First of all, experts from two councils, drama and music, reviewed 936 season premieres throughout Russia - from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean. In 2017, for the first time, a very important all-Russian program was held on such a scale “ Golden mask in cinema": the ballet "Romeo and Juliet" staged by Vyacheslav Samodurov (Yekaterinburg Opera), "Life and Fate" by Lev Dodin, "The Thunderstorm" by Andrei Moguchy and "War and Peace" by Pyotr Fomenko were seen in a live film broadcast by residents of 60 cities of the country.
At the opening of the award ceremony, the hall of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theater stood in memory of Georgy Georgievich Taratorkin, the permanent president of the Golden Mask. A great actor and noble man, Georgy Taratorkin passed away on February 4, 2017.
The closing of “Mask” traditionally begins with awards in the most unsettled (despite constant efforts to develop it) genre Russian theater- Operetta and musical. The jury named Roman Feodori’s musical “The Bandit and the King” based on Babel’s “Odessa Tales” (Young Spectator Theatre, Krasnoyarsk) “Best Performance”. Best performance in the genre of "Modern Dance" - "All Paths Lead North" by Ballet Moscow (choreographer - Karine Ponies, to the music of David Monceau (both France). The jury's special prize went to the play "The Marusya" - performance by choreographer Alexander Andriyashkin, artistic solo by the PR manager of the dance company “Dialogue Dance” Marusya Sokolnikova (and this is the third “Mask” of the young modern dance troupe from Kostroma!).
The jury recognized “Romeo and Juliet” by Vyacheslav Samodurov and the Yekaterinburg Opera and Ballet Theater as the best performance in ballet (“The mask” of the ballet soloist was awarded to Igor Bulytsyn - Mercutio in this production). But 2017 somewhat broke the already familiar trend - not all opera and ballet Masks went to theaters in the Urals and Siberia. The Mariinsky Theater’s performance “Violin Concerto No. 2” to the music of Sergei Prokofiev was awarded two prizes: the “female” ballet “Mask” 2017 was awarded to Victoria Tereshkina, the prize in the category “Best Choreographer” was awarded to Anton Pimonov.
Soloist Mariinsky Ballet since 1999, Pimonov presented his first original production in 2013. In less than 4 years, the theater’s repertoire included 7 of his works.
Best conductor: Teodor Currentzis. Photo: RIA Novosti
Three “Masks” 2017 were awarded to Bob Wilson’s “La Traviata” at the Perm Opera and Ballet Theater: Nadezhda Pavlova was awarded for the role of Violetta, rising star theater (the second Nadezhda Pavlova on the Perm stage - this time not ballet, but opera), Theodor Currentzis received the “conductor’s” “Mask” (“the Ural Athenian” came on stage not in a tailcoat, but in a rocker leather jacket - and addressed to the stalls with the words: “Christ is Risen!”, and the audience responded quite unanimously). Finally, the “Mask” of the lighting designer was received by the director himself - the greatest director and stage designer of our time, Robert Wilson (USA).
Liparit Avetisyan was recognized as the best soloist - Chevalier des Grieux in “Manon” at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theater. The best opera performance of the season - “Rodelinda” Bolshoi Theater to music by G.F. Handel, and the best opera director is its director Richard Jones (Great Britain). The Russian “Mask” 2017 added to Jones’ very long list of professional awards (only Laurence Olivier Awards on this list - 7).
In “Mask” 2017, the “wandering” composer nomination reappeared. According to many theater professionals, the original new scores on Russian stage is becoming more and more: the flow does not dry up, and the nomination is clearly destined to become permanent. “Mask” 2017 was awarded to Eduard Artemyev for the musical “Crime and Punishment” (Musical Theatre, Moscow). Among the nominees was Georgy Firtich with a synthetic score woven from romance, cabaret, song, marching, and piercing orchestral elements for Georgy Trostyanetsky’s play “White. Petersburg" (Musical Comedy Theatre, St. Petersburg) - not a dramatization of the novel "Petersburg", but a free fantasy about the Neva capital in 1905 (suffice it to say that Trostyanetsky's long-suffering imperial couple sings a duet at the footlights of the romance "A girl sang in the church choir... "). Among the nominees was Alexey Sergunin with the opera “Doctor Haaz”, staged by Helikon. And Alexander Manotskov - with the minimalist and pagan virtuoso “Snow Maiden” (theater “ an old house", Novosibirsk). Manotskov, the main cultural hero of the play, did not receive the “Mask” 2017, but “The Snow Maiden” was awarded in the “Experiment” category.
Ethel Joshpa. Photo: RIA Novosti Stage designer's mask musical theater received Ethel Yoshpa, a student of Dmitry Krymov, graduate of the Russian Academy of Theater Arts in 2008 (for her work on Richard Strauss’s “Salome” in “ New Opera"). Director Nikolai Roshchin received the stage designer’s mask for decoration of his play “The Raven” at the Alexandrinsky Theater. (Gozzi's fairy tale by Roshchin is magnificent and extremely gloomy: Prince Gennaro's ship is decorated with the skulls of unsuitable brides, the blackamoor Smeraldina floods the stage with cranberry blood. And in the dark blue sky float magnificent and terrible art objects, similar to an armada star wars, ready to land on Earth.)
A special project was recognized as the best performance at the Puppet Theater in 2017: Yana Tumina’s play “Kolino’s Work” (KontArt Production Center, St. Petersburg). It is based on a book by artist Sergei Golyshev about his son, a special boy Kolya. And the poems of Kolya himself (he is now 12 years old, he was at the “Mask” ceremony - and rejoiced along with the director and actors Anna Somkina and Alexander Balsanov (the puppeteers’ “actor’s” mask also went to the play “Kolino’s Composition”). Gentle and The sad world of the train journey of the poet Kolya and his fictional girl Varya became one of the most humane performances of “Masks” 2017.
A new nomination in “Mask” 2017 is “Playwright”. This seems deeply true - and long overdue. Here in the competition there were three performances based on new plays written in Russian. “Sasha, Take Out the Garbage” by Natalya Vorozhbit (the play was staged by Viktor Ryzhakov at the Meyerhold Center) - a laconic and tragic Kiev chronicle of our days, a long conversation between his wife and the shadow of a Ukrainian officer who died “in the ATO zone.” About, in particular, how a Soviet lieutenant survives the collapse and twists of the 1990s, how he becomes a patriot of a new country that arose during the collapse of the empire. The inclusion of a play in the competition says something about the dignity and professional independence of the Russian national theater award 2017.
The nomination also included “Peace.” Teleut Novels" by Vyacheslav Durnenkov and Maria Zelinskaya is a documentary story of the descendants of a small Siberian people who went through the 20th century together with everyone else: a melting pot of a single school, great construction projects and carriages.
But he received the first “Mask” from the playwright Marius Ivaskevicius - for the play “Russian Novel”, the basis of the play by Mindaugas Karbauskis and the Mayakovsky Theater about Tolstoy. (In an interview with Novaya, Ivaskevicius spoke about the essence of the play: “ Tolstoy, like Levin in the novel, had a family born after a disaster. Disasters of orphanhood. They both partly felt like they were the only survivor of a shipwreck in their youth. And so - this man is creating a huge family again.”. And further - about how the Yasnaya Polyana idyll, built by the firm hand of a genius, collided with reality.)
“Mask” 2017 for the role of Sofia Andreevna in “Russian Novel” was awarded to Evgenia Simonova. “Russian Romance” was also awarded as the best performance of a large form. The male acting “Mask” 2017 was awarded to Danila Kozlovsky - Hamlet in the play by Lev Dodin.
The best small-form performance was awarded to “Magadan/Cabaret” by Yuri Pogrebnichko and the theater “Near the House of Stanislavsky” - a new part of theatrical hypertext about the ruins of the Russian 20th century, shot point-blank (as always at the theater “Okolo”) with carriage and street melodies, trembling scraps romances, the dim light of railway lamps, overcoat dampness.
Pogrebnichko, by the way, received the “Mask” for the first time since 2003. (It was especially offensive for the theater and actress Liliya Zagorskaya in 2012, when the amazing play “Occupation is a Sweet Deed!”, which was heart-breaking for every veteran and disabled person of the Soviet Country, went without awards.) But... it was in the drama competition “Masks” - 2017 (as happens every year) passions began to boil: so many wonderful works were nominated that it’s a shame for some of them (and “The Mask” is one).
The jury's special prize for the acting ensemble was given to "Three Sisters" by Timofey Kulyabin (Red Torch Theater, Novosibirsk): the director's best work to date, the piercing Chekhov in the language of deaf-mute demons (here they speak with gestures, and the text of the play creeps across the video screens), the terrible Chekhov, the characters of which have thrown off the last uniform, the last corset - clear and sane Russian speech, but feel and speak with groans, moos, and writhing delirium tremens.
The second special prize of the drama jury went to the actors Alexandrinsky Theater, playing “On the Other Side of the Curtain” by Andriy Zholdak. And this is “Three Sisters” - surreal, subtly illuminated, full of alien wind and the noise of the waves of the cold polar sea. Here the souls of the Prozorov sisters and their relatives rush through space (apparently after the death of our planet), confirming the immortality of the word written according to the old spelling in 1900. Both “Three Sisters” by Kulyabin and “Beyond the Curtain” by Zholdak could also lay claim to the main “Masks”.
The list of nominees (28 directors were included in it in 2017 - and how can the jury choose between them?!) also included such worthy works from last season as “Uncle Vanya” by Mikhail Bychkov (Chamber Theater, Voronezh), “Kira Georgievna” by Sergei Zhenovach, “Last Date in Venice” by Dmitry Krymov with Alexander Filippenko, noble “Notes of a Young Doctor” by Grigory Kozlov (Masterskaya Theatre, St. Petersburg), the most spectacular “Ship of Fools” by Denis Bokuradze (Gran Theater Studio, Novokuybyshevsk).
“Director’s” “Mask” 2017 was awarded to Andrey Moguchiy. His “Thunderstorm” (BDT named after Tovstonogov) is exactly an area play on a screen of eternal dolls dressed in black (only Katerina in scarlet), Russian types folk theater with all its fierce murderous dramas. Powerful visuality of the early theater of the Mighty and classical tradition BDT found a new synthesis. Vera Martynova’s set design for the play could rightfully lay claim to “Mask” - the city of Kalinov, black as a young minimalist’s jacket, stitched with silver lightning of God’s wrath, shaded by pillars of pale light: either the lanterns are playing on the landing stages and piers of the Volga, or Katerina’s beloved angels descend and ascend...
“Golden Mask” (like a huge number of cultural and publishing institutions in Russia) was founded in the early 1990s. By the end of the current decade, when the entire wave of “quarter-century” anniversaries has passed, we will be able to estimate how many heroic projects the “hard time” gave birth to. How desperately their founders fought for these projects. How many load-bearing structures of a modern cultural process The Russian Federation was created then - and survived, developed, and grew stronger despite the winds of time.
But “Mask” is one of the most important initiatives in this long series. The festival and the award have become an institution for searching, selecting, and presenting new theatrical names to the professional community (and two or three years later, to the “general audience”). It would be worth writing about this separately, listing the first successes of the Mariinsky Ballet and the Novosibirsk Opera, conductor Currentzis and choreographer Baganova, the aspiring author Grishkovets, young directors Serebrennikov, Moguchey, Chernyakov, Krymov (it was, after all, everyone went through the “lifting mechanism” of “Masks”) .
And, as always, new names appeared in the “Masks” 2017 award nominations. Rising reputations became clearer. Ballet critics whispered to drama critics: “Pay attention close attention”—and they underlined a line in a narrow book with the names of the nominees, similar to the program of the St. Petersburg races with the participation of Vronsky and Frou-Frou.
The tradition is still alive. She in in a broad sense!) turned out to be resilient and capable of development.
How can you remember how it began! And what kind of death was seriously expected a quarter of a century ago...
This year a record number of performances of all genres competed for it. The final list of nominees included theater productions from different cities of Russia: 28 dramatic performances, 13 operas, 5 ballets and 9 modern dance performances, 4 performances in the operetta/musical genre, as well as 8 puppet shows.
Danila Kozlovsky was recognized as the best dramatic actor for the role of Hamlet at the Maly Drama Theater of St. Petersburg. Actress Evgenia Simonova, who played Sofia Tolstoy in the play “Russian Novel” at the Mayakovsky Theater, also received recognition. The same performance received the third “Mask” as the best performance of a large form, and in the “Small Form” section the performance “Magadan/cabaret” of the Moscow theater “Near the Stanislavsky House” was noted.
The best director in a drama, as last year, was Andrei Moguchiy - he received an award for the play “The Thunderstorm” at the Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theater. The prize for best supporting actress in a drama went to Elena Nemzer from the Alexandrinsky Theater for the role of Pantaloon in the production of “The Raven”, and for best male role went to Holger Münzenmayer (Deacon in the play “Once upon a time” at the Sharypovo Drama Theatre).
The best performance in the operetta-musical was “The Bandit and the King” of the Krasnoyarsk Theater for Young Spectators, Roman Feodori was awarded as the best director for this performance. For the best actress in a musical operetta, Maria Biork, who played Sonya in the play “Crime and Punishment” (Musical Theatre), received the award.
The award for best actor in this category went to Viktor Krivonos for his role in the play “White. Petersburg" (Musical Comedy Theatre, St. Petersburg). Best role The supporting role in the operetta-musical was played by Vladimir Galchenko from the Drama Theater in Samara.
Golden Mask Award. Photo: mdt-dodin.ru
Golden Mask Award. Photo: justmedia.ru
Golden Mask Award. Photo: kino-teatr.ru
Romeo and Juliet, staged at the Yekaterinburg Opera and Ballet Theater, was recognized as the best ballet performance. The award for best actor was given to Igor Bulytsyn, who danced in the play Mercutio. The best conductor was Pavel Klinichev - he received a prize for his work “Ondine” to the music of Hans Werner Henze (Bolshoi Theater). Victoria Tereshkina played the best female role in the Mariinsky Theater performance “Violin Concerto No. 2”. For the same performance, Anton Pimonov was also awarded in the category “Best work by a choreographer/choreographer.” Award in the category “Best Performance in modern dance"received the work "All Roads Lead to the North" (Ballet Moscow Theatre).
The best conductor in opera was Theodor Currentzis with the performance of “La Traviata” at the Tchaikovsky Opera and Ballet Theater in Perm. Richard Jones was recognized as the best director (opera Rodelinda, Bolshoi Theatre). The award in the category “Best Opera Performance” also went to “Rodelinda”. The award for best actress in an opera went to Nadezhda Pavlova (Violetta in La Traviata at the Perm Opera), and the award for best male role went to Liparit Avetisyan (Chevalier des Grieux in Manon at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theater in Moscow). In the category “Best Work of a Composer in Musical Theatre” the award was won by Eduard Artemyev for “Crime and Punishment” of the Moscow Musical Theater.
In the “puppet” nominations, the play “Hedgehog in the Fog” of the Moscow Puppet Theater, staged by Natalya Pakhomova, was recognized as the best work of the director, and best production- “Kolino’s composition” by the St. Petersburg center “CounterArt”.
At the end of the ceremony, the awards “For Outstanding Contribution to the Development of theatrical arts" - they were received
On April 19, 2017, the winners of the 2017 Golden Mask Award were announced in Moscow. We supplemented the official verdict of the jury with an informal vote and are ready to sum up the results.
In general, it was relatively easy to predict the official results of the next “Mask”. Nevertheless, the results of the audience vote, from our point of view, could add interesting details to the picture.
We, of course, were only interested in nominations related to musical theater - there were 11 of them.
Voting began quite late, on the night of April 17, 2017, which may have been our mistake: it was worth starting the process a few days earlier so that everyone interested in the results of the “Golden Mask” would certainly know about it. Then there would be more votes, and the results would be more legitimate. On the other hand, the late start allowed us not to make any extraordinary efforts to protect against cheating.
The results of this voting may be of some interest with one amendment: the Astrakhan Opera and Ballet Theater shared our publication on its VKontakte page, and therefore almost all of the first places in the opera categories of our voting were given to Astrakhan residents. The only thing we can regret in this regard is that other theaters did not follow the example of Astrakhan: in this case, our voting would also turn out to be a competition for the number of subscribers on social networks.
In the “Opera – Performance” nomination, the first place in the audience voting was taken by the production of “The Damnation of Faust” by the Astrakhan Theater, which received 701 votes, and the second place was taken by “The Maid of Orleans” by the Bashkir Theater (395 votes). “La Traviata” by the Perm Theater, which many considered the favorite of the race, received only 289 votes from the audience.
But the jury of “The Mask” recognized the best performance in the opera “Rodelinda” from the Bolshoi Theater (which was transferred to the Bolshoi stage from the English Theater national opera). IN audience voting“Rodelinda” received 54 votes, surpassing only other Bolshoi Theater performances – “The Damnation of Faust” (46 votes) and “Katerina Izmailova” (44 votes).
In the “Opera – the work of a conductor” category, the audience’s first place was Valery Voronin from Astrakhan for the performance “The Damnation of Faust” (530 votes), and the second was the official winner of the “Golden Mask” Teodor Currentzis with 315 votes.
The audience considered Konstantin Balakin (Astrakhan, “The Damnation of Faust”) the best work of the director in the opera - 432 votes, the second was Robert Wilson (210 votes) for his performance “La Traviata”. The official “Mask” in this nomination went to Richard Jones for “Rodelinda” at the Bolshoi Theater, and Robert Wilson, unexpectedly for many, turned out to be the best artist around the world.
Probably, only this result of the current “Golden Mask” caused excitement in the discussions. Yulia Bederova, in an article about the results of the competition, described this moment as a “playful decision of the jury,” and Vadim Zhuravlev (a regular author of the site and once a member of the Golden Mask jury) in his post on Facebook simply called it a “slap in the face” to Robert Wilson.
In the “Opera” category female role” The audience’s first was Evgenia Afanasyeva from MAMT for the role of Manon in Massenet’s opera of the same name (383 votes). The official jury recognized Nadezhda Pavlova from the Perm Theater as the best for the role of La Traviata in the play by Robert Wilson. In the audience vote, Nadezhda Pavlova received 221 votes for this role.
Audience choice for the best male role in an opera was given to Valery Fomin (Young Haaz, Doctor Haaz, Helikon Opera Theater - 120 votes). The real “Mask” in this nomination went to Liparit Avetisyan for Chevalier des Grieux in the operetta “Manon” at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theatre. In the audience vote, this singer was in fourth place on the list with 78 votes.
The audience voted “Romeo and Juliet” from Yekaterinburg (366 votes) as the best ballet performance, and the audience agreed with the Golden Mask jury.
The best work of a conductor in ballet was Pavel Klinichev’s work on the play “Ondine” at the Bolshoi Theater. He was the only nominee this year, and the audience felt that his work in Yekaterinburg on “Romeo and Juliet” deserved “The Mask” more: Klinichev with “Romeo” received 204 audience votes, and Klinichev with “Ondine” - 41.
According to the audience, the best choreographer was Vyacheslav Samodurov (“Romeo and Juliet, Yekaterinburg - 248 votes”), but the jury recognized the performance “Violin Concerto No. 2” by Anton Pimonov at the Mariinsky Theater as the best work by a choreographer/choreographer in ballet and modern dance. The audience voted for this production 25 times.
The audience considered Ekaterina Sapogova (“Romeo and Juliet, Yekaterinburg” – 214 votes) the best ballerina, and the jury considered Victoria Tereshkina (“Violin Concerto No. 2”, Mariinskii Opera House). The audience put Tereshkina in third place (48 votes).
The best dancer according to the audience was Igor Bulytsyn (Mercutio, “Romeo and Juliet, Yekaterinburg” - 759 votes), and this is the second time this year when the opinion of the audience coincided with the opinion of the Golden Mask jury.
In the category “Composer’s Work in Musical Theatre”, the audience’s first place was Georgiy Firtich (the play “White. Petersburg – 84 votes”), but the jury recognized Eduard Artemyev first for his work on the play “Crime and Punishment” at the Moscow Musical Theater. Viewers voted for this work 66 times.
More than fifty winners were awarded the “Golden Masks” in Moscow. The list of theater award nominees includes all types and genres of performing arts: ballet, musical, drama, puppet show. To select the best, this season experts looked at almost a thousand performances staged in more than a hundred Russian cities.
This was the largest theatrical marathon in the entire history of the Golden Mask. Over two and a half months, audiences saw 74 performances. The creators of the best of them took part in the last and most unpredictable presentation of this festival - the award ceremony. According to tradition, it takes place on the stage of the Musical Theater named after. Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko. Only the names of the laureates in the nomination “For Contribution to the Development of Theater Art” were known in advance. This year's winners include Vladimir Etush, Rezo Gabriadze and Oleg Tabakov. The audience greeted them standing.
“You know, for almost 60 years I’ve been going on stage and I haven’t said anything yet, and people are applauding. So I'm used to it," he says. National artist USSR Oleg Tabakov.
For the first time in the history of “The Mask,” the applicant in the “Work of a conductor in ballet” category did not have to worry. The intrigue here was not who would receive the award, but for which particular performance. After all, all three nominations belong to one person, Pavel Klinichev. The jury recognized the ballet “Ondine” at the Bolshoi Theater as his best work.
“It’s nice to go to the ceremony knowing that you will still receive the Mask,” the conductor said.
By the way, the Bolshoi is the absolute record holder of this award. Six of his performances competed at once, and they were presented in 25 nominations. The result is three awards. In addition to Klinichev, Richard Jones, director of Handel's Rodelinda, celebrated the triumph. She was also recognized best opera. And here opera conductor year expectedly became a conductor, artistic director Perm Opera and Ballet Theater named after. Tchaikovsky Teodor Currentzis. He is called a musical genius. This is already the sixth Golden Mask to his name - this time for La Traviata.
“If you take some modern opera, about which you have absolutely no idea what this opera is about, you go inside, you research. And the operas that we think we know well, we don’t pay as much attention to them, think about it,” he says.
On the stage there is a black and white kingdom, but the guests have the whole palette of emotions. Some even ran around the stage, danced and sang with happiness.
But this holiday has sad notes. In February, the permanent president of the festival, Georgy Taratorkin, passed away. His memory was honored with a minute of silence. Igor Kostolevsky was unanimously elected as the new president.
“The festival is unique. There is no such festival in any country in the world. He demonstrates very high level both directing and acting. And what’s nice is that there are a lot of theaters from the provinces,” says Igor Kostolevsky.
In addition to Moscow and St. Petersburg, there are 23 more cities. For the first time, groups from Kemerovo, Naberezhnye Chelny, Norilsk, and Tver participated. The theater from the town of Sharypovo is also making its debut; there are only ten actors in this troupe. And immediately Holger Münzenmayer won the nomination “Supporting Actor” in the drama “Once Upon a Time.”
To be or not to receive an award for Danila Kozlovsky is not a question for the jury. They recognized his Hamlet as the best male role.
“I want to say thank you to my family - both my parents and my mother, who quite often asked me, where is her “Mask”? And today, finally, I can answer this question,” said the actor.
The toughest competition is in the category " Best Director in drama." There were 28 names on the shortlist for the award. Lev Dodin, Mindaugas Karbauskis, Timofey Kulyabin, Dmitry Krymov... remained sitting in their chairs. And the artistic director of the Bolshoi came on stage drama theater them. Tovstonogov in St. Petersburg Andrey Moguchiy. He won this category for the second year in a row. His “Thunderstorm” is by no means another attempt update Ostrovsky.
“We looked more at folk roots, parable roots, fairy tale roots. The question of the archaic interested me more than the question of adaptation or connection to modernity,” explains the director.
The main prize for the best large-scale performance went to “Russian Novel” of the Mayakovsky Theater. The life story of Leo Tolstoy is shown through the eyes of his wife Sophia. For this role, Evgenia Simonova received the “Mask” as the best actress. Playwright Marius Ivaskevicius also received the award. The creators of the production jokingly revealed the secret of success: when you take on the biography of one of greatest writers, you just don’t have the right to do something bad.
You can see some of the Golden Mask nominees and winners in the best Russian films and TV series on the website
The 2017 award was the largest in terms of the number of participants
Actor Danila Kozlovsky, who became a laureate in the Drama/Male Role category, at the Golden Mask awards ceremony
Moscow. April 19. website - Andrey Moguchy, Danila Kozlovsky, Teodor Currentzis became laureates of the 23rd Russian National Theater Award "Golden Mask", the award ceremony of which took place on Wednesday at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theatre.
“For 23 years, this was the largest “Mask” - in more than three months we had more than 220 performances, including all projects, competitive and non-competitive programs. The main purpose of “Mask” is to update the theatrical space throughout Russia,” noted the director festival Maria Revyakina.
She also remembered Georgy Taratorkin, who died in February 2017, who headed the Golden Mask for more than 20 years. “Georgiy Georgievich knew exactly what dedication to one’s work means, what it means to understand and accept the people of the theater, to forgive and love them. He watched with equal interest both the capital’s performances and productions from the regions. There was such an award - “For Honor and Dignity.” And truly, Georgy Georgievich was a man of honor and dignity, inner aristocracy,” Revyakina said.
Chairman of the jury of the Drama Theater and Puppet Theater, artistic director of the Russian Academic Youth Theater (RAMT) Alexey Borodin told Interfax that the trend of searches can be seen in the works presented this season. "This is a search in different directions. And I think that's good," he said.
Answering the question whether discussions about censorship had an impact on the atmosphere in the theatrical environment, Borodin noted that, in his opinion, such discussions only liberate people. “Everyone is now reacting to this (discussions about censorship - IF) absolutely calmly and even, perhaps, to some extent, all these conversations provoke some kind of creativity, which is free,” the artistic director of RAMT expressed confidence.
The "Golden Mask" in the nomination "Best Performance in Drama. Large Form" was awarded to "Russian Novel" of the Vl. Mayakovsky Theater, and Andrei Moguchiy ("The Thunderstorm" of the Bolshoi Drama Theater named after G.A. Tovstonogov) became the best dramatic director.
For the best male role in a drama, the jury awarded Danila Kozlovsky ("Hamlet" of the Maly Drama Theater - Theater of Europe), and for the female role - Evgenia Simonova (Sofya Tolstaya in "Russian Novel" of the Moscow Vl. Mayakovsky Theater).
The Bolshoi Theater's "Rodelinda" became the best opera production, and Teodor Currentzis was named the best opera conductor ("La Traviata" Perm theater and ballet named after P.I. Tchaikovsky).
"Romeo and Juliet" of the Yekaterinburg Opera and Ballet Theater was recognized as the best ballet performance, and the best conductor became Pavel Klinichev. Three works were presented in this nomination, each of which Klinichev worked on. The jury noted his "Ondine", presented at the Bolshoi Theater.
The first in the Operetta/Musical category was “Bindyuzhnik and the King” of the Krasnoyarsk Theater for Young Spectators.
The winners of the Union of Theater Workers (UTD) award for outstanding contribution to the development of theatrical art were Aigum Aigumov, Irina Bogacheva, Andrey Borisov, Rezo Gabriadze, Georgy Kotov (who died in March 2017), Nikolai Marton, Oleg Tabakov, Vladimir Etush.
"Golden Mask" was established in 1993 by the Union of Theater Workers of the Russian Federation as a professional award for best works season in all types of theatrical art.
In total, more than 900 applications were submitted to participate in the 23rd “Mask” - 130 cities, 614 dramatic performances and 325 musical performances took part in the selection.