Natalya Popovich. Life is like a happy canon. Dozens of actors who were fired from the New Opera are asking Vladimir Putin for protection. Popovich’s colleagues are confident that her role in the country’s art cannot be overestimated
Soviet and Russian choirmaster, theater figure.
Honored Artist of the RSFSR (01/2/1980).
People's Artist Russia (December 27, 2004).
In 1967, while still a student at the Ural State Conservatory, as the most gifted student of the course, she was invited to the position of choirmaster at the Sverdlovsk academic theater Opera and Ballet named after. A.V. Lunacharsky, where she later became the chief choirmaster.
At the Sverdlovsk Opera and Ballet Theater, together with the main conductor of the theater Evgeny Kolobov, Natalya Popovich, opera performances were created that were highly appreciated by the audience and the press: “La Traviata” and “Force of Destiny” by G. Verdi (the first production in Russia in Italian), “Carmen” by J. Bizet, “The Tsar’s Bride” by N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, “Peter I” by A.P. Petrova and more than 20 others premiere performances.
Since 1981, at the invitation of Yu.Kh. Temirkanova, worked as a choirmaster at the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater. CM. Kirov (now Mariinsky), participated in productions of performances with such masters opera stage, as choirmaster A. Murin, conductors Y. Temirkanov, E. Kolobov, V. Gergiev, director B. Pokrovsky. As a choir director, she took part in the audio recording of the opera “The Pirate” by V. Bellini (conductor E. Kolobov, soloists: E. Tselovalnik, K. Pluzhnikov, S. Leiferkus), in the television version of the play “Eugene Onegin” by P.I. Tchaikovsky (conductor Yu. Temirkanov).
In the period 1988–1991 she was the chief choirmaster of the Musical Theater named after. K.S. Stanislavsky and Vl.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, where she led the choir in existing repertoire performances and participated in premiere productions of operas under the direction of conductor Evgeniy Kolobov: “The Pirate” by V. Bellini (the first production in Russia), “Boris Godunov” by M.P. Mussorgsky (in the author's first edition), which became legendary. Based on the play “Boris Godunov” (conductor E. Kolobov, director O. Ivanova, artist S. Barkhin, choirmaster N. Popovich) an opera film was made, in which the choir embodied the image of the Russian people with great authenticity.
In 1991, together with her husband Evgeny Kolobov, she stood at the origins of the creation of the Moscow New Opera Theater. From the day the theater was founded, she participated in determining the ideological and creative direction of development of the new team, its repertoire policy, in the formation of the creative and technical departments of the theater, and the introduction of a contract system.
Choir" New Opera"I improved my vocal skills by performing spiritual musical works a capella and works of the cantata-oratorio genre: the cantata “Moscow” by P.I. Tchaikovsky, “Alexander Nevsky” by S.S. Prokofiev, “John of Damascus” by S.I. Taneyev, “Spring” and “Three Russian Songs” by S.V. Rachmaninov, Requiem by G. Verdi, Requiem by V.A. Mozart and others. The choir of the “New Opera” was rightfully recognized by viewers and critics as one of the best choir groups Moscow.
As a choirmaster, she participated in the recording of CDs and DVDs of the Novaya Opera: “Chorus of the Novaya Opera Theater”, “New Opera at Carnegie Hall”, cantata “Moscow” by P.I. Tchaikovsky, cantata “Alexander Nevsky” by S.S. Prokofiev, “Symphony No. 13” by D.D. Shostakovich, “Three Russian Songs” and the cantata “Spring” by S.V. Rachmaninov, “John of Damascus” by S.I. Taneyev, “Romances by P. Tchaikovsky and S. Rachmaninov”, opera “Valli” by A. Catalani, divertissement “Rossini”, opera “Eugene Onegin” by P.I. Tchaikovsky, Requiem by V.A. Mozart, Requiem by G. Verdi, The World’s Favorite Opera Choruses (together with the Finnish Savonlinna Choir opera festival), “Masterpieces of the Opera Stage”, “Classics through the Ages”, etc.
In 2003, after the death of the theater founder Evgeniy Kolobov, by order of the Moscow Government, Natalya Popovich became the chairman of the artistic and creative board of the Novaya Opera Theater (she held this position until 2013).
The author of the idea of theatrical performances, which became business card"New Opera": "Bravissimo!" (for the 10th anniversary of the theater in 2001) and “All this is Opera!” (for the 20th anniversary of the theater in 2011), gala concert “Viva Verdi!” to the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth, which includes excerpts from all of Giuseppe Verdi’s operas.
In 2003 - one of the co-founders of the Evgeniy Kolobov Foundation, initiator and ideological inspirer of the annual International Festival“Epiphany Week at the New Opera” dedicated to Evgeny Kolobov.
A huge loss for our art: Natalya Popovich has left. Not just the wife and like-minded person of the great conductor Evgeniy Kolobov, but his friend from the first steps theater stage, successor of his work, heiress and keeper of his traditions. And certainly a magnificent, rare, original talent: thanks to her, the choir of the New Opera Theater, as before the choir of the Sverdlovsk Academic Opera, were among the most outstanding creative teams countries.
They were an amazing couple. It is absolutely impossible to talk about any of them without mentioning the other: truly creative family, obsessed common cause. Both are Leningraders by birth, but they were brought together by Sverdlovsk, where they went to study at the Ural Conservatory named after Mussorgsky, where the legendary conductor Mark Paverman and the no less legendary Galina Rogozhnikova, one of the country’s largest experts and masters of choral art, taught. “If I come to Professor Rogozhnikova without knowing the clavier by heart, I would immediately fly out of the class,” recalled Natalya Popovich in a conversation with an RG observer. “And Zhenya and I sat all night long, learning. And now choirmasters from the Moscow conservatory, I put the clavier in front of them - they have no idea about it! What right do you have to go to the choir?! No, I wouldn’t want to study in Moscow, because I was taught everything at the Ural Conservatory. And first of all - love. to music. And the fact that a person has no right to go to an orchestra or choir if he does not have his own vision, his own interpretation, an idea of what he wants to say with this composition.”
The great talent of the young choirmaster was obvious to everyone. Already in her fourth year, she was invited to the Sverdlovsk Academic Opera and Ballet Theater. “I felt it as a great honor and plunged into this theater headlong,” continued Natalya Popovich. “These seventeen years in Sverdlovsk were the happiest years of Zhenya’s and my life. Zhenya was invited to conduct the Theater’s performances musical comedy, and then to the Sverdlovsk Opera, where there was a wonderful team." Here Kolobov and Popovich worked for seven years. It was here that they created a performance that became a sensation in Moscow and instantly made them famous - this was the first production of Verdi's opera "Force of Destiny" in the USSR "in the original language. They wrote a lot about it, noting not only the bold interpretation of the then little-known score, but also the magical sound of the choir, which impeccably conveyed the subtlest nuances of Verdi's musical drama.
After this triumph, the talented couple was invited to the Mariinsky Theater by Yuri Temirkanov himself. But somehow it didn’t work out in his native Leningrad: Kolobov, a born opera maestro, was not interested in conducting ballets, and although he traveled all over the world with them, married couple chose to go to Moscow.
Both were offered to lead Mariinskii Opera House, then - Bolshoi. Both refused the honor - they were not interested in trying to stir up the teams, as Natalya Popovich said, “overgrown with barnacles.” They needed a more dynamic theater, ready to experiment. Natalya absolutely shared Kolobov’s eternal desire to recreate music, as it were, right before the eyes of the listeners, and supported him in everything. The story of their relationship with the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theater began - a more than dramatic story. The orchestra and choir immediately fell in love with the new leaders and were ready to follow them anywhere, but the local folk artists jealously guarded their rights to sing the young Tatyana and the ardent Lensky even in their declining years and declared war on any attempts to inject fresh blood into the ossified theater. It went to extremes: there was even a performance when the orchestra, defending its maestro, pointedly refused to play, and the opera was sung to the piano. The war was serious, and the couple, who had been homeless for a long time and forced to live in the Budapest Hotel, were ready to accept the invitation of the Italians to head the opera in Genoa, where there would be no problems with an apartment. But the orchestra’s artists were waiting in the hotel lobby - neither Kolobov nor Popovich could abandon the people who believed in them. In addition, both were devoted to Russian art, and Russian soil was not just a temporary place for them. These were the roots from which grew everything that both loved and knew thoroughly, everything that later arose in music with the wave of their amazing, “singing” hands.
And all their lives this couple was accompanied by the devoted love of those who worked with them. When Kolobov and Popovich flew to Sverdlovsk many years later for the anniversary of their native conservatory, they were met at the plane's ramp by an orchestra opera house- a march from the opera “Peter the Great” they staged there sounded over the airfield. An emotional Kolobov knelt in front of the musicians.
Hand in hand, they built the theater of their dreams - their own theater, designed according to their drawings - the “New Opera”. At first she huddled in a former cinema building, where there was little room for a choir, and voices sounded from all sides - even from above, from the ventilation grilles. It was an absolutely magical effect, invented by a genius looking for a way out of a hopeless situation. It was no longer possible to repeat it when the theater got its own building with a normal hall and a spacious stage.
At Novaya Opera both immediately established their main principle: either we put on new titles for the Moscow public, or we rediscover old ones. The performances caused controversy, sometimes shocking conservatives with their unusual sound, non-standard rhythms, adjustments in orchestration or even dramaturgy. The events included the first Russian productions of the operas "Hamlet" by Thoma, "The Two Foscari" by Verdi, "Mary Stuart" by Donizetti, "Valli" by Catalani, and the unusual "Boris Godunov" by Mussorgsky, which was performed in the first edition of the author's version to an unfamiliar audience. It is thanks to the wonderfully coordinated creative tandem performances-tributes to the great musicians of the past could appear on the Moscow stage - “Maria Callas”, Viva Verdi!, Viva Puccini!, “Rossini”, “Vincenzo Bellini.
After Evgeniy Kolobov left, Natalya Popovich continued his traditions. She headed the artistic and creative board of the New Opera, became the author of the idea and concept of such musical evenings as the musical and theatrical composition Bravissimo. The repertoire now includes the most complex operas requiring filigree skill: Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore, Rossini's Cinderella with its virtuoso ensembles, Verdi's Nabucco and Il Trovatore with its powerful choirs. Her authority made it possible to attract Yuri Temirkanov, Eri Klas, Felix Korobov, Alberto Veronesi, Antonello Allemandi, Andrejs Žagars and many other world superstars to collaborate with the theater opera life. On her initiative, in memory of Evgeny Kolobov, the annual festival “Epiphany Week at the New Opera” was founded, in which leading masters of Russia and the planet also took part, and masterpieces unfamiliar to the Russian public were performed.
With the end of a huge and deeply individual musical history in the life of our art - one that was created over the years and decades by a uniquely gifted creative and family tandem. It was a completely separate era in the development of the Russian opera theater, existing according to its own laws and principles, unlike anything else - furious, rebellious, frantic, like Evgeny Kolobov, reverent, soulful, tender and lyrical, like Natalya Popovich.
Natalya Popovich is the wife and colleague of conductor Evgeniy Kolobov, a continuer of his traditions. Photo: novayopera.ru
Another personnel reshuffle in one of the best Moscow musical theaters, the New Opera named after Evgeniy Kolobov, ended in a scandal. The widow of the theater's founder, Natalya Popovich, who also holds the position of chief choirmaster, was removed from the post of chairman of the artistic board and deputy director for creative issues.
On the same day, the resignation letter at will wrote Kolobov’s daughter, Marfa Kolobova-Teslya, head of the literary department at the theater.
Natalya Popovich told Izvestia that she considers the decision of director Alexander Sibirtsev to be an abuse of authority. Ms. Popovich sent a corresponding letter to the office of the head of the culture department, the founder of the theater, Sergei Kapkov.
I will fight. “I am being driven out of the theater, which I nursed in my own arms, by an unprofessional, inexperienced person with ambitions,” Natalya Popovich told Izvestia.
According to Ms. Popovich, new director without consulting the board, he invites singers and conductors, implements his projects, as a result of which the theater turns into a concert venue.
In her letter, Natalya Popovich invites Mr. Kapkov to amend the theater charter and create a position artistic director.
According to the choirmaster, one of the complaints expressed by the theater director Dmitry Sibirtsev was the presence family ties between theater workers.
The director of the New Opera, Dmitry Sibirtsev, explained to Izvestia that he acted within the framework of the charter in relation to the artistic collegium. In accordance with clause 3.1.5, its composition is determined by the director and approved by order of the institution. He also said that “there is no talk of dismissing Natalya Popovich.”
Her main position is that of chief choirmaster, and she has an open-ended contract. She held other positions part-time,” said Mr. Sibirtsev.
As for Marfa Kolobova-Teslya, according to the director, she decided to leave of her own free will due to professional claims against her.
The place of deputy director for creative issues and chairman of the art board was taken by chief conductor“New Opera” by Jan Latham-Koenig, which in itself does not contradict the aesthetics of the theater: in 1991, “New Opera” was conceived by Evgeny Kolobov precisely as a conductor’s theater.
Ms. Popovich became an ordinary member of the art board, but did not come to the first meeting of the updated composition. In addition to Natalia Popovic and Jan Latham-Koenig, updated composition The artistic board included all the main theater specialists. The director himself remained as deputy chairman of the board.
Sergei Kapkov told Izvestia that he does not know about the events at the Novaya Opera and should not know: according to the theater’s charter, all decisions regarding the artistic board are made directly within the theater. According to the head of the department, Ms. Popovich’s letter has not yet been received at his disposal.
The Moscow New Opera Theater was created in 1991 on the initiative of the artistic director and chief conductor of the theater, People's Artist of the RSFSR Evgeniy Kolobov (1946–2003) and Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov. At the same time, Kolobov’s wife, Natalya Popovich, was appointed to the post of chief choirmaster. Since 2006, the theater bears the name of its founder. Since December 2012, the post of director has been held by Dmitry Sibirtsev.
Natalya Popovich - People's Artist of Russia, laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation. Together with Evgeny Kolobov, she stood at the origins of the creation of the New Opera Theater. The repertoire of the choir under the direction of Popovich includes more than 20 operas, sacred musical works, and works of the cantata-oratorio genre. As a choirmaster, Natalya Popovich participated in the recording of 15 CDs of the theater.
Time is running fast. Theater "New Opera" V next year 25 years. And just recently, one of its creators celebrated a serious anniversary, Natalya Grigorievna Popovich- wife and creative soulmate Evgeniy Vladimirovich Kolobov. For days on end he and she thought about what the theater should be like. Natasha immediately understood the ideas of her brilliant husband; under her firm choirmaster’s hand, the polyphonic choir responded like a Stradivarius violin under the fingers of a virtuoso.
Sverdlovsk 60's. The whole city is engulfed in choral singing. “Conducting is not a woman’s profession, and if you decide to take it up, you should forget about all sorts of womanish things,”- Professor Galina Petrovna Rogozhnikova inspired. And shy Natasha learned to be strong-willed, sight-read claviers of any complexity, sing any parts - soprano, tenor, bass - and in any voice. But most importantly, she understood: music is a world that we comprehend through sounds, and these sounds should be as rich as the world is rich. That is probably why she, one of the few, was invited as a student to take the position of choirmaster at the Sverdlovsk Opera and Ballet Theater. And here fate brought her together with Zhenya Kolobov, who was also invited to the theater as an orchestra conductor. Two such talented people could not pass by each other. Life paths crossed - and forever. They created the “New Opera” together, ideas were born from one and the other. But it is known for certain that Natalya Grigorievna sometimes introduced such discoveries into opera productions that later became a highlight - not a single critic passed by them.
For the 10th anniversary of the theater, she composed an original play “ Bravissimo" - the musical history of the Hermitage Garden and the Theater born in it. For the 20th anniversary - a fireworks performance of opera music “All this is opera!” They are still in the theater's repertoire. For the 200th anniversary of G. Verdi, Natalya Grigorievna embodied a long-standing idea: the performance-concert “Viva Verdi!” It turned out to be so brilliant that at the premiere in 2013 during the Epiphany Week festival, the audience gave a standing ovation for fifteen minutes.
When the Maestro passed away, it seemed that the life of the theater stopped. And then the team turned to N.G. Popovich: do not give us into the wrong hands, take artistic direction upon yourself. But she considered that after Kolobov she had no right to take this place. And then personally for N. G. Popovich, the Moscow Department of Culture created the position of chairman of the artistic board and, accordingly, the artistic board of the theater itself.
The work of the opera house is extremely complex. This includes the entire creative component from concept to implementation, from the overture to the frill on the soloist’s costume. Organizational issues - repertoire, renewal of the troupe, search for talented directors and conductors. Release of the play. Finance. All this, sometimes even scheduling difficulties, became Natalya Grigorievna’s daily work. Plus choir rehearsals (she remained the chief choirmaster). In fact, she was responsible for everything that was assigned to the artistic director and even more. After all, this was his and Kolobov’s theater. It was created under Kolobov, Kolobov was called a Genius during his lifetime, Yuri Temirkanov said about him: “He served. I also serve, but not so amazingly.” She created a living theater, in which she preserved the living soul of the outstanding Maestro and his memory. Festival "Epiphany Week" named after. E.V. Kolobova is a holiday for the entire musical Moscow. The E.V. Kolobov Foundation, which established the Evgeniy Kolobov Prize. Under him, the theater lived according to democratic rules. She maintained this order - the doors of her office were open to employees at any time: a young singer, conductor, Pomerzh, could come to her with interesting idea and get good. Everyone was given the opportunity to develop. But there were never any squabbles or behind-the-scenes intrigues in the theater. She took care of her collective family with all her might. After all, this has been one of the features inherent in the theater since its founding.
Russia noticed and appreciated Natalya Grigorievna’s wonderful and inspired work. She is a laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation for the creation of the Novaya Opera Theater, a cavalry lady of the S.P. Diaghilev Order “For the Benefit of Russian Culture,” and a People’s Artist of Russia.
I sometimes wonder where she drew and draws strength from? Maybe, main role this ability not to lose oneself was due to the happy confidence in the significance of one’s work, the long-term general indissolubility of the lives of those who were devoted common house, Moscow New Opera Theater named after. E. V. Kolobova. She never lied to them, did not humiliate them, did not insult them, did not appropriate something for herself, depriving her comrades. She is real, and people have an unmistakable sense of what is real. That is why the New Opera has lived for many years as a happy canon.
People's Artist Russian Federation Natalya Grigorievna Popovich died on March thirtieth. She was seventy-three years old.
Chief choirmaster of the Moscow Novaya Opera theater and widow of the theater founder Evgeniy Kolobov in Lately was seriously ill. Farewell to the People's Artist of Russia will take place on April 2 at 11:00 at the New Opera Theater (in the mirrored foyer). The funeral will take place on the same day Vagankovskoe cemetery, where she will be buried next to her husband, the outstanding conductor Evgeny Kolobov, whose name the theater bears.
Natalya Popovich worked as the theater's chief choirmaster for more than 15 years.
After the death of her husband in 2003, Natalya Grigorievna became the chairman of the artistic and creative board of the New Opera Theater and held this position until 2013. The title of People's Artist of Russia was awarded to her in 2004. She worked within the walls of her native theater from 1991 to 2017.
“At the difficult moment of Kolobov’s departure from the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theater, Natalya Grigorievna received a number of flattering offers, including from the main theater of the country - the Bolshoi. But she, like her husband, preferred a pie in the sky - the dream of her own theater - to a bird in her hands,” the Novaya Opera press service said in a statement.
Natalya Popovich created her own choir at the Novaya Opera Theater. She also came up with the idea of staging a number of theater performances:
- "Gianni Schicchi" Puccini,
- "Cinderella" by Rossini,
- "The Pearl Fishers" by Bizet
- "Prince Igor" Borodin,
- "Il Trovatore" and "Nabbuco" by Verdi,
- "The Barber of Seville" by Rossini,
- “The Queen of Spades” by Tchaikovsky and others.
Popovich also initiated the creation of the titular annual festival “Epiphany Week at the New Opera.”
Popovich's colleagues are confident that her role in the country's art cannot be overestimated
Popovich was the theater's chief choirmaster from 1991 to 2017. In 1967, while still a student at the Ural State Conservatory, Natalya Popovich, as the most gifted student of the course, was invited to the position of choirmaster at the Sverdlovsk Academic Opera and Ballet Theater. A.V. Lunacharsky, where she later became the chief choirmaster, is indicated in a message on the theater’s website.
“It is impossible to overestimate the role of Natalya Grigorievna in the development of many singers; with their work and talent they increase the glory of their native theater and home country", they said at the theater.
At the Sverdlovsk Opera and Ballet Theater, together with the chief conductor of the theater Evgeny Kolobov, Natalya Popovich, magnificent opera performances were created - “La Traviata” and “Force of Destiny” by G. Verdi (the first production in Russia in Italian), “Carmen” by G. Bizet , “The Tsar’s Bride” N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, “Peter I” by A.P. Petrov and more than 20 premiere performances. Spectators and the press highly appreciated the works of the talented Popovich.
Since 1981, Natalya Grigorievna was invited by conductor Yuri Temirkanov to the position of choirmaster at the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater. CM. Kirov (now the Mariinsky Theater). During her time at the theater, she participated in productions of performances with masters of the opera stage (choirmaster Alexander Murin, conductors Evgeny Kolobov, Valery Gergiev and many others). As the director of the choir, Natalya Popovich took part in the audio recording of the opera “The Pirate” by Vincenzo Bellini, and in the television version of the play “Eugene Onegin” by Pyotr Tchaikovsky.
REFERENCE
Popovich Natalya Grigorievna (February 27, 1945 - March 30, 2018, Moscow, Russia) - Soviet and Russian choirmaster, chief choirmaster of the New Opera Theater (1991-2017). People's Artist of the Russian Federation (2004).
Chief choirmaster of the Sverdlovsk Opera and Ballet Theater, Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater (1981-1988), Moscow musical theater K. S. Stanislavsky (1988-1991). Founder and chief choirmaster of the Moscow New Opera Theater (1991-2017).
Husband Kolobov Evgeniy Vladimirovich (1946-2003).
