Word: gergiev
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...tenor seizes the title role like Domingo, whose vocal potency and dramatic intensity have redefined the part. As Desdemona, Carol Vaness caresses Verdi's most beautiful music with a pure, radiant soprano, while in the pit, Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, making his Met debut, leads the score with raw power and passion. The live radio broadcast is April 2; be prepared to be taken by storm...
...launch deals like the one with Covent Garden, Gergiev has very little help. Surrounded by old-school functionaries, he must train a staff that can do business with the West. He seems to proceed on instinct, with more than a little of the old Diaghilev in him. Often he will end a long evening on the podium with a couple of hours of nuts-and-bolts negotiating...
...Gergiev is one of the few who read the signs of change early. Even before he got the Kirov's top job in May 1988, he was planning co-productions with European houses. That was the key: Russian arts had no choice but to look westward; as the rubles melted away and inflation sent costs soaring, survival depended on hard currency and touring. Both Russian and Western impresarios have sent a glut of performers on the road. Next year two groups currently calling themselves the Red Army Chorus will be in the U.S. Some tours have been so badly mishandled...
...signed Western contracts. The ballet will perform The Nutcracker in Tokyo each year for the next decade. The opera, besides a major contract with Philips Records, has co-production deals going with Covent Garden and La Scala, among others. But it will not return to the U.S. until 1995: Gergiev is wisely wary of overexposure...
...idols is Peter the Great, whose wild equestrian statue he passes every day he is at home. "It is the symbol of the city, of enormous power. Peter wanted to learn, not just to command. With great symbols and images like that, you can't feel hopeless or helpless." Gergiev may need every bit of the emperor's strength -- along with those Kirov vitamins...