• Українська
  • Русский
  • English
Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Enemy of Imitation

2 March, 1999 - 00:00

By Liudmyla ZHYLINA

The National Opera's young soloist appeared in a concert recently which
ended earlier than the audience expected as the singer was not satisfied
with the way his voice sounded after the flu. His concert master Liudmyla
Skirkina explained, "Taras is used to free creativity in concert, and after
being ill he felt his voice had certain limitations."

This is quite telling of Shtonda who meticulously analyzes after each
performance how he sang his role and executed each vocal phrase. His exacting
attitude toward himself sometimes borders on self-flagellation. However,
this perfectionism and indefatigability (despite his extraordinary vocal
gift and dramatic talent) were the main reasons why Taras has been more
and more often spoken of as a new star of the Ukrainian operatic stage.

Once his parents gave him a Fedor Shaliapin record, and the teenager
decided with the self-confidence, so typical of his age, that he could
sing no worse. Now he recall this with a smile. The artist may have preserved
some of his childish spontaneity to this day. He likes very much to give
presents, lavishes praises on his colleagues (which is not typical of the
artistic community). He can be as inattentive and careless as a first-grader,
for which he later scolds himself mercilessly. On the other hand, he memorizes
new musical material easily and quickly, and here he is amazingly concentrated
and industrious. He loves to play the piano; especially when learning a
new part: this allows him to feel the latter more adequately, to "see the
picture," so to speak.

Taras Shtonda's Kyiv Conservatory Professor Halyna Sukhorukova taught
him that the audience can always tell real dramatic identification from
going through the motions. He has since worked on every part with almost
a jeweler's precision. "Creating an operatic image I seem to exist in a
musical whirlwind, searching for a special meaning between the lines of
notes, trying to understand the composer's original concept and determine
the character's singular innate vocal identity," the young man admits.
Complete creative immersion pays off; the singer can discover new vocal
capacities in himself. His current repertoire includes Verdi's Grand
Inquisitor and Philip II in Don Carlos, Zachary in Nabucco,
and Monterone in Rigoletto; Don Basilio in Rossini's Barber of
Seville, the Commander in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Gremin in Tchaikovsky's
Eugene Onegin, Kyrdiah in Mykola Lysenko's Taras Bulba, Dosifei
in Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina, bass parts in Verdi's, Mozart's,
Bruckner's, and Stankevych's Requiems and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony,
as well as other world vocal masterpieces. Taras Shtonda is now working
on Boris Timofeyevich's part in Shostakovich's Katerina Izmailova.

In 1997, the singer won silver medals at the Vignias International Vocal
Contest in Barcelona and the Maria Callas one in Athens. He is moved to
recall the legendary Russian bass Boris Shtokalov, member of the jury of
the Ivan Patorzhinsky First Vocal Contest in Luhansk, tell him, "Son, carry
your timbre and soul through the rest of your life" (in that contest he
shared first place with Lviv's singer Serhiy Mahera).

Taras is increasingly often invited to sing on different operatic stages.
This spring he is traveling to Spain. The young man considers passing the
current trial by popularity the most important thing; he wants to preserve
the music in himself and himself in the music.

 

Young singer Taras Shtonda lives in a musical whirlwind
Issue: 
Rubric: