Conversation with the artistic

director of the Maly Theater

YURI MEFODIEVICH

Solomin

We are publishing a dialogue with a unique personality in the history of theatrical art - the artistic director of the Maly Theater, who has been leading the world famous team for almost thirty years. This living organism, pulsing with harmony, has gained fame and fame on the planet by accumulating and giving millions of viewers the energy of kindness, compassion, and humanity for many years. This is the only theater in Russia that is a member of the Theater Council of Europe, which was given the status of a national treasure by the Decree of the President of Russia - like the Bolshoi Theatre, the Tretyakov Gallery and the Hermitage. It is not possible to list the titles and regalia of Yuri Methodievich Solomin in this material - they will take up pages. A conversation with him often went beyond theatrical art: the Master’s opinion about momentary time, history, pedagogy, theater, events in Russia and the world, I think, will be as interesting to the reader as the professional talent of Yu. Solomin, the first among equals, carrying national, Russian traditions to compatriots in the XX-XI centuries.

Evgeny Chebalin. Yuri Mefodievich, we live in a cruel time for our country, against which the third world war has been unleashed. This cruelty is the most merciless and destructive for our entire culture, in the flask of which the West is growing by satanic efforts a humanoid homunculus - Ham, rootless and shameless. Now this subject is often introduced into the theater as a director. The main passion of such an instance, as in Papanov's "Adjutant of His Excellency"; « make an exhibit”, to exalt oneself, unique and “elite”, above national traditions, to fit the classic playwright to the vulgarity and bad taste of one’s own “inventions”, to expel the life of the Spirit from the stage and replace it with the frenzy of a pretentious form and the porno miasms of the body.

You and your theater rise above this pathological revelry as an unshakable bell tower, the Russian national temple, from where the spiritual chime of true art spreads over Russia and Europe. Beneath this, one can clearly see the original - children's platform: an innate craving for high culture. The refined directorial and acting taste, the deep, classical world culture you profess could have been born and strengthened only in childhood. What was it like - your childhood?

Yuri Solomin. Commitment and confessional service to culture is laid in childhood. I went to a log-house school, which was heated by a stove. To start the educational process, teachers and students had to prepare firewood, heat the school, clear snowdrifts, learn the basics of any craft, redo a lot of necessary work that was done together. This brought them together, and this was the soil on which the sprouts of mutual respect, curiosity, tolerance sprouted - for the rest of their lives. I remember and keep my heartfelt affection for my first teacher, Natalya Pavlovna Bolshakova, I hope, as she did for me. After leaving school, she followed me, like the rest of the students: she wrote letters to me, sorted out films with my participation and made comments. My classmates also remember and treat her tenderly. Life scattered us in different cities, professions: colonel, doctor, scientist, engineer, artist. But when we get together, we remember Natalya Pavlovna with unceasing warmth.

E.Ch. Your childhood was spent in Chita. How did this Trans-Baikal city enrich you? What do you remember the most?

Yu.S. cultural life. Massive, somehow frantic worship of culture. My parents were musicians, so to speak - local, Transbaikal bottling. In the late 1920s, both entered the Leningrad Conservatory and successfully studied there. But my mother fell ill, almost lost her hearing, and they were forced to return to Chita.

Returning, the parents devoted their lives to what they could not live without - art. Thanks to them, I, “pulled out” by them from the football field, watched and gradually became fascinated by many operas in the theaters of Chita and Ulan_-Ude, Irkutsk. Theaters worked there, perhaps the best operetta in the USSR. We listened to Vertinsky, who came on tour, empathized with the actor Zubov, who came from Manchuria, Kashirsky, Murinsky, Zagursky. and many other luminaries of that time.

There was a piano at home. Mom and dad played it. Father, Methodius Viktorovich, played virtuoso on all string instruments, organized a string orchestra. Mom Zinaida Ananievna, she sang beautifully. Both taught music, led musical circles in the city House of Pioneers, the House of Railway Workers, the House of Folk Art, which their father fostered. This was amateur performance, but of the highest level. Suffice it to say that the pupils of the pope later became professionals: the bass Lkhasaran Linkhovoin was subsequently recognized as the best performer of the part of Konchak in Prince Igor in the USSR, and then became one of the best directors of the opera theater in Buryatia in the country. Viktor Kuleshov is a soloist of the Stanislavsky Musical Theatre, Honored Artist. Subsequently, he led the Cossack folk choir.

E.Ch. The unique time of the liberated people's spirit, which, as a state priority, was cultivated in the country by the Soviet government. You have described the cultural life of Transbaikalia, and I warmly, with nostalgia remember a similar, surprisingly similar process at the other end of the USSR - in Checheno-Ingushetia. My childhood was spent in Chechen-Aul. But even there the soloists of the Philharmonic, the Drama Theater named after A. Lermontov and the symphony orchestra from Grozny, and the fathers and mothers of my friends helped put together a small string orchestra of sixth graders in the village. We gave concerts in the club, played at celebrations, at weddings and at dances in the club. Then, while studying at the institute, many of the students sang with us in the operas of the Grozny Folk Opera Theater, famous throughout the North Caucasus, at the House of Culture. Lenin - under the direction of the brilliant artistic director and teacher Viktor Anatolyevich Sokolov, who staged about ten operas at the theater. My Chechen classmate Akhmed Guchigov was subsequently recognized in the Caucasus as the best performer of Lensky's part in Eugene Onegin. For almost a year, Onegin and Rigoletto, a graduate of the Baku Conservatory, Muslim Magomayev, who arrived from Baku and did not work well with the leadership of the Baku Philharmonic, sang with us. Opera soloist bass Eduard Stadnichenko, after graduating from the oil institute, left the oil personnel beau monde and devoted the rest of his life to opera, was a soloist of the Donetsk Opera House. While serving in the army, I was a soloist and concertmaster in the Song and Dance Ensemble of the Red Banner Caspian Flotilla. Raya Kosheleva, Emma Orlova, Eduard Eidler, having left Sokolov's alma mater, also became professional opera singers.

Yu.S. The process of worshiping culture really splashed like a sea spilled over the entire territory of the USSR. And he had his Promethean teachers. This phenomenon of the Soviet state is not forgotten, it is carefully kept in the memory of millions. Not so long ago, on tour in Rostov-on-Don, at a press conference, a woman approached me and said that she knows, remembers and loves my parents, their musical service to the people, and called their patronymic names. I couldn't hold back my tears. Their spiritual light splashed into me from the past. This became possible, turned into an everyday reality, thanks to the inexhaustible, genetically inherent in the Slavs craving for harmony and moral purity. They pulsated with the innate talent of creators, which was fully possessed by folk teachers - your Sokolov, my parents, my teachers and colleagues in the Shchepkinsky school Igor Ilyinsky, Vera Pashennaya, Mikhail Tsarev and thousands of them. They are honored and remembered. My wife, Olga Nikolaevna, with whom we studied together with Pashennaya, a teacher at the Shchepkinsky School, a professor, once suggested: let's call our course after Vera Nikolaevna Pashennaya. Named. Not so long ago we are going to the final exam of the fourth year. Vera Pashennaya. We went into the lobby with portraits of our great teachers and froze: under the portrait of Pashennaya there were fresh flowers - it was her birthday. Students know her, honor, bow: her memory is alive.

Russia has the best theatrical, vocal, ballet and scientific schools in the world. This became an indisputable reality because we had then completely different, in contrast to European and world, relationships between a teacher and a student, in many respects reminiscent of family ones. This is not a hardened, commanding dictate of a master to an apprentice.

Our teacher taught not only and not so much. First of all, he educated. He put feelings and soul into the being entrusted to him, he shared with him his attitude and worldview, enriched the ward with his adult experience, thereby protecting him from adversity and future shocks. Probably, this is what allowed millions to survive, to preserve their dignity, their spiritual “I” in the chaos that perestroika brought down on us.

The Soviet pedagogical school is a unique world phenomenon. She brought up in her wards the spiritual "Russian World", in which 197 nationalities in the USSR, speaking 299 languages ​​​​and dialects, felt equally comfortable.

E.Ch. The Russian world as an ideological paradigm I am for the world».

Yu.S. The Russian world is a polyphony, a symphony that our ancestors created for centuries, forged traditions in grain growing and on the battlefield, where there was no place for profit, gesheftmacherstvo and usury. Its core theme, the main leitmotif is not " Profitable-unprofitable ", but "Fair-unfair."

E.Ch. You are talking about the actions of teachers in the past tense: “taught”, “educated”, “invested”, “erected”. Isn't it by chance?

Yu.S. Not by chance. Functionaries from education have mutilated the very mission of a teacher, equating it to the craft of a bathhouse attendant, masseur, cosmetologist, who are obliged to please the body on the bed of consumer technocracy and its primitive USE, and not to enrich the soul with harmony. How much I talked about it, called out, warned, as an actor, director, teacher. We will feel the catastrophic consequences of this yoke for a long time to come.

E.Ch.« Teacher ... let me humbly kneel before your name. Not so long ago, we all experienced, one might say, the appearance of the new Minister of Education to the people, Olga Yuryevna Vasilyeva. The phenomenon was accompanied by cries of liberal educated people from the Lebanese Company after Vasilyeva voiced her vision of Russian education, her upcoming mission in it. The key phrase, the core of this mission: “A teacher, a doctor, a priest is not a specialty. This is service."

Yu.S. It is complemented by the long-awaited intentions of the new minister to revive the best of the Soviet educational system. What is a conviction worth? Without industriousness… without the skills to work every hour, every second… we won’t be able to live.” And, in accordance with this, the introduction of a fundamental program of full-scale labor education in schools. Olga Yuryevna is programming a postulate that is truly revolutionary for today: stop educating the consumer and improve the health of the exam. After all, every year many thousands of graduates who have not passed the exam experience stress. Now they have been given the right: to pass the Russian language, mathematics and receive a diploma of secondary education. The process of revising the barbarically created, often thoughtless unification of universities will be launched. An equally revolutionary shift: the introduction of the "Golden Canon" is a MANDATORY list of school literature for studying. This should form in children, according to the minister, “Holistic education by Russian literature, and therefore by Russian culture ". The problem of lack of culture and illiteracy is truly crying out in our day. Who is going to college these days? Not so long ago, we took the entrance exams to our Sliver. I ask the applicant: what have you been reading lately? Answer: Dostoevsky. What exactly is in Dostoevsky? The young man hesitates for a long time, wrinkling his forehead, and finally answers: “A story. Something about the village. "What a story? What is the name of the village? In response - a complete stupor. I feel: the clip, iPhone brains of the poor fellow are boiling from overvoltage. I give a hint: "The village of Stepanchikovo?" "Yes!!!" Joy immeasurable on the face of the great martyr: finally got to the truth.

Vasilyeva, of course, knows about this level. And she intends, in spite of all the persecution, resistance, to raise it to the proper, previous level - the best in the world. Many thanks to her for this. After all, it is at school that the skills, outlook and characters of future economists, ministers, deputies, and plant directors are born. And the well-being of the people and the status of our state in the world depend on what their moral, intellectual level will be.

E.Ch. Yuri Mefodievich, you have played in 60 films, 52 performances of your theater, among them thoughtful, sincere roles in the films “Sleepless Night”, “Dauria”. And, as the apogee of your acting cinematic destiny - Captain Koltsov in "His Excellency's Adjutant". A truly irresistible magnet, he attracted the enthusiastic reverence and love of millions of viewers. For almost a month, the whole country was breaking into the TV screens in the evenings to enjoy the image of the magnificent Chekist, illuminated by the Red Idea, but endowed with a unique noble charm and state mind. Opponents from the camp of the White Guard, created by a masterful director's hand, are confronting you. To the credit of the director Yevgeny Tashkov, these personalities are not primitive, he rejected the caricature interpretation. On the Russian vast arena, two great, tragic truths clashed not for life, but for death, each side has its own. And this truth is still, for a century now, seething, or sullenly smoldering in our compatriots, dividing them: here and in foreign emigration.

I look through the historical studies of the functionaries of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, read Pravda, articles by a venerable, professional critic in the press - an old communist. In their positions, unquestioned Bolshevism seethes irreconcilably. Everything bad: serfdom, petty tyrants and thieves mayor, the poverty of the peasants - all the product of the satraps of the Romanovs. If Stolypin, then with him certainly “Stolypin ties and carriages”, as well as the defeat of the peasant community, if the Romanovs, then their offspring is sure to be “bloody Nikolashka”. In my trips abroad, I often heard from our compatriots other, no less ossified accusations against the Soviets: "Red Terror", "the coming boor" and so on - from Bunin's Cursed Days. Plus - the charge of repression 36-38 years. There are few families in our state who were not hooked by the scope of the "Stalinist purges" in these years. Did they affect your family?

Yu.S. Directly. On December 30, 1938, my grandfather was arrested - incommunicado. Often this meant execution, but he was camouflaged with this label - "Without the right to correspond" and hung the family of the "enemy of the people" in painful obscurity for many years. After the arrest, we lived for years in some kind of basement, I remember three damp, slippery steps down. In 1955, some important government document fluttered into our basement. Grandmother read it and her legs buckled. We were informed that the grandfather was rehabilitated.

I am not enthusiastic about Stalin, although I do not join those who decry him with foam at the mouth. You just need to understand: for every time rushing towards its goal, there are corresponding means to achieve it. Ultimately, the Soviet government gave me and thousands of my art colleagues what I now have: a beloved profession, recognition and the opportunity to serve the muses.

E.Ch. It's time to ask sacred questions: from what source, from whom did the Soviet marshals Zhukov, Budyonny, Timoshenko learn military affairs? Who enriched the original scientific baggage of the Nobel laureate, Soviet scientist Ivan Pavlov, theorist and prophet of Soviet cosmonautics Tsiolkovsky? Where did the ballerina Pavlova, the choreographer Petipa, the bass Chaliapin, the writer Gorky, the creator of the Tretyakov Gallery Tretyakov, composers, pianists Kabalevsky, Gliere get their brilliant schooling? Why would Comrade Lenin "smear" the idea of ​​GOELRO from His Excellency Stolypin?

What is your position in this almost century-old Chimera of confrontation between "white and red", which scattered us on different sides of the barricade. Whose are you, Yuri Methodievich?

Yu.S. You have put me in a difficult position. I think that thinking individuals on both sides of the barricade that has decayed over the years, with the exception of the Orthodox, have long and painfully regretted and mourned the confrontation that had happened and, as a result, the impoverishment of the Russian gene pool. We were dragged into the revolution and the Civil War so that we would run out of strength and reason, because the best died in the battles. The whites and reds of that time were completely different. In both camps, there were enough both righteous and scoundrels.

All my conscious life I have been serving the theater, confessing beauty and harmony. And therefore I bow before the great Russian culture, the personalities that the Romanov era gave us: Fonvizin, Lomonosov, Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Ostrovsky, Chekhov, all the Tolstoys. And the further in time they move away from us, the more majestic they become. The whole world knows them. Therefore, in my acquaintances and my contacts with colleagues in the craft, I quite understandably avoid Ivanovs who do not remember their relationship. And I appreciate those who keep in memory the names and creations of these giants of the Spirit.

We were on tour in Paris, played "Uncle Vanya" and "The Cherry Orchard" at Versailles. The emigrants of the first wave came to the performance - with volumes of Chekhov's plays, in order to follow the text. The old Russian nobility came: princes, counts, their relatives and households with children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren. Many of them cried at the performance. After the performance, we talked for a long time with them and were shocked by their loyalty to the Motherland: they did not dissolve in the foreign land that sheltered them, carefully preserved the language, love for Russia, its geniuses, its traditions.

E.Ch. Tears of the audience at the performance. It's like the St. George Cross, like the medal "For Courage" in battle. There is an ongoing battle for human souls. Now this fight is at its peak, inflamed to the limit. Therefore, the resuscitation of theaters that are capable of generating not the neighing of a home-grown oligophrenic on the first, “major” row, but “getting” compassion and tears at their performances is so important.

Yu.S. Especially if it's a child's tear. In the old case - Jewish. I remember touring in Israel. Before that, their manager came to Moscow, watched almost all the theaters. Finally invites us to the WTO restaurant. He shares his impressions of the performances he has watched and drives him into shock: “Your theater is beyond competition for me. I want to see you first in Israel. With "Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich" and Chekhov. By the way, I know many managers from Europe who come to us, to Moscow and to the periphery - in the provinces, select actors, performances staged in the traditional style, without shocking frills, and roll them around their cities, treating our scenography with the utmost thrift. Europe highly appreciates the Russian, traditional, theatrical school, the Stanislavsky system, borrows the best from us, unlike us.

E.Ch. Israel… a Jewish manager… there were many of his ethnic compatriots in Moscow at that time: Pluchek in Satire, Efros on Malaya Bronnaya, Lyubimov in the Taganka Theater, Rozovsky's "At the Nikitsky Gates". But without an alternative, the Russian traditional Maly Theater, with a native Russian repertoire, is invited on tour to the Jewish state. What, in your opinion, is the “volapyuk” of the Israeli manager?

Yu.S. In the greatness of Russian, all-human values ​​that our theater professes: love, compassion, condemnation of vice. They are understandable and close to all nations and peoples. But - to the Israeli tear of a child. We played Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard, curtain. Applause from the standing spectators. And a boy sits in the front row and cries inconsolably, his parents try to console him. We brought them on stage, asking: what happened, why the tears? And we hear in response a stunning confession from the baby:

“Grandfather Firs is dead… wow!”

We laugh, reassure: oh, you pitiful baby, calm down, grandfather is not dead, he is alive. He does not believe, he cries. I call: Spout from the dressing room to the stage, quickly! Valera Nosik comes, still in makeup, we tell him everything. He squats in front of the boy: here I am, alive and well! You can touch. The baby touches and calms down. Something like this is forever etched in my memory. This can be carried through life as the highest reward.

E.Ch. Unfortunately, now inaccessible to many - if not most. You dared to take on the functions of the immune system of the Russian theater, fighting against the bacilli of the swaggering tyranny of the so-called "elite" stage direction, its ignorance and shamelessness. Today, our traditional theatrical giant is largely infected with these bacilli, over whom they mock, twitch in the voluptuousness of centropupism, shit on his feet by stage director dwarfs, sick with rabies of form. And all this obscene bacchanalia is supervised by STD. Are you comfortable in it?

Yu.S. I am not a member of STD. Came out of it a long time ago, although the owner of the "Golden Mask" . Dali, probably for long-term merits in the theater. I don't want to be in an organization where the classics are twisted and mutilated. The director forces Yasha (the servant from The Cherry Orchard) to “make love” on stage with Dunyasha, the maid. But this is not and could not be with Chekhov! After such scenes at that time, the entire troupe, together with the director, would have been forcibly sent by the policeman to a madhouse!

E.Ch. From the same "experiments": on the proscenium, they urinate in public, relieve their toilet needs. The director goes on stage to the audience naked, hiding behind a theatrical program ...

Yu.S. … Ranevskaya, by the will of the director, was planted with a needle, she is a drug addict. Chekhov is probably turning over in his grave from what is happening: the classics of Russian drama are mercilessly twisted from their “bumps of vision”, they are being monkeyed. Everything is done, even the most obscene, to drag the audience into the theater and earn money. I have been playing Tsar Fedor for twenty-five years, and for twenty-five years the audience has been going to a performance where there is no crackling avant-garde, no trickery and pretentious enticement, but there are genuine, high human passions, there is the history of Russia. If they pay me for the game not in rubles, but in dollars, will I really become a better player? The goal to earn money, currency is not the main one, although many theaters have been thrown into a hard labor regime of self-sufficiency. But we do not earn money, we are obliged to confess to the viewer, to bring him the ideas of humanism, kindness, compassion, which the classic laid down in the play. The theater and STD have a vital mission: to introduce the viewer to the genealogy of their ancestors by artistic means, to nourish their memory and self-awareness with pride in belonging to their own, GREAT, nobody not distorted stories. And the viewer believes us, goes to the theater to get to know not only her, but also himself in her.

By the way: STD is now beginning to change, becoming more sane. I think that this is the merit of the Ministry of Culture.

E.Ch. You said " great, uncorrupted history". A few years ago I attended the hysterically publicized "world premiere" of Rostropovich, Slonimsky and Sturua's "Visions of Ivan the Terrible". It was a stage burda of Russophobia, a total lie outside Solovyov, Klyuchevsky, Karamzin, hatred for one of the great figures of our Russian society - John 1V. After a review of this foul-smelling libel in the newspaper Tomorrow, " Schizophrenic visions of Rostropovich" Replies flooded into my email. Including the claims of youth. Their essence: yes, the performance pours slop on our history. But " where to go so that it would be interesting to be spoken to in our language?”

Yu.S. On the castrated Internet language, mixed with obscenities? This language is suitable for poking buttons in computers and iPhones, when the brain is practically turned off. Why on earth should we take into account the mental level of this category, focus on it, follow its lead? Such a viewer, fortunately, does not prevail in our country. Many smart young people come to the performances, miraculously retaining their intellect. And it needs to be protected, the repertoire prepared, guided by it - the future of Russia. And for modern boyfriends, you probably need something else. We tragically missed them at the elementary school stage. Grandchildren were stolen from our generation. They need a different impact, from the methods of Makarenko, associated with occupational therapy, which the new minister Vasilyeva intends to introduce into the programs of schools and professional, maybe special, educational institutions.

E.Ch. The core theme of the theater: historical figures . Bismarck among the Prussians and his Aryan counterpart among the Russians, Stolypin, are a pair of socio-national giants of the 18th and 19th centuries, who fearlessly turned the helm of empires towards the ninth wave of revolutions from the Rothschilds, Parvuses and Rockefellers. And they, with all their geopolitical might, triumphantly saddled this wave, driving the predatory money of the bankers into the state cage. And only after their death did the revolution seize the throat of Germany and Russia. A curious touch: Bismarck, being Wilhelm's envoy at the court of Alexander 11, called for the unification of the political and military potentials of the two empires, did everything possible for this, prophetically foreseeing the outcome of such a symbiosis: the indestructible power of the German and Slavic Aryans on the planet, professing diligence, harmony and independence .

Yuri Methodievich, don't you feel a certain gap in the repertoire of the theater without these figures - Bismarck and Stolypin?

Yu.S. There is probably a gap. We are aware of the special status of these historical figures. But the theater's repertoire is composed in close connection with the dramatic material.

If there is a play of the appropriate level, it is necessary to decide whether to include it in the repertoire. Unfortunately, we do not yet have a dramaturgy of such a plan, corresponding to these personalities. But let's continue talking about the thematic gap. At one time, I acutely felt the urgent need to tell the Russians about the undeservedly forgotten giant figure of Miklouho-Maclay - there was an artistic, informational gap for Russia. There are Miklukho-Maklaya streets, reserves, a steamer. But what is he like as a person? Miklouho-Maclay came to Europe and was received at one time, as they were received in the 20th century by Yuri Gagarin. His name is still given to children in New Guinea, and he himself is called "man from the planet moon." And a script appeared about all this texture. As a result, I made a three-part film " The coast of his life » about Miklouho-Maclay. As an epilogue: Chancellor Bismarck himself received Miklouho-Maclay and had a very long conversation with him on an equal footing. The circle is closed: our planet is one cozy apartment for such personalities.

E.Ch. In Russia, under the yoke of the Golden Horde, St. Sergius of Radonezh built a monastic monastery on the banks of the Konchura River. The main core of this creation was the Charter of the monastery (now the Sergiev-Troitsk Lavra), which obligated the monastic brethren "to live by the fruits of one's own hands in kindness and harmony." Your theater, surrounded by "foreignness," is also a kind of monastery with its own Charter, where actors' morals and emotions are far from monastic. But for many years now you have been leading this living organism seething with passions through life with a confident hand (actors are “sons of bitches” according to Shchepkin), leading through the storms and troubles of post-Soviet Russia, guided by the code of Sergius of Radonezh: to live in educational works, “the fruits of the hands their own." You have been elected and re-elected by the collective many times, for just as many times you have led this eight-hundred-man ark between the Scylla of discord and Charybdis of disintegration. Broken down and disintegrated into antagonistic concepts of Taganka, Moscow Art Theater, Sovremennik. And you only grew stronger and gained world fame, carefully preserving tradition. What would you like from the government now? What participation of her in your affairs and concerns would be preferable for you?

Yu.S. So that our "monastery" is not poked with someone else's Charter, so that our status is freed from any imperative orders and instructions. They are extremely necessary now for the theatrical "avant-gardists", which we spoke about above. But for now, they are hung on them, as an encouragement, "Golden Masks".

I remember the look in Mikhail Ivanovich Tsarev's eyes when the order from above came to the Maly Theater: "Reduce the theater staff by 25 percent." He read it in front of the troupe at the artistic council. He looked around at the actors. He sighed, asked again: it means twenty-five percent? And he put the paper on the table: "Well, let's think." We still think. And we keep employees, actors with their experience, one might say, for life.

Another wish is the terms for awarding the titles: “Honored”, “People's”, “Laureate”, etc. It is unthinkable, unacceptable when an artist who burns his nerves and psyche on stage for years waits for this assignment for twenty years. Yes, he burns without waiting for a well-deserved reward! It becomes, practically, not needed by the ashes into which his soul and heart turn.

E.Ch. There is a story about the captain of a fishing seiner who went fishing. No fish for a week. The team grumbles. Second week of no fish. The team is furious. A riot is brewing, the captain is vilified, defamed: what the hell are you hanging around on the captain's bridge if you can't find fish?! The third week with empty nets: a wild roar above the deck, mixed with address obscenities. Finally, the captain takes the seiner to the fish schools. Three days of frantic work and the seiner with full holds turned to the house. The captain is pumped, doused with penitential molasses. Then he goes to the cabin and puts a bullet in his forehead. When did you yourself wait for the assignment?

Yu.S. I received the “Honored” at 39. Before that, the title lay in the desk of some official for several years. But His Majesty intervened. I was seized by sciatica, so ferociously that I could not move without crutches, and so I appeared at the rehearsal. For some reason, Furtseva arrived at the theater. Enters the elevator, and there I went down. He asks: why are you with crutches? I answer everything as it is - sciatica, Ekaterina Alekseevna, be it wrong. “Well, then at work? I laugh it off: this is how the theater will become without me. "Even so? Well, get better." Came out. And two weeks later, an order came to award the "Honored".

E.Ch. In the past, Gribanov, head of the Theater Department, together with the WTO, created permanent drama workshops under the USSR Ministry of Culture. They created plays, honed their skills playwrights: Siberians Zot Tobolkin, Roman Solntsev, Alexander Vampilov, Kamchadal Vladimir Kosmachevsky, Belarusian Anatoly Dudarev, Tatar Yunus Safiullin, Muscovite Mikhail Varfolomeev. We, one might say, filled the repertoires of the Moscow theaters of that time, our plays were staged in the theaters of Satire, them. Vakhtangov, on Malaya Bronnaya, the Yermolova Theater, the Theater. Stanislavsky.

A humpbacker crawled up. And her pro-Western curators in the Central Committee, in contrast to this dramaturgical cohort, where the traditions of the Russian theater were honored, suggested that the playwright Rozov create something like a creative incubator where he would educate young playwrights with a “new way of thinking”.

In this experimental flask, an abundantly funded tribe of rollicking drama-models was born, which suddenly budded from the moral scenography of Rozov himself and in the most vulgar way fit into the destructive coven of perestroika with the “lame demon” A. Yakovlev. I remember the enthusiastic press cataclysm of that time about Arro's play “Look who has come!”, the Jesuit drama Petrushevskaya, Galina, etc.

Dramaturgy, its effect of catharsis on millions of viewers has always been a powerful platform on which the ideological, moral paradigm of the nation was built. And she was always under the gun of enemies.

The Maly Theater became the All-Russian, European center of spirituality. Have you ever thought about creating a certain section (seminar, courses) at the theater together with the Ministry of Culture, whose mission will be the revival of primordially national, moral dramaturgy?

Yu.S. If I'm not mistaken, there are similar seminars or courses, they operate under the Union of Theater Workers and their regional branches. But we do not participate in them. I am familiar with the names of the playwrights that you listed - both the Gribanovskys and Rozov's pupils. I myself have often acted in his plays. It was good, really traditional dramaturgy.

I get offered movie roles all the time. I refuse many - I don’t want to waste time and energy on a hackneyed cliché of cops, oligarchs and their mistresses. There are some very good scripts too. But, as a rule, management and TV do not have money for such. There is a depressing feeling that the cinema of Fellini, Bergman, Kurosawa, Tarkovsky is dead. He was replaced by a serial underground, where they rent a bedroom through a keyhole.

We should not, having pulled up our pants, run after the avant-garde, where stupidity and vulgarity often rule the ball now. The undergrounds come and go, but the traditional Russian theater, where the life of the Spirit, conscience and the laws of aesthetics are primary, will live forever. It remains to be hoped that fate will allow us to live until the time when the great creations that the Slavic gene pool is capable of generating will return to the mass stage, to the movie screen.

E.Ch. You can put an end to this. Health and a new creative, enchanting life to you, Yuri Mefodievich, to your associates and like-minded people on the stage in the restored building of the Maly, which occupies such a huge place in the cultural life of Russia. You were once called the "Big Keeper of the Small". Continuing the thought, you can add: "Small is the keeper of Greater Russia."

People's Artist of the USSR (1988)

People's Artist of Kyrgyzstan

Honored Artist of the Republic of Mari El

Laureate of the RSFSR Prize. brothers Vasiliev (1951, for his role in the film "His Excellency's Adjutant")

Laureate of the State Prize of the KGB

Laureate of State Prizes of Russia

Laureate of the International Stanislavsky Prize

Winner of the Golden Aries Award

Best of the day

Cavalier of the Order of Friendship of Peoples

Cavalier of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" 2nd, 3rd and 4th class

Knight of the Order of Japan "For Contribution to World Culture"

Awarded with the medal "Glory of Chita" number 1

Laureate of the title "Person of the Year - 1998" for outstanding achievements in the field of art

About the roots of the Solomin family

Solomin Yuri Methodievich was born on June 18, 1935 in Chita. He grew up in a family of professional musicians, the elder brother of actor Vitaly Solomin. Yuri Solomin's parents had Siberian roots. Methodius Viktorovich is from Transbaikalia, Zinaida Ananievna is from Tomsk. Both are excellent musicians, my father played all stringed instruments freely, my mother had a good voice - a mezzo-soprano.

Chita in those years was a city of high cultural traditions. The names of Oleg Lundstrem, Nikolai Zadornov, Konstantin Sedykh are associated with him. The Solomin family was well known in the city. Parents professionally served the muse, working as music teachers in the city House of Pioneers and in the House of Folk Art of Chita. Methodius Viktorovich devoted his life to the search for musical talents in Chita, Buryatia. The main asset of the Solomins seniors was their sons, famous Russian actors, people's artists Yuri and Vitaly Solomins.

About Shchepkinsky School

Yuri Solomin is an artist of a happy fate. Choosing a profession for a person is always difficult. For a young man who lives thousands of kilometers from the main cultural centers, it is doubly difficult. Fate decreed that the concept of "Maly Theater" entered the life of young Yuri Solomin "from an early age" and for life.

While still in Chita, Yuri saw the film “The Maly Theater and Its Masters”, made for the 125th anniversary of the theatre. Then he learned about the Shchepkinsky school and after graduating from school he immediately sent the documents to the address: Moscow, Neglinnaya, 6.

Lucky for those who are lucky. This rule, which Yuri Methodievich Solomin subsequently felt for many years, determined the gift of fate - studying in the class of Vera Nikolaevna Pashennaya, the great Russian actress. He graduated from the Shchepkin Theater School and became an actor at the Maly Theater.

About the Maly Theater

Maly Theater Yuri Solomin considers his home. He first appeared here as a second-year student for practice. The first work was in the play "Ivan the Terrible", and even the program of this performance was preserved, where it was written: the second artisan is a student of the Shchepkin Theater School such and such. That such and such was Yuri Methodievich Solomin.

Then the work began, the roles went. The roles were different: both large and small. “But we were assured then that there are no small roles, there are small artists. I don't agree with this. There are simply small roles, and bad roles ... ”, - says the wonderful actor Yuri Solomin.

Starting with episodic roles, the young actor soon began to play leading roles in the plays of the Soviet repertoire: Bezais in "When the Heart of V.Kin Burns", directed by A.Goncharov, Slava and Grisha in Rozov's "Uneven Battle", directed by D.Vuros, and " Before dinner”, directed by V. Monakhov, Misha in Alyoshin’s Chamber, directed by L. Varpakhovsky, Pepino in Mdivani’s “Stole the Consul”, directed by V. Monakhov.

Excellent external data, outstanding charm, soft lyricism with a masculine appearance promised a bright future. The roles of the classical Russian repertoire are Kiselnikov in A.N. .Solomin - the actor's propensity for drama, the ability to develop a character psychologically subtly, a special nervousness of temperament, were manifested. This theme was clearly read in the role of the last Russian Tsar, Nicholas II, in the modern play by S. Kuznetsov "... And I will repay."

It is no coincidence that criticism often calls Solomin "Chekhov's actor of the Maly Theater", notes the special "Russian national touchingness" of the actor, who is inclined to embody not so much the breadth and scope of the Russian soul as the inner strength that lies in it. The versatility of Solomin's acting talent allows him to play with equal success both Russian sufferers and the French romantic Cyrano in E. de Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac, which, together with Voiminsky in the play by A.P. Chekhov considers "Uncle Vanya" to be especially beloved and, perhaps, his best theatrical works.

About cinema

A ticket to the cinema Yuri Solomin was given by Vera Nikolaevna Pashennaya. She recommended it to director I.M. Annensky for the main role in the film "Sleepless Night". She also recommended that Sergei Bondarchuk try Solomin for the role of Prince Bolkonsky in War and Peace, although the role was later brilliantly played by Vyacheslav Tikhonov. Then there were many roles, more than 50 films and TV series in cinema and on television: diverse, dramatic, lyrical, sharp-tempered, comedy - and everywhere the actor found his own colors, inherent only to him, making each role a phenomenon.

Yuri Solomin became widely known after the release of the serial film "His Excellency's Adjutant" on the television screen. Among his best film works: Dmitry Ulyanov in "Mother's Heart", Telegin in the TV movie "Walking Through the Torments", Major Zvyagintsev in "Blockade", Innkeeper and Heinrich Eisenstein in the TV movies "Ordinary Miracle" and "The Bat", Vladimir Alexandrovich in the film " Light in the window”, Slavin in “TASS is authorized to declare…”. You can simply list some of the paintings where he played the main roles: “Melodies of the White Night”, “Dreams of Russia”, “Moscow Saga”. And each of them is popular and loved by several generations of viewers in the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Japan and other countries. Yuri Solomin himself considers the role of Stube in the film by A. Saltykov “And there was evening and there was morning” and the role of Gettel in the film by V. Georgiev “Strong in spirit” to be his favorite works.

Filming a movie gave the actor a meeting with outstanding directors and actors. He considers his work and friendship with Akira Kurosawa and Ottakar Vavra, Mikhail Kalatozov and Mark Donskoy, Komaki Kurihara and Jeanne Moreau, Marina Vlady, to be a great success for himself.

About Kurosawa

The role of Arseniev in Akira Kurosawa's film "Dersu Uzala" made actor Yuri Solomin famous in world cinema.

This work cannot be forgotten. Great director. He is known all over the world. When they call the greats, they call them: Fellini, Bergman, Kurosawa. This trio, without which it is very difficult to talk about world cinema. And Akira Kurosawa agreed to work in Russia, then in the Soviet Union, to shoot the film "Dersu Uzala". Yuri Solomin was very happy, these are the places where he was born and raised. It's all about the Daurian taiga and Primorsky Krai. Solomin was offered the role of Arseniev. Maxim Maksimovich Munzuk came from Tuva, this is the one who played Dersu Uzala. He was so very open, and Kurosawa immediately said - Dersu. He definitely said, and then they didn’t actually try Yuri Solomin and Maxim Maksimovich, but tried makeup, tried costumes. “Somehow, naturally, everything turned out, it wasn’t, as it happens, you were approved, and you shout: “Hurrah!”. It didn’t happen, everything was so natural that even today I can’t understand how I even knew that I was approved. That's how I was invited, I remember that, and then ... ”, - Yuri Solomin likes to remember. It should be noted that Kurosawa was an artist. He graduated from the Academy of Arts and drew very well. Since then the director and actor were connected by a great friendship, Kurosova always sent a postcard to his Russian friend for the New Year, which he himself created: he painted it and released it in Japan.

And once, while shooting in Primorsky Krai, he gave Solomin a picture. Kurosawa drew a huge head of a tiger with some kind of greenish eyes, a Japanese ornament a little to the right and wrote - June 18, 1974, Solomin san, Kurosawa san. And now the picture hangs at the artist's house, in a frame.

About directing

Yuri Samoilov never dreamed of being a director. He didn't even know what it was. When I lived in Chita, I listened to concerts from the Hall of Columns on the radio, artists such and such, and what is a director ... I wanted to be an artist, I wanted to perform. I never thought of being either an artistic director or some kind of boss, no. But fate decreed otherwise. Yuri Solomin was elected artistic director, and for several years he did not stage anything on the stage of the theater, he was content with graduation performances at the Shchepkin Theater School, but this is a slightly different direction, pedagogical. But the force of circumstances nevertheless led to the fact that Solomin became a director ...

In directing, he is more fascinated by the process itself, fascinated by the opportunity to help. When you can direct a person, it is interesting to understand the author. Understand, for example, why Chekhov wrote: "To Moscow, to Moscow!"? When you start to read it, to delve into it, and you can no longer live without his letters, without his notes, without any memories of him ... On the stage of the Maly there are more classics than modern authors. Unfortunately, there are no good modern plays yet. And besides, staging a play that is now being written for two or three people is unprofitable with a troupe of 130 people.

As a director, Yuri Solomin staged at the Maly Theater - "The Inspector", "The Seagull", "Forest", "Deceit and Love", the vaudeville "The Mysterious Box", "Three Sisters", as well as several performances at the Higher Theater School named after M.S. . Shchepkin. In cinema and on TV, Yuri Solomin directed films: “The Scandalous Incident at Brickmill” by Priestley, the three-part film “The Shore of His Life”, “In the Beginning Was the Word”. As a director and actor he worked in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Japan. He was awarded student work awards in Bratislava, Slovakia and Kobe, Japan.

About television

Now it is customary to scold television for corrupting tastes and massively brainwashing the population. On this topic, the great actor Yuri Solomin has a special opinion: “It is pointless to scold television. It is worth scolding its leaders. The main sin of the TV is that the whole country was put on beer. That's horrible! Here I am recently walking along the theater square. Winter, cold. And a girl walks, all frozen, and holds a bottle of beer in her hands. I stop her and say: “What, is it cold? And you have a drink ... "And she did not understand my humor ...

What about advertising? I've lived my whole life without advertising. I knew this sausage was good. And everyone knew it too. And when they still tell me: “This is your style!” - yes, they all go with their own style! .. Another thing that annoys me is that I never have time to write down the phones that television advertises to us. I needed to buy once heated plywood for dogs. I saw this ad, managed to record only half of the phone - and that's it. And it was in St. Petersburg on tour. Then I sat stupidly in the hotel for two days, watched all the rubbish, waiting for a repeat, but this advertisement was never shown again ... "

About pedagogy, about appointments

In his alma mater - the Higher Theater School named after M.S. Shchepkin, Yuri Solomin is a professor, he constantly conducts master classes with students from America, Japan, and South Korea.

In 1988, Yuri Solomin was elected by the State Academic Maly Theater, it should be noted - the first in a long history, among the leaders of the theater, artistic director, and then appointed to this position by the decision of the Government of Russia. Over the past years, he managed to preserve the traditions of the theater, to create almost a new repertoire, preserving the famous performance "Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich" staged by Ravensky and the great "The Cherry Orchard" staged by Ilyinsky. We managed to save the one-of-a-kind theatrical symphony orchestra, the theater staff, more than 600 people! Preserve the unique troupe, which includes People's Artists of the USSR, almost 30 Honored Artists of Russia, and talented youth.

In 1990, Yuri Solomin was appointed to the post of Minister of Culture in the first Government of the Russian Federation. During his tenure in this position, he managed to solve a number of important issues related to the organization of the life of theater groups, the development of children's creativity.

By the nature of his activities, Yuri Solomin had to meet with the most influential and eminent people. This includes Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, presidents of states, heads of government, prominent scientists, figures of culture and art, and public figures. However, among them, Yuri Solomin himself singles out several people who came to his aid in a difficult time associated with a serious illness. Thanks to outstanding physicians: academicians E.I. Chazov, M.I. Perelman, R.I. Akchurin, a surgeon from Kyiv Yuri Ganula, doctors V.P. Mezaev and S.V. Rozanova, Italian surgeons Ripossini and Igor Kotelnikov managed to overcome the disease.

About the secret

Yury Solomin's wife is Olga Nikolaevna Solomina. Daughter - Solomina Daria Yurievna. His granddaughter, Alexandra, is a special pride.

At home and at the dacha of Yuri Solomin, he is surrounded by his beloved dog, the shepherd Maclay, and no less beloved dogs Lyalya, Lushka, Yashka, and the cat Dusya.

The actor lives and works in Moscow. The name of Yuri Solomin was given to a new minor planet.

Filmography:

1958 Mother's Heart

1960 Sleepless night

1965 Musicians of one regiment

1966 Mother's fidelity

1966 chase

1967 Strong in spirit

1968 Spring on the Oder

1969 Adjutant of His Excellency

1969 Red tent

1971 Criminal Investigation Inspector

1971 Sea on fire

1971 Nomadic Front

1971 And there was evening, and there was morning ...

1971 Dauria

1972 My life

1972 Fourth

1972 Right to Jump

1974 blockade

1975 Sokolovo

1976 White Night Melodies

1976 Abyss

1976 Crime

1976 Dersu Uzala

1977 Going through the throes

1978 Guarneri Quartet

1978 Ordinary Miracle

1978 School waltz

1979 Bat

1980 Brickmill Scandal - actor, director

1980 Light in the window

1981 Cry of Silence

1983 Moonlight Rainbow

1983 Morning without marks

1984 The Secret of the Villa "Greta"

1984 TASS is authorized to announce

1985 The coast of his life - actor, director

1985 Sofia Kovalevskaya

1986 Singing Rossi

1987 Mysterious heir

1989 Souvenir for the prosecutor

1991 Halt of wanderers

1991 Anna Karamazoff

1992 In the beginning there was a word - actor, director

1992 Dreams about Russia

1992 In the beginning there was a word

2003 Early love

2003 Motherland is waiting - TV series

2004 Moscow Saga - series

Artistic director of the Maly Theater Yuri Solomin celebrates his 80th birthday..

The fate of Yuri Methodievich is inextricably linked with the Maly Theater. He was accepted into the troupe in 1957, and thirty years later he headed it as artistic director. The life path from a teenager fascinated by the art of the theater to a people's artist, without whom it is difficult to imagine Soviet cinema, is full of plot collisions. It is no coincidence that last season the theater released a fascinating book "And it's all about him" (author - Vera Maksimova). The tome is beautifully illustrated with documentary photographs that represent different stages of Solomin's stage life. What just was not in his lifetime. Today Yuri Mefodievich is 80 years old.

childhood dreams

A boy from a musical family grew up in an atmosphere of universal creative burning. While still living in his hometown, in Chita he somehow saw a documentary dedicated to the anniversary of the Maly Theater. This childhood impression grew deep roots, and, graduating from school, young Solomin saw no other way for himself than to go to the actors. For the entrance exams at the Shchepkin School, he chose Mayakovsky's Poems about a Soviet Passport, Neil's monologue from The Petty Bourgeois, an excerpt from Tvardovsky's poem Vasily Terkin. The heroic repertoire did not fit well with the appearance of the frail applicant, but the contrast helped win over the strict commission headed by Vera Pashennaya - the teachers started laughing, and it didn’t come to a fable - the boy was allowed to go to the next round. Fate intervened in this process when Solomin's father was robbed, and the question arose - when to return home, to the outback. The parent advised his son to go to Pashennaya and directly ask if she was taking him on a course? Solomin spoke in detail about the new circumstances and that the duration of his stay in Moscow in such a situation would be greatly reduced. The actress, after listening carefully to the boy, concluded: "Stay."

theater of life

For the first time, Solomin entered the stage of the Maly Theater as a sophomore. Among the episodes, there were very bright exits, and critics and viewers began to notice the novice actor. The first real role overtook him in the corridor of the theater - director Igor Ilyinsky invited Solomin to play Khlestakov. A week later, a notice about the distribution of roles appeared on the notice board in the theater. Despite the great success of the play, in the next six years Solomin did not receive a single new role. Actress Rufina Nifontova drew the attention of the team to injustice. The management listened to the young actress, and soon Solomin got a big role in the production of "Abyss" according to Ostrovsky.

Photo gallery

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Debut and conquest of Japan

In the cinema, Solomin at that time turned out to be more in demand. He made his debut in the social drama Sleepless Night, where he played the main character, engineer Pavel Kaurov. It was Solomin's only screen work that his father saw. In 1975, when the actor was already loved and famous, he had the opportunity to work with the master of Japanese cinema Akira Kurosawa. The master came in 1971 to the Moscow Film Festival with the film "Dodescaden". Turning out to be a surprisingly accommodating person, he agreed to make a film with Soviet actors. Back in 1939, he tried to translate the novel by Vladimir Arseniev on the screen in Japan, but the project did not work out. In the Union, he got a second chance.

Starting filming, Kurosawa asked to help him choose the actors for the main roles. Mosfilm management provided seven options. Kurosawa took the idea seriously and decided to get acquainted with the film works of each of the applicants. After watching two episodes of His Excellency's Adjutant, Kurosawa hinted that he wanted to watch the entire film to the end. After that, the question of the actor for the role of Arsenyev disappeared by itself - Solomin was approved, and without trial. The film was a huge success in many countries around the world. The Japanese made Solomin their idol.

royal welcome

There are many interesting people in Solomin's biography, but one is worth mentioning in particular. In 1994, Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain arrived in the Russian capital on a visit. By coincidence, the royal guest ended up in the building of the Maly Theater - of the many options for holding a meeting with diplomats, Her Majesty was most interested in the Maly Theater. Without a gift, such people are not accepted, and Solomin came up with the idea to make a Palekh box with the image of his native theater to order. As Yuri Methodievich later said, it was a choice with a finger to the sky. But the queen's delight knew no bounds. It turned out that Elizabeth II is engaged in collecting, and her passion is boxes. A little later, Solomin received a voluminous envelope from London. It contained a photograph of the royal couple, signed personally by the queen.

creative credo

Yuri Methodievich is not a supporter of directorial arbitrariness in the theater. He decided a long time ago that there was no place for the experiments of modern directors in his patrimony. He believes that the works of Pushkin, Gogol and Ostrovsky are not intended to reshape and reshape the plot and meaning. In his opinion, modern dramaturgy exists and develops for the needs of the young and daring. The viewer should feel the atmosphere of past centuries, should expand their knowledge by studying traditions. This applies to all components of the performance - from the language to the scenery, costumes and interior items. Let this have something of a museum aesthetics. Someone has to become the guardian of the heritage of the ancestors. Solomin likes being a conservative. Most importantly, he is good at it.

Colleagues and friends congratulate the master on his birthday.

Directed by Iosif Reichelgauz:

“It is with great pleasure and sincere congratulations to my beloved colleague and creator Yuri Mefodievich on his anniversary. We rarely see each other, but he always impresses me as a solid, “complete” theater master, a pillar, the foundation of our theater - with all the searches, experiments in the 1990s, our theatrical union sometimes fell apart, then was created, and some violent passions took place, one group fought with another, I always tried at these congresses of theatrical figures to sit literally in the last rows. And for me it was a tremendous support that not far from me I saw a quiet and modest outstanding master Yuri Methodievich Solomin. "

Actor Daniil Strakhov(joint work with Yuri Solomin in the film "Isaev"):

"I want to congratulate Yuri Methodievich not just on his anniversary, a big solid date, but on his ability to remain in memory. I'm not only talking about people, about people's love, but about a very simple thing. Actor's memory. It is so arranged that a lot goes into one common memory of the film - so many people, impressions, events pass through the actor during the filming. In "Isaev" there were many characters. But Yuri Methodievich occupies a special place in the film. In it we are: father and son, infinitely loving each other and unable to agree - with myself and the world. Like many children, I grew up almost without parents, and for me these rare family scenes were so disturbingly recognizable that it was very easy to frighten away this state, necessary for work. I understood well that you need to play here, what degree of longing, loneliness, desire to hug your loved one and the inability to do this lies in. The main thing was to keep this inner vibration of recognizing what you yourself as a person had not experienced, loved, "not up to ..." And this right state of health, of course, could go away first of all because of a partner. Solomin was so delicate, so sensitive, so simple, after all, that he helped me a lot in these family scenes of ours. He somehow rhymed inside me with this aching filial intonation of longing for his father. As if in something combined with him, like a reflection. Thank him for that."

Alexandra Solomina, granddaughter of the hero of the day:

"Grandfather taught me a lot, and not only in terms of general cultural and creative education. From childhood, he instilled in me universal human principles, which he professes not only in the theater. Many say that he is a brilliant artist, leader, but in addition to everything, grandfather is incredibly kind a person who is sympathetic, ready to help at the first call. No matter what the request is, he will always do everything in his power. I learned this from him. You can’t look down on another person, but try to put yourself on place of another. Yuri Mefodievich played an important role in the fate of many actors and even creative teams. When Mikhail Pletnev created the Russian National Orchestra, and the question arose about the leader of the first concert in Moscow, grandfather, who at that time was the Minister of Culture, agreed to take part. All Pletnev was refused, but not grandfather.Remembered this, because recently Yuri Methodievich found a badge from this historic performance.

The understanding that my grandfather is a well-known and loved by many did not come immediately. I lived in another country, I came here only for holidays. I finally realized this in my teenage years. I love him very much for his amazing sense of humor, humanity, responsiveness, quickness of mind and ability to come to the rescue."

Julia Chechikova, Irina Levkovich

The artistic director of the Maly Theater, Yuri Solomin, staged Gogol's Marriage. After the premiere, the People's Artist of the USSR told a Kultura correspondent about how he became a director and what Akira Kurosawa has to do with it. Not without talking about the classics and contemporaries.

culture: Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol does not let you go throughout his entire creative biography. You have repeatedly played in performances based on his works, staged The Inspector General. Why did you decide to return to the classics?
Solomin: Gogol, as well as Ostrovsky, Pushkin, Griboedov and other great writers, are the pride of Russian literature and dramaturgy. The Maly Theater has always relied on these authors. How to explain why the director chooses to stage a work familiar from his youth? The question is rather difficult. Approximately for the same reasons why a man falls in love with a certain woman, although everyone predicts a completely different one for his wife. For example, do you know how the Inspector General appeared at the Maly Theater, which failed in St. Petersburg? After the unsuccessful premiere, Nikolai Vasilyevich contacted the famous actor Mikhail Shchepkin and asked him to stage the play. He agreed, and in the end the performance was a huge success. At the same time, Shchepkin was not a director. Then in Russia the profession of a director did not really exist. This was not taught anywhere. In my opinion, fortunately.

culture: Why?
Solomin: It seems to me that this cannot be taught: either a person initially has the ability to direct, or not. Everything else is practice, finding your own style and so on. The same is true with the profession of an actor. I teach a course at the Shchepkinsky Theater School. Every year we recruit 25 people, release 20, and God forbid eight become artists. History includes, with rare exceptions, one or two. We had Nikolai Annenkov's course, from which Oleg Dal, Vitaly Solomin, Mikhail Kononov and Viktor Pavlov left, but this is rather an exception. Growing a great actor is very difficult. I am now in my third year, and I took the liberty of not expelling anyone. If one of the guys does not become an artist, then thanks to his love for the theater, understanding of its internal structure, he will always find himself in a related profession. For example, the Maly Theater often lacks prompters and assistant directors.

culture: Directors usually try to feel for the relevance of the play. Did you look for parallels with today in the process of work?
Solomin: In my opinion, everything is already on the surface. I think it is not necessary to dress Gogol's heroes in jeans for the viewer to see modern people in them. Podkolesin is a collective image of today's indecisive man who does not know how to approach a woman. He is afraid of weddings and responsibility like fire. Agafya Tikhonovna is an adult child who grew up in prosperity and does not know how to build relationships with the opposite sex. What about the wedding process itself? There is no talk of any love: the grooms look closely at the appearance of the bride, find out if she knows French, what dowry and inheritance she has. That is, they are looking for a direct benefit, and they plan to conclude a marriage by calculation. Everything is as it is now - no feelings. Only we do not present it directly on the forehead, but give the viewer the opportunity to connect the strings himself.

culture: They say that Akira Kurosawa himself appreciated your directorial inclinations at one time. Is it true?
Solomin: I filmed with Kurosawa in Dersu Uzale. When it came time to mount the picture, he instructed me and the second director, Volodya Vasiliev, to do voice acting. Five years have passed. We had a vacation in Bulgaria with a theater group. At that time, everyone there spoke Russian very well, and local actors invited us to their theater. Stefan Dimitrov - the head of the group - at the banquet invited me to put on a play by Ostrovsky. I was amazed, because at that time I had never even thought about directing. Then Stefan took out a Bulgarian magazine and began to read an interview where Kurosawa claimed that, they say, Solomin-san has a clear inclination towards directing and one day he will do it. As a result, my debut took place in Bulgaria, where I staged Ostrovsky's "Forest". The performance was a great success and was shown about a hundred times.

culture: It was then that you realized that you were attracted to the director's chair?
Solomin: It's not about whether I want to be a director, but about what the theater needs. There were moments when it was necessary to release a performance at a certain period, but it was not possible to find a suitable director. Then I had to take responsibility. The staff of the Maly Theater trusts me: this year it will be 30 years since I lead it as artistic director. In addition, for many years at the Shchepkinsky School, I staged a lot of performances, I have a decent experience. But at the same time, in my case, directing is an occupation for the soul.

culture: Are you strict with actors?
Solomin: Of course, as a director, I can shout, but everything is within reason. You are forgetting the fact that I have been teaching for over 50 years. Many of my students are People's Artists of Russia, laureates of various theater and film awards. I think that a teacher and a director are in some way similar professions, because you need to have incredible patience in order to convey your thoughts to the artists. I had the opportunity to work with directors of the old school, who were very kind to the actors. They knew how to help their colleagues on stage to reveal their heroes, and not to go in a rush, as young directors often do today. Now everyone is looking for original solutions, but then, in my opinion, artists are not needed at all. These are extras fulfilling the director's intentions. I don’t mind when there is a combination of directing and acting, but when shocking for the sake of shocking ... I don’t understand this.

culture: And as an artistic director, are you also so humane?
Solomin: Of course not. For example, I recently removed the actress from the role because she did not come to the performance. I played in the movies and completely forgot that in the evening she was on stage. I had to make an emergency entry. The performance must be played, period. People came to see the performance, and what should I say to them: “Excuse me, we have such a movie here”? In general, when I release to shoot, I immediately warn: “In my free time from the theater.”

culture: What do you think is the mission of the theatre?
Solomin: First of all, of course, in education. Now for some reason it is generally accepted that its main task is to provide the viewer with leisure after a hard day's work. Everything is so, but at the same time, each production should carry an educational function, broaden one's horizons, and help the viewer find a way out of difficult situations. We have performances that have been running for decades. For example, in The Cherry Orchard, staged by the People's Artist of the USSR Igor Ilyinsky, the third generation of artists has already changed. Ranevskaya was once played by Tatyana Eremeeva, after - Nelli Kornienko and Irina Muravyova, and now - Svetlana Amanova. We don't change anything in principle. Through such a performance, one can not only get acquainted with Chekhov's work, the peculiarities of everyday life, the aesthetics of the era, but also with the very history of the Maly Theater. I recently rewatched The Cherry Orchard. In the finale there is a scene where Ranevskaya and Gaev say goodbye to the house, with their garden, which personifies their childhood. The artists are just holding hands. And I thought: if something happens to me, who will look after my mongrels who live in the country? Then he remembered that all the relatives were obsessed with dogs, and calmed down a little. I looked around - people also had tears in their eyes. I appreciate such a theater, in which, as my master Vera Nikolaevna Pashennaya said, you need to leave a piece of your heart on the stage.

culture: You teach at the Shchepkinsky school. Usually the older generation is critical of the youth. And you?
Solomin: There is no need to fit everyone into the same category. The guys are all different, mostly wonderful. But look at what they grow on. You know, I recently spent a month in a sanatorium, sometimes watching TV. Lord, what are we being shown? Fights, family squabbles, explosions, violence. I was horrified. Suppose I have a strong psyche, I am an adult, educated person, but what is it like to see our children? The question is, why broadcast all this?

culture: Do you think there should be censorship?
Solomin: Have you seen how many terrible things have happened in schools lately? Here you have complete freedom. Teenagers have seen enough films and get into a fight, thinking that life is like a movie. I am not calling for the return of censorship, but I think that every person, whether it is the head of a TV channel, a theater director, a screenwriter or a producer, should have their own internal filter. If everyone asks if I would like my children to grow up on such programs and films, then we will have much less tragedies among young people.

Denis Sutyka

Tomorrow the Maly Theater opens a new season. Izvestia met with the artistic director of the illustrious troupe, People's Artist of the USSR Yuri Solomin, and asked him about his creative plans, attitude towards modern plays and failed projects.

- Yuri Mefodievich, with what performance will the Maly Theater open the 262nd season?

Our theater is a national treasure. For many years we have had a tradition - to open the season with Ostrovsky, Gogol or Griboyedov. This is a classic of Russian dramaturgy. 17 years ago, on the same historical stage, we presented the premiere of Griboedov's Woe from Wit to the audience. And since then, every season we open this production.

- What premieres are you preparing for release?

People's Artist of Russia Vyacheslav Ezepov staged Pushkin's "Little Tragedies", in which he also played three roles at once. And I am preparing for the release of Gogol's "Marriage".

- Tell us more about the Marriage.

Well, what about a child who has not yet been born? I can not do that. I can only tell you that our leading artists will be involved in it: Lyudmila Polyakova, Boris Klyuev, Irina Muravyova, Alexander Ermakov, Alexei Kudinovich and many others.

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- Will you be faithful to the traditions or will you surprise the audience with an unexpected interpretation of Gogol?

- Everyone knows the play "Marriage". Therefore, we will be surprised by the fact that we will try to show Gogol the way he conceived his work. We are still traditional.

- When is the premiere?

In November. And before that, in October, "Tsar Boris" based on Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy will be released. In the title role - People's Artist of Russia Valery Afanasiev. Once upon a time, the entire dramatic trilogy of Alexei Konstantinovich - "The Death of Ivan the Terrible", "Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich" and "Tsar Boris" was on the historical stage. This fall marks the 200th anniversary of the writer's birth. And we wanted to remind everyone of this big date.

Noting the move to a historic building after renovation, the theater presented the audience with two premieres at once - "Talents and Admirers" and "King Lear". It was impossible to get tickets for them!

And we rejoice at such attention of the audience. As soon as the historical stage began work, we have a full house at all performances in the theater. In the autumn we are waiting for the audience for new premieres.

In addition to your directors, this season you started working with a production team from Israel. Why did you invite foreign colleagues?

Director Ilan Ronen, former Artistic Director of the Habima Theater in Tel Aviv, will direct Dürrenmatt's tragicomedy The Old Lady's Visit. Why did I invite Ilan to stage with us? I watched his performances and was very impressed. The production team has already begun to work. They came during our vacation, talked with our artists, painters, set designers. Now in our tailoring shops they create suits and shoes. Almost the entire troupe of the Maly Theater will be involved in the performance.

In general, every season we try to invite colleagues from abroad. Since 2010, we have been collaborating with Italian director Stefano di Luca. He has already staged three performances at the Maly Theater: Lovers, Filumena Morturano and Servant of Two Masters. Five years ago, we collaborated with the French director Georges Lavodan - we made the play Cyrano de Bergerac with him.

Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky, having visited you at the gathering of the troupe, advised the Maly Theater to stage more performances about modern Russia, noting that both Chekhov and Ostrovsky wrote about their contemporaries.

- And who doesn't want to put on plays about modern Russia? Everyone wants. But the point is that the play must be well written. If you read every day what they bring me, you would end up in the hospital. When a worthy play appears, then we will think about it. In the meantime, I love Russian literature. A few years ago we had performances based on Rasputin and Shukshin. I admire them. And also - Abramov, Belov ... This is the company from Russian literature of the second half of the 20th century, about which we can now say: our classics. If there are such authors - we will put. But so far the second Rasputin has not appeared.

Tell me who is currently staging plays about contemporary Russia? More and more they remake the classics for themselves, for modernity. It's like putting a leather jacket on me right now. That's not mine.

- Among modern playwrights, do you see worthy of the Maly Theater?

So far, what I am reading is not suitable for this scene and even for the scene on Ordynka. The plays that are sent to us are more suitable for touring small troupes. And why do we need this when we have a large illustrious troupe? Therefore, we turn to the classics, which can be set endlessly. Few can compare with Ostrovsky, Chekhov, Gogol, Shakespeare.

- Medinsky's proposal was unexpected for you?

No, why not. I understand him as a minister. Of course, modern dramaturgy is needed. And where can I get it? There are worthy works of art, good books, but these are not plays. They need to be staged. And it's pretty difficult. In principle, one could work and write a dramatization based on good prose. Last year we almost released a play called Yalta. And I even had to play a role in it.

The production was based on a book by the Swedish writer Lukas Svensson.

- Is it about the Yalta Conference in 1945?

Yes. About division, about politics. By the way, the book is really good. Therefore, we agreed. But when we started working, there were inconsistencies. It was necessary to get into some historical material, to clarify and complete something. But we still don't have time for that. Two or three months and we have to release a play.

- Did you need a lot of extra work to stage Yalta?

Sure, but I don't blame director Alexander Nordstrem for that. By the way, he translated Svensson's book from Swedish into Russian.

- I suppose you were supposed to play US President Roosevelt in this performance?

I will not say. The performance didn't take place, so there's no need to talk in vain... Well, who knows, maybe we'll return to this material.

These days you have a double holiday: not only the opening of the season, but also 60 years since you have been working at the Maly Theatre. And how did the old people, idols, receive you when you first appeared in this team?

Just like today we received graduates of the Shchepkin Theater School. Only I came in a suit and tie, while today's young people come in sweaters and suspenders. Therefore, I recommended them directly from the stage: before going to the Maly Theater, look at yourself in the mirror. At home, you can walk like that, but the theater is sacred to us. So I'm trained. I don't like wearing a suit every day either. You look like a fool. But at the Maly Theater all men observe etiquette. And the youth are dumb. Oh well, they'll learn.

Although the youth of youth is different. You know, I recently saw a TV show where a four-year-old boy sang the song "Holy War". “Let noble rage...” He sang “noble” so that I got a lump in my throat. I will definitely show this to my students. Let them study. And the boy is a genius. He felt the song. He was given acting talent by God. I was amazed by his organics. Well, then he also read Hamlet's monologue, so amazingly heartfelt that, excuse me, all the Hamlets that I saw do not compare with this kid. I'm not exaggerating. Well, if I'm exaggerating, then just a little.

- Did you have a desire to find this boy and invite him to the Maly Theater for a small role?

It was. Here I will go to Kazan on tour and find him. He does live there. I confess to you, I would not take him to the troupe, but to the school - and immediately give him a diploma. So that he just lives in Moscow with his dad and mom and goes to the Maly Theater, like in a kindergarten. Such a person does not need to be taught.

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Yuri Solomin graduated from the Shchepkin Theater School in 1957, after which he was enrolled in the troupe of the Maly Theater. Since 1988 - its artistic director. From 1990 to 1991 he was the Minister of Culture of the RSFSR. People's Artist of the USSR, Full Cavalier of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland.