are left to your own devices.

2. I was born to work, to serve, to devote myself to the art of opera, to Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Musorgsky, to serve the people who love opera. I am now in my recollections.. Recollections plus imagination.

3. Here is the table, it is, certainly, very old, but for me it is lovely as, so far, sitting at this table I have mounted a great number of performances, thought out many of them. Here scores of many performances used to lie. And now, when I come and sit down at this table, I take great pleasure in recalling the performances I have produced.

4. " I make music by action "

For me a composer is not the author of some music to a certain plot but the playwright, who writes a drama by means of music. And here are devices of its own, some peculiarities. Feodor Shalyapin raised the question: " What is the main point in singing? ".

He argued that the main point in singing is intonation, tingeing the sound with emotions in accordance with the circumstances under which the given character finds himself. Here is the whole system by Stanislavsky. It is all embodied in Shalyapin’s singing. It is not restricted to voice only, it concerns both orchestra and the whole musical environment of this image. This formula has been important to me since my student's years. It is the formula found by Petr Iliich Tchaikovsky. He used to say - " The opera which hasn’t been staged has no sense at all ". That means that opera prefers theatrical environment, rather than a concert hall. I am to create an action by means of imagination; i. e. to create a theatre based on the emotions that I procure from the opera score. For me the action is primary, but I must create the kind of action that could give rise to the feelings ciphered in the score. And that’s is what I mean by saying " I make music by action ".

5. " I am to be "

First of all I did not use to choose. I used to be chosen. It is very important. Secondly, I could not go to a drama theatre just because I simply couldn’t go to any drama theatre; therefore I was destined to go to an opera theatre. It is hard to explain it. I can only say so: "destiny, fate". Fate personally had sorted out who is to do what and when he is to do it.

And that’s where my parents helped me. There has been no one in my life more sacred, more holy than my father and mother, whom I don’t like to call father and mother. I still call them mummy and daddy. And the longer I live, the more I love them, the more I admire their wisdom, though they died a long time ago. And it is really so.

There was only an old battered piano in our family’s possession. I started to make sounds from it first by tapping one of my fingers into it, then using my fists and finally my open hands, to my mind, were fit to do it. It was to be this way, as if it had been prescribed to my father and mother to let me go my own way. It was very wise of them, I think, that they naturally let first banging, then a sort of music, come from my fingers. Therefore all is natural. So one day I was shown at a music school. On Sobachia Ploshchadka there was a music school governed by the sisters Gnesin. And I played for Elena Fabianovna Gnesina, a famous teacher of that time. And she became my first teacher in music.

Besides that my parents were very fond of the Art Theatre, which means I was taken there, too.

Then they had a season ticket to the Bolshoi Theatre, somewhere on the fourth circle, and sometimes, when I was especially diligent, they gave me a chance to be present at those performances.

Then I was very much interested in church. I used to go to my grandfather’s place, there, in Varvarka Street, and there was a church in that street which I never failed to visit whenever I found myself near it. So, I used to go to and fro, to deliver bread to them, their daily bread ration. That was again my destiny’s making.

You know, to kill the time and not to get bored while crossing Teatralnaya Square, going along Arbat, then crossing Red Square, through Dorogomilovo, over the bridge, I kept in my head sounding, let’s suppose, "Carmen". And I knew in advance, by Toreador’s appearing, that I’m approaching Vozdvizhenka Street.

In that way I used to check the time. And the opera continued sounding in me, it was so because otherwise it’s too boring to cover all those distances. The traffic wasn’t so heavy then, and you didn’t need to be afraid of being run over or knocked down. The horses were in use then, cabmen, and the horses are very clever, they will never run over the man. Therefore, if I am in their way, they will go round me, despite the cabmen. That is the way the world used to be. But who knows, perhaps, it is the horses who are to blame that one day I found myself in opera. If they had knocked me down I wouldn’t have played "Carmen" in my head till the end. I wouldn’t have got home. God knows what kind of destiny it might have been. So much to my destiny. A beautiful one…

Next, my father, school principal, was once given a reprimand. He was told that it was inconceivable for his son to visit the church. But my father was a wise man. He didn’t utter a single word to me about the incident, didn’t forbid me from going to the church. Instead, he bought me a gallery ticket to the Bolshoi Theatre and that’s all. The point was that once I came there for the first time, the next day I came there again and I was let in though I had no ticket whatsoever. And hereafter I hardly missed a night at the Bolshoi and each time without a ticket. Who let me in, why they let me in? A miracle? - Miracle. Sacrament? - Sacrament.

I graduated from State Institute of Theatre Art (GITIS). We were taught then free-of-charge, as you know. When we graduated from the institute we were sent to work at different theatres all over the country. No one was left without a job. It was not so bad, you know. I was sent to some provincial town to mount my diploma performance. I was invited to the director and asked if I could stage " Carmen? " - I replied: "Yes, I can " - " When can you begin rehearsing? " - I replied: " Straight away."

Then comes the war, most terrible days for Moscow, when the Germans are advancing towards Moscow. It was rumoured that some motorcyclists had approached the Kremlin. Terrible days. When half of Moscow citizens abandoned Moscow. And at this very moment I receive a telegram from the Government that I am to arrive in Moscow to work at the Bolshoi Theatre. " The Bolshoi Theatre is being bombed and am I to work there? " Who? When? How? But that’s where the things are getting cool. I have nowhere to live, I do not know where to go, it’s freezing outside and I am told that Sergey Sergeevich Prokofiev has written the opera " War and Peace ", and we ask you, please, to mount this opera in the Bolshoi Theatre. Here it is both cool and comfortable. And you see, I did it, and I received Stalin award for it, the very first one.

You may call me such a mystic. And so I am. As the life ordered so I did. All went in its turn. That is the way the things are to be. I am to be.

6. " I continue being friends with him"

Georgiy Tovstonogov is another gift by my destiny. It is with a good purpose that my destiny sent me this clever man, an extremely clever man. A good comrade, who I made acquaintance with as soon as I entered the Institute. He impressed me enormously. We became so close to each other that sometimes we discovered that we saw eye to eye.

I’ll tell you about one incident, which might help you understand Тovstonogov’s talent better, especially at that time.

We were to take an exam in Western literature. To pass the examination it was necessary to read huge amounts of literature within one year. It goes without saying that students never did anything like this. Neither they wanted to. And we thought out how to put on an air of “Mr Know All” for the examiner. We were supposed to pick some extracts from each piece of literature, especially interesting as culmination, and perform them more or less talentedly. I received a book by a South American author, read the name of the novel and chose a scene, which seemed to me important and worth retelling.

I imagined the episode the way I was going to tell it to the guys. And I went to see them. But when I approached the guys I saw Tovstonogov in the middle of telling them the same scene. But in a different way! Then my version followed. The guys were indignant: " After all, couldn’t you have agreed on one thing! Stop making fools of us!" We all went to the library, found the book, opened it at the proper page and read the scene: there was nothing in common with either what the Tovstonogov or the Pokrovsky said. Nothing but some climaxes around the main character, simultaneous in imaginary pieces. We got stunned, both of us. We were upset by what we had done. " What is wrong? Why having read the original, we started telling lies? " In the evening he took me aside and in the most serious way, as never before, he whispered in my ear: " Look here, what if producing is really our vocation? " So, he sensed then the most important quality of a producer – imagination.

I am proud of it and I do not hesitate to reveal that my mum, who died long ago, and I frequently talk to each other. I often turn to Tovstonogov for advice, too. He comes to me when I urgently need his advice and he helps me. And it is, certainly, some play of imagination, but I doubt if I could have been living without it.

I simply need to imagine both my mum and my friend alive. Therefore, for me he is not merely an acquaintance who passed by like any other episode in my life. I continue being friends with him.

7. " I know how to stage operas … That’s the only thing I know how to do … "

Traditions are worth respecting. I have always worshipped the Bolshoi Theatre. It is a temple, a

great temple of our country’s art of opera. And it, certainly, dictates its own ways, devices and principles. Thus, I established my own Chamber Theatre after working at the Bolshoi for over 50 years just only because I sought something different: I felt a bit constrained by the Bolshoi’s laws and traditions, which I learnt pretty well for all those 50 years of my work there. They seemed to me too restrictive. I realised that opera as an art needs intimacy, heartiness, closeness – all what is called “chamber style”.

I have always had great composers, great music, great playwrights, and great performances available “in my large pocket”. And there have always been a number of young actors at my side, who believed in me and I believed in them. I have had my principles, and we have trusted these principles. And most important - we considered the audience, the people who lived there, in Sokol district, in Peschanye streets. Those people make a remarkable audience – a most cultured and intelligent. But there was a place where no modern kulturtrager had ever set his foot. I didn’t think it would be difficult. And the audience readily rose to our playing. Certainly, now they feel hurt, because we seldom play there, but prefer our new premises in Nikolskaya Street. They’re waiting for our new performances, and we are sure to do our best to please them.

It was all right when we were playing at Sokol and on the new premises there is still something to be found. Some experiments are waiting for us: it is necessary to find new devices fit for the new premises, the skill of mastering the space in terms of opera singing, in terms of chamber style and, by all means, in terms of theatre.

The key line of my life is rehearsing. It’s cool, it’s enjoyment. I recollect one incident when I was happy. Once I was suffering from a case of insult. I was being treated, both my wife and my doctors were trying to help me out. One doctor said: " Do you, Boris Aleksandrovich, know, what you love most of all? "

" Most of all I love to rehearse ", - I said, clearly understanding that my state of health put rehearsing beyond my reach. " Yes, you are right! That’s it, I discharge you. Go! Do you think you are able to rehearse? - Yes. - Tomorrow? - Yes ".

So I came here and got down to work. And recovered. Why? Because I’m taken to rehearsing like fish to water. It is what I am capable of, what I was born for.
And one more thing I consider the matter of prime importance. Not the theatre, say, Mr. Kolobov or “Helikon”, but the composer - Musorgsky or Monteverdi, or Моzart should be taken into account i.e. their theatrical principles, their opera principles. You know, each opera composer has his own theatrical vision. Prokofiev has his own theatrical principles, Shostakovich sees theatre art in another way, Tchaikovsky - has a third vision of it. Johann Sebastian Bach wrote operas, too, and it’s needless to say, his views of opera staging were also unique. Either you, as producer, feel it and perceive it i.e. you grow fond of it or you give it up. I see it this way. And it is disgusting to argue with those views, principles, to change anything in them or try to improve them. When we help a great classicist it is disgusting. When we begin to look for modernity in classics, it always results in platitude…

Because classics remains a canon, and it always remains contemporary, once and forever.

8. Epilogue

If I were monarch or president I would forbid everything but opera for three long days. In three days’ time the nation would wake up refreshed, smart, wise, enriched, satisfied and cheerful. I’m not saying it just because I’m a votary of opera art and strive for opera, but because I’m a strong believer in it. The railroad is already coming to its end – it’s a blind alley. I know for sure that our terminal station is a deadlock, an impasse. And here there is nothing to wait for, it is only possible to look back, and, in looking back, I observe that all was done skilfully and pensively and the rails are laid properly.

I’m sitting and thinking that the new theatre season is about to begin and there should be some rehearsals arranged. I feel as nervous as I used to. I do not know what I’ll mount. I know all and I do not know anything at all. There is only one thing I know for sure - I have lived a happy life because all my life I have been in opera. At any moment I can hear any music, see any opera, and that’s it – it makes me feel a good man, I am already a better man, it is easier for me to live.