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"Requiem" by Mozart in the Concert Hall. P. I. Tchaikovsky performed by the MusicAeterna orchestra and choir conducted by Teodor Currentzis and in the text by our correspondent Ekaterina Nechitailo.

Any requiem is not to be trifled with. Is it humor: funeral mass, high genre concert sacred music, a type of funeral oratorio. Luigi Cherubini dedicated his creation to the memory of Louis XVI, Verdi - Gioachino Rossini, Brahms' "German Requiem" - an offering to his deceased mother.

About Mozart and his work late XVIII centuries, there are still so many rumors circulating that one could fill a whole notebook. Like, he had a presentiment, he worked for money, he didn’t finish this, this, this part, he himself brought trouble, he wrote bars on his deathbed. Everyone knows “Lacrimosa”; if you want to add some epicness to a play or film, then turn on “Agnus Dei”, there are legends about a certain Black Man. And, of course, Salieri is to blame for everything. Choir and orchestra musicAeterna, teaming up with soloists and conductor Teodor Currentzis, presented their vision of history to the Moscow public by performing on stage Concert hall named after Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky “Requiem” by the great Austrian. More precisely, playing a requiem for Mozart. Not according to the image, but according to dreams, fears and desires, not according to the score, but according to the totality of variations on a theme, not according to the composer, but according to the person who went There.

At the Perm Opera, where this opus was performed a few days ago, the foyer before the concert smelled of incense, and artificial candles were installed along the edge of the stage. In Moscow, they didn’t carry out the perfume experiment, but they decided not to remove the candles, keeping the mood in the given key: you can’t destroy the context, you can’t paint over a note, you can’t erase a word from a song. The choir is in black, the orchestra is in black, the conductor is in black, most of the public - in black. Cassocks, dresses, a textbook concert shirt and tight pants. It's no secret that Mozart never completed the work: the composer only managed to write the entire first section of the Introitus - "Requiem aeternam", sketched the orchestration of "Kyrie", and wrote out the vocal parts. “Lacrimosa” stopped after the 8th bar, “Sanctus”, “Benedictus” and “Agnus Dei” remained in the sketches, the work was completed by Mozart’s student Franz Xaver Süssmayer and musician Joseph Eibler. In the musicAeterna version, it must be said, there is absolutely no feeling of fragmentation, cutting, or distortions in quality. It seems that the stage is a single mass, a common organism, an integral structure, which is outwardly gloomy, but internally brighter than the fire of a candle. The clarity of pronunciation is mesmerizing, the energy is gushing, cantilenas and staccato are precise to the point of breath. Conductor Teodor Currentzis and choirmaster Vitaly Polonsky build the entire performance on dynamic changes and enhanced articulation: sound leaps are unpredictable, “s” at the endings are pronounced with frenzy, “r” at the beginnings cut the space, middle “k” create support. “Kyrie eleison” covers the hall in waves, “Confutatis maledictis” is a careful tear, “Dies irae” is a concentrated force, the popularly known part of “Lacrimosa”, sounding restrained and crystalline, saved from the sublime and worn-out tearfulness. Each recitation of “Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine” / “Grant them eternal peace, O Lord” is an intimate request, pronounced in public meekly and slightly shyly. It is worth noting that for all the swiftness and electricity that accompanies the sound, this performance is devoid of excessive platooning of the orchestra, which often turns into aggression of the strings, hysteria of the winds, pathetic cry of the choir working on a common fuse. Everything is very delicate and even meditative: the transitions, the general fragments, and the work of the quartet of soloists. The point here is not in beauty, but in sincerity, not in singing, but in the awareness of sound production, not in the fact that Currentzis skillfully restrains zealous horses, but in real closeness to prayer for eternal peace. Natalia Lyaskova (mezzo-soprano) and Elizaveta Sveshnikova (soprano) follow each other, working harmoniously in duets, the voice of bass Edwin Crossley - Mercer envelops the hall, tenor Thomas Cooley warms up the space around him with sounds. It is impossible not to pay attention to the fact that in 2010 Currentzis and musicAeterna released a disc with “Requiem” (with other soloists) on the Alpha label. Comparison of readings is inevitable, but any attempt to compare them will turn out to be not entirely correct: a work that was not fully completed obviously has an imperishable right to a multitude of very different interpretations. And each option has every chance of a long and happy life.

“Mozart grew weaker and weaker, and on the seventh day he died, and on the third day he was buried,” the choir sings airily towards the finale, weaving into the score a number by Sergei Zagniy, which was commissioned by Teodor Currentzis several years ago. It must be said that in this reading of the “Requiem”, written on the canonical Latin text of the funeral mass, there is generally a lot of oxygen, and it itself, piercing and deep, is similar to the flight of an aircraft. Lightning fast, reliable and... burning. Beautiful at its peak, impetuous, united with its team, fearless, moving along the route Perm - Moscow - Salzburg clearly and uniquely. And therefore, not crashing on the rocks, but a meter from the leprous earth, which is visible from afar, flying into open sky, where Mozart still works on his last work. And he doesn’t know it himself.