Vladimir Ìatorin: "I am flying while I am singing!"

Vladimir Matorin is an absolutely happy man, a People’s Artist of Russia, crowned with every possible laurels, very much favoured by the men in power and popular with ordinary people, professor of the Russian Theatre Academy and at the same time he is an actor to the marrow of his bones, with a twinkle in his eyes and childish deep in his heart. But the main thing here is that he sings what he finds interesting only. And still this is not enough for him, he is thirsty for more – this is, perhaps, the key to his success, as Vladimir Matorin sees it.

- Vladimir Anatolievich, you should know, if anybody does, what kind of advice to give – what goes to make a good opera singer?

- Let me see… first of all, maximum of desire, maximum of luck. Just the way it was in my case, and I think that I’m not at all a bad singer. You should be lucky with teachers, when a student. Me, for example, I was very lucky. I graduated from the Gnesins Institute in 1974 and there was a dozen of teachers there who had been taking care of me and teaching me. Certainly, the singer is supposed to work a lot on his own, but there comes a big problem that “nobody can say which way to work”, as Shalyapin used to put it. Unfortunately, it becomes more or less clear to you, I mean, the way you should work on your own, when on the horizon arises the eternal repairs of the Bolshoi Theatre. It took me twenty years to learn to think in terms of images. You know, earlier when I was singing I saw a line of the score or of the poem, while now there appears an image conveying the plot of the story in my inner sight, in my head. Besides the actor should constantly master his skills, you see, even having received the diploma, you need practice, because the curriculum neither in the Conservatoire nor in the Gnesins Institute, nor anywhere else includes singing practice with orchestra. You must get used to walking onstage, putting on make up. From the auditorium it all looks beautiful and charming, but onstage you feel that your false beard bothers you and prevents you from singing, or the costume is not comfortable enough, and you have to adjust to all this. What is happening onstage is not as beautiful and amazing as it seems to the spectator. Rossini used to say “voice, voice and voice”, Caruso spoke in a different way, he thought that memory comes first. There are roles that seem to never yield to you. You may learn it, learn and learn and see no end to learning. Then, when you have coped with it, you are to learn to sing and act simultaneously. Sometimes your partner who is to appear on the right suddenly appears on the left of you and immediately you start doubting if you are singing the right line, and who might be mistaken – he or you…Besides singing is not only physically hard but also mentally. And you have to overcome both your own physical condition and the space as well. The public, soloists and chorus, everything hypnotises you, they think: “Well, come on, let’s see what you’ll sing to us”, other people bring the problems they are having at home to the theatre. I feel very precisely the aura of the public and it’s quite important for me to have the majority of benevolent people there in the auditorium. I do not mean to intimidate those who want to sing, you see, the art of opera has proved to be viable and prosperous though it is 400 years old now. Young people come and catch the ‘bacillus’. And what else I like singing for its being multi-genre art.

- It’s true, your repertoire is rich in classics, folk, spiritual music, romances. What accounts for it? What’s your favourite genre?

- Probably, I keep everything close to my heart. As to spiritual music, my attitude to it is very particular. I was an atheist for a long time. In those times when I was a communist, it was dangerous to go to church too often. And then at the age of 42 I got baptised and a year later I was admitted to the Bolshoi Theatre. Then the times changed, everything changed suddenly – the Millennium of Russia Baptised was celebrated officially at the Hall of Columns, and the show was catching. I got so much taken away with it that immediately decided to issue a record. The God let it be and sponsors were found. The most important, when I sing church music, is that next morning you get up a different personality, full of energy and understanding that you can’t live without being generous. That’s why, probably, I’ve been onstage for thirty years already.

- When did you understand you would be an opera singer?

- Actually I was to become a military man, you see, in my family there have always been military people – my great-grandfather was a bearer of all St. George orders, when the war burst out my father was a boy. And when time to decide my destiny came, my father suggested I enter a military college. But at that moment I felt my throat was tickling so I went to the Moscow Conservatoire to try myself in singing. I failed, but I was told to have a try in ‘the Gnesins’ (College), I didn’t know what ‘the Gnesins’ was. My further try was a success. In fact, in my youth I wanted to style myself on several people – Magomayev, Khil, Kobzon and Ots. All of them pursued the occupation of an opera singer except for Khil, which made me start moving in that direction and I thought it would be nice to become an operetta actor. Their being well dressed and the happy end of the performances appealed to me. In the operetta they do a bit of singing, a bit of talking, a bit of dancing and the plot becomes clear to everyone, even those who don’t have any education in music. But when I got an insight into the opera genre, I found out that one would never get tired of opera - the more you listen to it, the more you come to like it. For example, the very first performance I watched at the Bolshoi – The Tsar’s Bride – I saw twelve times within one year. The genre has incorporated all the best achievement - orchestra, vocal, painting etc. and, certainly, it made my choice.

- Before you were admitted to the Bolshoi you worked for seventeen years for the Stanislavsky Theatre. Did you regret leaving it? Were you welcome at the Bolshoi?

- In fact, I came to work for the Bolshoi at a mature age, I was 43 years old then. Some funny story is connected with it. When the magazine " The Youth of the Bolshoi Theatre " was about to be released the editor had to change its title for " New Names of the Bolshoi Theatre” because of my age (laughs happily). One more story: straight after I came to the Bolshoi Theatre, I was strongly advised, with the best motives, I hope, to change my style. Supposedly I should try to look absolutely academic, to acquire more self-respect in manners, to inflate the cheeks, to make a serious face. And once I did it all onstage but my friends afterwards talked me out of doing it again. (laughs) Seriously, I found myself a member of the Company troupe in some lucky contingency. I had been listened to many times before, but all the vacancies in the high bass diapason were occupied. At that moment the great Ognivtsev and Petrov, Vedernikov and Eizen, Reshetin, Vernigora were alive and full of energy, then Nesterenko and Morozov had just come. And all of a sudden I was invited. But I liked working at the Stanislavsky Theatre – the best theatre in the world. Besides I was awfully lucky – I managed to do three roles within the first year of work, within the second year – seven, for three years I had sung the whole repertoire and for the whole time of work at this theatre I sang 33 parts. I felt pity to leave, but I left in the unhappy time when the troupe collapsed into two parts, which slightly relieved the parting. At the Bolshoi, to my delight, my first roles were Boris Godunov and Ivan Susanin, both I adored since my childhood.

- You frequently go on tours abroad. Have you ever had a temptation to stay there as, it is no secret, they pay more and the conditions are more comfortable...

- I’m very Russian, therefore I have never felt tempted. Firstly, when we had one trip a year, everything we could feel was surprise, all was so different from our realities, both the way the tours were organised and the way people behave. And now, when I have to spend most part of the year abroad, in other countries, I feel it is difficult, because no one takes into consideration how much efforts, blood and sweat it takes out of you, while on the surface only flowers and applause are seen. Besides there is a huge scale of Russian values and Soviet values - special friendship of the people and of the peoples. I have friends, with whom we’ve been together for 30-40 years, who will accept me in any way, here I have the graves of my ancestors. Here my parents, children, grandchildren live. That’s all.

- You have a successful experience in performing comical parts – Don Basil, Mendozo, Tsar Dodon, The King of Clubs, but nevertheless your voice can be attributed to a heroic bass. There is a contradiction here, isn’t there? Was it easy to work on these parts?

- In fact, I am a full bass as I can sing everything. But the point is that there are stereotypes. Only one role is beyond me – I can’t act Don Quixote, though Êalyagin, with his far from typical for Don Quixote constitution, has managed to act it. There is a secret, which I have solved – comedy and tragedy have very much in common, the castline between them is hardly noticeable and the latter can easily become the former and vice verse. Besides in music there are a lot of nuances, which makes it possible to interpret it differently.

- How do you get prepared for each performance?

- I put on my role long before I arrive at the theatre to act. If there going to be Boris Godunov performed, I’m coming to it as Boris and I do not pay attention to anything else. If you come to the performance being yourself, you will act yourself with the costume and make up of the character on.

- Once I caught yours fans arguing over which of the two best parts of yours –Susanin and Godunov – you have embodied most realistically. And what’s your opinion?

- Ivan Susanin is a very long opera and difficult to listen to, by the way. But the drama line is quite interesting – the situation in Russia is unstable, there is no tsar in the country, the daughter is too young to get married, then, later everything goes OK, the Tsar is elected, there appears a proper young man for the daughter, but all of a sudden enemies come to destroy the peace. And Susanin understands that he must rescue his home, his village, the whole Russia. There is death here but it is very gradual. In Boris Godunov everything is different. Firstly, the part of Boris was written for a baritone that is why the bass sounds tenser. Besides in Boris himself there are contradictions – he is Tsar, sovereign, but he cannot reveal his likings and dislikings.

- You have done many a different Boris Godunov, participated in many versions of this opera. Which one do you like most of all?

- To be fully honest, I very much like the version by the Stanislavsky Theatre. The conductor-co-producer Eugenie Kolobov made use of Mussorgsky’s own edition of the score. He showed a new approach. There was no Polish Act, which made the line Boris-Pimen look more vivid and clear to the great advantage of the whole performance. One more ingenious version is worth mentioning, the one by MALEGOT stage director Stanislav Gaudasinsky, who gained it, put it through himself, which made it ingenious. Semyon Pastukh made perfect sets for it. The Bolshoi’s version of Boris Godunov is a masterpiece, the interesting decision of the stage-director Fyodor Fedorovsky and the conductor Nikolay Golovanov made an excellent musical base for it. The long life of the version, which has been on for 57 years is a proof to it. And its ingenious directing makes the nowadays cast improve and meet the high standard of the Titans for whom it was meant.

- You have lived in different times, epochs, you happened to see different generations of people. Do you see the difference between “now” and “then” or, as people say, time is always the same?

- I think that when I was young people were different, they were more polite, more attentive to each other. Now the relations are, probably, more based on commercial terms. But anyway, I am in a privileged position, I don’t need to elbow my way through…. In I have only a few routs to go in Moscow – home, the theatre, the Kremlin, my dacha.

- Do you think the actor should be unreasonable, or on the contrary?

- There should be elements of it among the traits of the character, but the approach should be reasonable on the whole. On the other hand everything depends on music, for example, German music requires more reason.

- Who is the strictest judge of you?

- My mother, but now she seldom comes to my performances. The main critic for me is my wife and accompanist, with whom we are constantly together and very precisely feel each other’s mood and feelings, understand each other. My friends, who love me, and each of them estimates me in his own way – from the creative point of view, from the emotional, from the musical one etc. But, to tell you the truth, I know everything myself only too well as I’ve been working for so many years.

- What is your mood at present – are you happy, are you full of new ideas or do you think you still lack something?

- In the course of my life I changed my views, gave a second thought to my roles and now, my Gremin is different from what he was earlier. There are great many roles I’d like to do, despite the number of my roles which totals 88. I think, that the secret of a great actor is that though there are a lot of awards, roles etc. he feels it’s not much enough. I ‘d be delighted to take part in Ruslan and Ludmila, and Falstaff is written specially for me. I terribly miss Don Basil from El Barbiere di Siviglia, Porgy and Bess by Gershvin, Betrothal in a Monastery by Prokofiev. But, unfortunately, the good performances, which I love and in which I am significant, too large to fit the New Stage. Nevertheless, I am lucky to be able to choose roles and I like nine roles to one. If I want I sing the spiritual music here, if I want I go abroad and sing there. I dreamed of such a life all my youth. I’m happy in marriage, my parents are alive thanks to God. I do not have free time because I’m the Head of the Chair of the Department of Vocal, Professor of the Russian Theatre Academy. I’m writing a book ‘the manual for those who study singing or Vocalist’s ABC’. The telephone never stops ringing. During long sleepless nights in Paris, where I’ve recently come back from, I was thinking that my life now is similar to the Niagara waterfall. And I’m happy! As work is the most important thing in my life.