Quote:
Originally posted by C Elegans
That's what I fear  Let's hope there can be some revival of that tradition... |
Whatever else can be said against it, the Soviet Union had a superb educational system. In the field of classical music alone, it capitalized upon the pre-Soviet "high" culture which produced an extraordinary wealth of great musicians, many of whom fled to the West before WWI. It was the Soviet's great distinction that it maintained this level of creativity in musical performance throughout much of its existence.
According to various reports I've read over the last few years, that educational system has been replaced by the most basic of poorly funded public school systems, with good teachers either moving into private schools and well-paid jobs, or leaving the country altogether. This also applies to the best of the current artists. Even those who stay in Russia, like Gergiev, Netrebko, and Diadkova, spend most of their career working abroad for foreign companies. It's understandable, but it's also clearly the beginning of a great "brain drain" on what talent remains in Russia. I honestly think that in 20 years, cultural historians will be looking back at the collapse of the Soviet as a dividing line beyond which a century of cultural tradition was lost.
For the time being, though, those Kirov Opera performances are a must for anybody who enjoys opera and great voices. Ironically, the Kirov casts contain enough excellent performers to lead me to speak of a Golden Age of Female Voices in Russia. This mirrors the astonishing collection of superb male voices that the Soviet had in the 1930s through the 1960s.