Having appeared on the greatest opera stages of the world, Boris Statsenko has debuted in his native Chelyabinsk.
Just over forty years ago, in Korkino, to the Stetsenko family of disabled veterans and workers, a son was born — Boris. Life at the time was complicated; hence, the family soon moved to the village of Bagaryak, closer to the earth. Naturally, the young boy helped his parents with the farming, and sang in the choir as well. After his military service the assiduous young man was noticed and offered a position as secretary of a Komsomol organization. Boris Statsenko was 22 when he first entered an opera theater — an event that turned his life upside down. «I chanced upon the Barber of Seville», recalls Statsenko. «I remember it as though it were yesterday… Anatoly Berkovich was singing the part of Figaro. It all so overwhelmed me that I promptly fell in love with opera. That's when I made my decision.»
That same year saw Boris Statsenko a student at the Chelyabinsk Music School in the class of German Gavrilov. Three years later Boris entered the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied under the renowned Peter Skusnichenko, under whom he likewise completed his graduate studies, and by his third year began working in the Chamber Music Theater under the direction of Boris Pokrovsky. Statsenko was noticed and invited to the Bolshoi Theater. A series of victories in the Maria Callas and Chaikovsky competitions followed, along with the prize of audience approval at the Shalyapin festival in Kazan.
In 1984, after four years of work in the Bolshoi Theater, Statsenko left for Germany. Currently he is a soloist as the Düsseldorf German Opera on the Rhine. According to his contract Statsenko must perform in twenty productions, primarily of the Verdi repertoire. The rest of the time he sings on the greatest opera stages throughout the world. In January he performed the part of Don Carlos in the premier of Verdi's La Forza de Destino in the Bolshoi Theater. Amazingly, Boris Statsenko peformed for the first time in Chelyabinsk only a week ago. It is symbolic that this was the same part of Figaro, in the same production of the Barber of Seville, that so struck the imagination of the 22 year-old secretary of the Komsomol committee in the village of Bagaryak so many years ago.
«I came to the music school quite pretentious,» recalls Boris Statsenko. «I came and said, «What kind of students are you sending to our village — all with diplomas, but none who can do anything?» «And what can you do?» they asked me. I sat down at the piano and played «Den' Pobedy». «You need to sing, not direct,» they told me. That's how I ended up under the excellent teacher German Konstantinovich Gavrilov.
«No doubt you dreamed of performing on the stage of the Chelyabinsk Opera. Is it a good thing that you bypassed that level?»
«Things happened that way because there is no conservatory here. I think this is a big problem not just for the theater, where the alumni would stay to work. This is a misfortune for all Chelyabinsk. As far as one's career goes, I think it all depends on the amount of talent. There is the example of the world-famous baritone Dmitry Khvorostovsky. He began in Irkutsk and made a worldwide career for himself, bypassing the Bolshoi Theater. One needs only to not stop, striving ever upwards and onwards.»
«Towards what?»
«Towards self-improvement. My agency in Germany, meaning my impresarios, says: ’Boris, don’t think about the money; sing well, and the good life will come.’ Frequently when the good life arrives, a person becomes complacent. That becomes his downfall. I have no complacency; if I did, I would not have come to Chelyabinsk. I am getting nothing from this. I was invited as a friend by the head director, Master Ferulev; the theater pays for my hotel and travel from Moscow, and that's all.»
«Boris, today the typical European opera theater has an international troupe. In your observations, has Europe preserved the idea of the national vocal school? In the Düsseldorf theater, for example, is there a German tendency?»
«The thing is, the Germans themselves cannot sing Italian or Russian music. That is, they can, of course, but they are unable to demonstrate adequate quality — the particulars of the language, or rather of the articulatory apparatus. Russian in that sense is closer to Italian. The «o» sound, for instance, sounds the same in both. In German, however, there are several variations close to our «o». Hence, Russian singers as a rule have never made a career in German opera, and vice versa. Though there are other reasons, as well — financial opportunities. If Russian opera could be paid as Italian opera is, I think Italians, French, Japanese, and Americans would sing with considerable success using good Russian.»
«Right now, it seems to me, there are two mutually exclusive tendencies in art. Or perhaps the opposite — mutually complementary. On the one hand, serious art becomes more and more elite, while on the other hand there is the powerful influence of show business on the same opera. »
«Let me say this about elitism: everything depends on the musical education. You may be surprised, but I think that separating pop and opera is not entirely correct. What is „Heart of Beauties“ If you sing it loudly with guitars, it is nothing but pop. It has precisely five chords. It's just that when someone with a good voice sings it, people call it opera. Here is where the cultural base becomes very important. In Germany, Italy, and France, children are enrolled in music school not to become musicians, but to develop themselves. Here with us if a child is enrolled anywhere to study it means he must become great and imposing. All other children are flung to the streets.»
«So the problem of elitism in art lies with the parents?»
«No, the problem is one of money. If parents had the money, they would enroll their children in music schools.»
«Do you think so? Here people don't go to the theater, either, supposedly for want of money. Incidentally, how is attendance in Germany?»
«I can say that in Germany the opera theaters are always full.»
«Who goes to them?»
«I sang in one small city and noted that sitting in the front row were children 12 — 15 years old. Naturally, the intellectuals and the rich go to the premiers; they have to make their appearances. Normal performances, however, are attended by normal people.»
As this was being prepared for print, it was learned that prior to his return to Germany Boris Statsenko had submitted an application for work at the Chelyabinsk Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet. Now we will have yet another invited soloist, and one known worldwide, at that. Also, tentatively in the fall here in Chelyabisnk we will see the recording of a unique CD. Boris Statsenko, accompanied by our theater's symphony orchestra, will perform P. I. Chaikovsky's romances in Sergei Ferulev's orchestration. This will be Statsenko's sixth album, and a potential bestseller in the classical department in music stores all over the world.