Albina Shagimuratova impresses Kazan citizens with bel canto
The Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra gave a concert for the fairer sex on the eve of International Women's Day. That night, one of the brightest world opera stars, Albina Shagimuratova, 'shone' in the Saydashev State Great Concert Hall. Read the details in the material of Realnoe Vremya.
''We have known each other for a long time''
Albina Shagimuratova, who remains a soloist of the Tatar Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre named after Musa Jalil, is one of the most popular singers in the world today. With equal success she acts on the stages of Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Vienna Opera, Bolshoi Theatre and Mariinsky Theatre.
Therefore, as she explained to journalists at a media scrum, her appearance on the stage of the Kazan Opera is problematic — the schedules do not coincide. Although this season, the citizens of Kazan still have heard her charming soprano as Violetta in La Traviata. The fact that Alexander Sladkovsky managed to get the singer to a concert in Kazan is truly a royal gift to our audience.
At the media scrum, it was revealed that Albina Shagimuratova and Alexander Sladkovsky had known each other for a long time, since 2003, when the young Albina performed in St. Petersburg in the contest of Irina Bogacheva, and the performances of the contestants were under the orchestra conducted by Sladkovsky. By the way, in one of the first concerts given by the Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra and then new principal conductor Alexander Sladkovsky, Albina Shagimuratova was the soloist. It was in the autumn of 2010 in Kazan.
So, the qualitative growth of Tatarstan Symphony Orchestra was occurring in front of Shagimuratova. When the singer was asked what she thought about the quality of the orchestra's play, Shagimuratova said that the team already could compete not only with the best Russian orchestras, but also with many foreign ones and her feelings from working with the Tatarstan orchestra were 'amazing'.
''I have not performed this programme in Kazan yet''
''We already have the second concert now, the first was yesterday, we performed in the presidential project, rehearsed, so we spent these two days together. I think that you will get a lot of pleasure from the fantastic voice, charm, musicality of Albina, and from the repertoire that Albina and I will present to you,'' Alexander Sladkovsky told about the concert. According to Shagimuratova, she will perform a programme that she has never performed in Kazan before.
The concert began in major — with the overture to Mozart's opera Don Giovanni. The first act was chosen with knowledge of the matter — as you know, the secret of Don Juan's irresistibility was the fact that he, albeit briefly, but sincerely was falling in love with another beauty. Alexander Sladkovsky conducted gracefully, as if light spirit of Mozart led his orchestral wand. The logical continuation of Don Giovanni's theme — Aria de Donna Anna performed by Albina Shagimuratova, and the audience immediately was captured by her soft, as if enveloping, soprano.
One of the strengths of the first act — Cavatina of Norma from Bellini's opera of the same name. Famous Casta Diva, a complex vocal composition, one of the most difficult Italian works for soprano. Few singers cope with this aria. Purity, sublimity, some reverence for the 'pure goddess' was in the voice of Shagimuratova, whom the orchestra and the maestro delicately helped. The more unexpected was the transformation of the singer into a playful, wayward Rosina from The Barber of Seville, like in the previous case, the aria was preceded by an elegantly arranged overture to this opera by Rossini.
The second act gave the audience a meeting with the unfamiliar Shagimuratova — playing and energetic, who can let herself Salammbo aria from Citizen Kane, by the way, performing it for the first time in Russia at this concert, as well as operetta Karambolina-Karamboletta and cult Granada.
Well, the orchestra was galloping of Light Cavalry by Franz von Suppé, capturing the spirit, dissolving into the passionate and mystical gypsy dance from Carmen by Bizet. And sometimes it besotted the festively tuned audience with Shostakovich's waltz bars. By the way, he is one of the most beloved composers of the maestro.
