Russia (bbabo.net), - A press conference of the Director General of the Musical Comedy Theater took place in St. Petersburg. Due to the epidemiological situation, it was held online. Yuri Schwarzkopf summed up the results of the last year and spoke about the team's plans for 2022.

About 2021

- The last two years have not been easy for us, like for all theaters, due to the coronavirus. Nevertheless, we were actively working. And they even released the most complex, large-scale performance of "Miss Saigon". This is the first production of the musical by the French composer Claude-Michel Schoenberg in Russia. An international team worked on it, director - Cornelius Baltus (Holland). Our work has been nominated for the Golden Mask award in four categories.

In May we released Frasquita, an operetta by Franz Lehar (directed by Gábor Miklós Kereni, Hungary), and in November, Frederick Lowe's musical comedy My Fair Lady, staged by Grigory Dityatkovsky, a well-known St. Petersburg director and winner of the Golden Mask award.

We have opened the museum space "Musical Comedy Theater during the Great Patriotic War" in the Orekhovy Foyer, we take excursions there, they are in demand by the public. We are proud to tell how our theater lived in wartime. The only one who worked in the besieged city for all 900 days of the blockade, under continuous bombing and shelling, in the absence of food and heat.

Back to news »

About the premieres of 2022

- In January, according to tradition, a series of public concerts was held on the occasion of the memorable Day of lifting the Leningrad Siege. In May there will be concerts dedicated to the Victory Day in the Great Patriotic War.

As always, we have a lot of plans. Everything will depend on the financial well-being of the theater, on the health of the troupe. The first premiere is scheduled for April 13 - a musical performance "I hate Hamlet" based on the play of the same name by the American playwright Paul Rudnik to music by Maxim Leonidov. Director - Olga Prikhudaylova, student of Valery Garkalin (GITIS, acting and directing course).

In May, we will show a new musical on the Small Stage - "Frankenstein" by Mark Baron. It will be staged by the Moscow director, three-time winner of the Golden Mask award Alexei Frandetti. Let's finish the year with a huge work that we have been doing for the last three years - the musical "Peter I", for the 350th anniversary of the emperor. Music is written by American composer Frank Wildhorn. His musicals "Jekyll & Hyde" and "The Count of Monte Cristo" are successfully staged in our theater. Choreographer - Dennis Callahan (USA), who worked with us on the musical "Dance of the Vampires". Playwright Konstantin Rubinsky is busy on the Russian side, and Jack Murphy on the American side. Director - Andreas Gergen (Germany), artist - Vyacheslav Okunev (Petersburg).

I hope that with the help of the Committee for Culture of St. Petersburg we will resume the festival "Operetta - Park", which takes place in the Museum-Reserve "Gatchina". Artistic director - Alexei Frandetti.

We are planning to put Kalman's "Princess of the Circus" on the Big Stage. We are working with the famous director Dmitry Belov - we offered to stage an operetta by the British composer Sidney Jones "Geisha", it was played in our theater in pre-revolutionary times, when it was also called the Palace Theatre.

We play holiday concerts. International. Soloists come from Budapest, as well as conductor Peter Gut. For fans of the genre, this is a great holiday. Viewers have the opportunity to hear what they have never heard or seen. For example, we discovered a number of Western composers that are not known to the general public. For the first time in Russia, the operetta "Madame Pompadour" was staged.

About operetta

- I have been a fan of this genre since childhood and I know how many times it was "buried" ("Who needs an operetta, an outdated genre"?). In Europe, almost one or two theaters are now working in this genre. And just like us, they also produce musicals. Classical operetta is a complex and expensive genre. These are huge scenery, 150 or more costumes, singing at the opera level, the ability to dance, the beautiful appearance of the actors. Fewer people want to work in this genre. Since Soviet times, our theater has been inviting artists from the provinces to join the troupe. So Albert Pankov (from the Rostov musical comedy), Valery Matveev from Petrozavodsk, Vladimir Yakovlev from Irkutsk appeared in our team, graduates of the Nizhny Novgorod Philharmonic Society work ... The genre will live if the directors do not mock it. This genre is still conservative. We staged a Soviet operetta - "Wedding in Malinovka", "Babiy Revolt", "Sevastopol Waltz", made a concert based on operettas and songs by Isaak Dunaevsky - "Dunaevsky Gala, or "Soviet Mozart". Director from Perm Boris Milgram will stage with us Dunaevsky's operetta "White Acacia".

About musicals

- Our first experience was modest - John Kander's musical "Chicago" in 2007. He appeared in our repertoire unexpectedly. 80 percent of the operetta troupe participated in it, and Moscow artists appeared, who are now considered the stars of the musical. For example, Natalia Dievskaya, Manana Gogitidze. The takeoff began in 2011, when Roman Polanski's Vampire's Ball was staged. It was held about 450 times, always with great success, sold out, despite the high ticket prices. The rental was closed several times. Last year, the tenth anniversary of the performance was celebrated with a concert performance. We wanted to see if it's still a success. And they realized that it was necessary to return it to the repertoire. From January 28, we play this performance again - the marathon will continue until the end of February.

About tours

- Before the pandemic in 2019, we had a lot of tours around the country: Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Surgut, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Petrozavodsk, we went to Tallinn through the Golden Mask line. Last year, due to the pandemic, only exchange tours with the opera house from Syktyvkar took place. This year, as always, we are invited by many cities: Irkutsk, Perm, Novosibirsk... The question is whether Moscow will be able to provide us with funding.

By the way

On February 24, the theater will host a gala concert "75 Happy Years", dedicated to the anniversary of General Director Yuri Schwarzkopf. Stage director - Gabor Miklos Kereni (Hungary). Soloists of the troupe, invited artists, artists of the choir, ballet and orchestra of the theater participate.

Help

Yuri Schwarzkopf was born in Leningrad. From 1979 to 1984 he was deputy director of the Leningrad Theater of Musical Comedy. Since 2005 - General Director of the St. Petersburg Theater of Musical Comedy. At the same time, from 2005 to 2014, he worked as First Deputy Artistic Director of the Mariinsky Theatre.

He was the director of the Palace of Art Workers. K. S. Stanislavsky, director of the Leningrad Drama Theater. V. F. Komissarzhevskaya, director of the Philharmonic. D. D. Shostakovich.

bbabo.Net