Century echoed in a concert of baritone Kostiantyn Rittel-Kobyliansky

— As the holiday come to an end, one can look back to see what made the occasion so festive, what made one feel so very happy. Among this New Year’s most pleasant surprises was, of course, the Century Echo Concert at the National Opera of Ukraine, held as part of the Project Feedback, starring the singular soloist Kostiantyn Rittel-Kobyliansky who performed half a dozen world hits. The excellent accompaniment was provided by a symphonic jazz orchestra placed in a cascade on the stage, in a crimson illuminated interior. The shimmering setting, swirling stage smoke, the cannon blasting away with bursts of golden flakes, and the ballet dancing a scene in every number added to the festive atmosphere. Even the academic choir danced, singing its bit on a broad open range.

The concert was planned and held as befitted a real holiday, only once, never to take place again. In any case, such was the decision of the producer company Film Plus Production. Kostiantyn Rittel- Kobyliansky is a baritone specializing in European audiences, and he was happy to sing at the National Opera, a company he had admired throughout his youth.

“I wanted this concert to be a homey event — without excessive familiarity, of course, but also without the official pomp,” says Kostiantyn. “I wanted to be in contact with the audience as though there were my friends. I had to sing that music as though standing inches away from my listeners. I was glad to see men in the front row loosen their ties. Some looked as though they wanted to leave their seats and start dancing.

Sitting in the audience, I thought I was witness to some extravaganza.

K. R-K.: We wanted it to be that way, but I also wanted to sing my numbers well, so that no stunts would have any negative effects on them.

I could sense some tension in you.

K. R-K.: I was very nervous; it was my first concert here. If something is not perfectly OK, if something goes wrong, there is only one way to go about it. Be frank, don’t try to hide anything. You have to be naked onstage. There are moments when you have the audience totally under control, other times the audience must feel that you belong to all of them.

That’s could be one of the main performer’s rules.

K. R-K.: It is. You must always know exactly why you are onstage and what kind of message you want to give the audience. Also, you must enjoy doing it all. If you don’t, you can be sure the audience won’t appreciate it, either.

I was amazed to learn that the concert was a one-time project, never to be repeated.

K. R-K.: Of course, I’m more interested in a concert being part of a project, but there is no project underway, just some ideas. Now I have to figure out everything, things I can do, things I need, things that have to be changed. Perhaps I could put such a concert into circulation. I hope that my producer and director Misha Krupiyevsky, a very talented man with a keen intuition, will know what to do.

How did you two meet?

K. R-K.: He found me and then translated his idea into life. You saw the result. Nice, wasn’t it? I live and work in Germany, and I constantly meet with people offering all kinds of interesting ideas, telling about what they can do, using words like gold, diamonds, oil... These people (we know them as new Russians, new Ukrainians, new Kazakhs...) sound so convincing and look so gregarious. At one time I found myself thinking that this is it; with these people I’ll surely embark on something new. But then they disappeared. Talking someone into funding a concert like this is impossible. One must be eager to carry out a project like that, for it involves a great deal of preparation and arrangement. Look at our cast. So many people. I’m grateful to all of them for their time and dedication. And I’m happy that people consider it necessary.

I was particularly impressed by the last number with the video tapes, when the screens unfolded and we saw scenes from that very audience, shot half an hour earlier. Meaning that there were people with video cameras and that they had made and edited the tapes...

K. R-K.: Yes, and we worked for two hours nonstop.

And everything fitted the music perfectly...

K. R-K.: Well, that’s Film Plus Production for you.

I found myself feeling proud that we could do such things in Ukraine.

K. R-K.: I didn’t see what was happening behind me onstage. I couldn’t turn around and watch; I had to sing, but I saw that the audience was captivated. First we planned that I’d step down into the audience, take a seat, and watch everything, but the way it happened proved even more interesting. In fact, if and when we can have other such projects here, we’ll have to try to make it high key, I mean everything, not only equipment and special effects.

You mean projects with this kind of music?

K. R-K.: Why not? Frankly, I didn’t expect the audience to respond so warmly, for this kind of program is seldom performed and it’s not characteristic of Ukrainian pop art. We specially left out numbers like New York, New York! and People. Experimenting with them is dangerous. Instead, we translated other pieces. Actually, it wasn’t translation but new lyrics written specially to the music. Although the text was kept close to the original plot, it was nevertheless different. Then we played them. Jesus! American music but sounding exactly like our old Ukrainian tunes! The melody, the atmosphere! Ukrainian! For example, I start singing Moon River in Ukrainian and the audience starts applauding. They know the music! Why do you think we titled our concert Century Echo? Because that music was not only American, but also of all people. It’s very good, quality music, it has no bearing on particular places. The whole concert produced something of quality. We all worked for a single idea; we wanted the audience to enjoy every number.

You don’t like the audience to start clapping their hands even before the last chords?

K. R-K.: I don’t need instantaneous applause. Besides, I no longer react to it. It’s something a performer enjoys at the start of the career. The more so here, as it was my first meeting with a large Ukrainian audience, so I had to let that audience take a good look around.

I wish I could hear and watch you on the same stage again, but in an opera.

K. R-K.: Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

From what I know, our National Opera is a bulky and complex machine.

K. R-K.: Let me tell you something as a man who has long worked with good companies and with excellent producers, where everybody is in the right place doing the right thing. Your National Opera is an excellent company, you have great singers, but this company is in a very bad condition. You can tell by stepping into the cloakroom. It’s a company without a manager that can make and keep it ticking. What I am about to say may sound paradoxical, but the best managers it had was under the Soviets. Those administrators knew how to get hold of the best performers and keep them on staff. Now you are only making the first tentative steps in terms of management and production, mostly by groping in the dark.