Dmitry Chernyakov is a talented opera director

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Dmitry Chernyakov is a director (see photo below) of opera and drama performances. Born in Moscow in 1970. I did not come to my current profession right away. For some time the young man studied at the Institute of Architecture, and only then entered GITIS.

First production

Dmitry Chernyakov staged his debut play in his third year. He was then just over twenty years old. He was too shy to stage a production in Moscow. Dmitry was well aware that in this case he had no right to make a mistake. Therefore, the young man acquired his first directing experience in Tver. It happened in 1991. In an interview, Dmitry said that he was very carried away by work at that time and did not even notice how the USSR collapsed.

Opera

At first, Chernyakov's work had nothing to do with this genre. It seemed to Dmitry that the drama theater gives the director more opportunities. After all, there the actors are not connected with the vocals. After graduating from GITIS, the young man got a job at the Russian Drama Theater, located in Vilnius.

But everything changed in 1998 when Dmitry staged his debutopera performance in Novosibirsk. It was a world premiere based on the work "Young David" by V. Kobekin. The production became a very important cultural event.

Teachers

The work of the hero of this article is a vivid example of what is called "director's theater". Dmitry is skeptical about the achievements of his predecessors in the field of opera. In the field of opera directing, he openly calls Russia a “third world country”, which “has not recognized, overlooked” everything that has long been experienced in the West.

Chernyakov considers representatives of such a direction of Scandinavian cinematography as "Dogmas" as his "teachers". It prevailed in the 1990s and focused on the rejection of complex editing, sets, combination shooting and other self-restraints.

Own approach

Minimalism is what Dmitry Chernyakov chose for himself. The director, whose personal life will be described below, primarily seeks to interpret the stage as a playing space. According to him, if the line he started is brought to its logical conclusion, then only a rug and two chairs will remain on the stage. This will be the finale of both Khovanshchina and Eugene Onegin.

It is noteworthy that when the director began his journey in opera with a new work, he no longer collaborated with contemporary composers. Chernyakov was involved in staging classic masterpieces of the past. But the young man introduced them in a completely unexpected way.

Original productions

For almost all of my own performancesDmitry Chernyakov himself develops scenography and costumes. And his interpretations of the classical masterpieces of opera always cause genuine amazement in the public. Moreover, the director's freedom of action is seen not only in the performance as such, but even in history. For example, the opera A Life for the Tsar, which premiered at the Mariinsky Theater, caused cognitive dissonance among many viewers. Entourage and costumes tied her action to the twentieth century. And this was in complete contradiction with the Polish musical characterization of the enemy camp.

Dmitry Chernyakov very often transfers the action of classic masterpieces to the present. This is one of his favorite tricks. So he did with "Tristan and Isolde" and "Aida", in which there was not even a hint of Ancient Egypt.

Separately, it is worth noting "Katerina Izmailova", staged by Chernyakov in Duisburg, Germany. Dmitry replaced the merchant's house with a modern office, and made the main character's bedroom in an Asian style. The ending of the performance was also unexpected. After the massacre of Sonetka, the main character does not commit suicide. The girl is beaten to death by the guards.

Other overseas performances

Katerina Izmailova is not the only opera staged outside of Russia by Dmitry Chernyakov. The director became the author of several more performances. In Berlin he staged Boris Godunov, in Madrid Macbeth, in Zurich Enufa, in Milan The Gambler. Dmitry always remains true to himself, considering works familiar to everyone under a very unexpectedangle. So, in Macbeth, the director replaced the witches with a street crowd, which incites the protagonist to kill. And in "Boris Godunov" after the curtain rises, the destroyed building of the Moscow Central Telegraph on Tverskaya Street appears before the audience …

Criticism

The director's innovation often shocks the audience, creating rather strange situations. For example, after the release of F. Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmelites at the Bavarian Opera, the composer's heirs demanded that the performance be removed from the repertoire. And in 2006, Galina Vishnevskaya was so outraged by the production of Eugene Onegin at the Bolshoi Theater that she refused to celebrate her 80th birthday there. From what is happening on stage, the opera singer was seized with despair.

Private life

Dmitry Chernyakov prefers not to talk about her. Therefore, there is no information about the director's personal life. The only thing is that there are rumors in Runet that he is gay.