Biography and production of director Vasily Barkhatov

He looks too young, too lucky, and his career is too fast. Unusually everything that he does. This causes jealousy and grumbling on the part of ill-wishers: "He and the name is too beautiful, probably invented." It's not just that: the boy works on the main opera stages of the country, mocks the classics, as he wants, no one can pull him off! It promotes ... " From such conversations Basil Barkhatov can only protect the work, the directing of productions of such a level that it was clear that he is promoting his own talent, and behind him is conviction in his decisions, fantasy, love of music, cultural erudition and much more ...

It's all about the balalaika

He was born in 1983 in Moscow, in a family of journalists. The childhood of Vasily Barkhatov passed in normal conditions of a sleeping capital district with running around in garages and roofs. But the status of an intelligent family dictated some standards in education. Among them is a music school. It was planned to study a fashionable guitar, but the boy's hand, when he was brought to the House of Children's Creativity, was still small, and parents were advised to give his son to the class of a balalaika. This folk instrument became for him a specialization in the average musical education.

He says that he had no children's dream of studying opera directing. The story of the choice of life in the account of Vasily Barkhatov is simple. Acquaintance with Rosetta Yakovlevna Nemchinskaya, professor of the faculty of musical theater from GITIS, was random. Unlike other teachers who believed that direction was a profession for people with life experience, she also took on quite young guys on her course. In order not to appear in the army and have a chance to enter the university, Vasily began to study with Rosetta Yakovlevna. At the age of 16 he became a student of GITIS, the department of directing and mastering the actor of musical theater.

First production

He often says that since the organized cultural trips of schoolchildren to the opera house, when the halls were filled up with mandatory distribution of tickets distribution to educational and labor collectives, they feel the organic intolerance of the performances, which the viewer can only be forced to drive. Therefore, for productions he is rarely interested in performable, extraordinary works, and for classical operas new ideas, a new look, a new form are sought.

The first musical performance of Vasily Barkhatov was "The Diary of the Disappeared" (2004), staged in "Helikon-Opera" on the vocal cycle of Leoš Janáček. This scene is often provided for debuts to young musicians, attracting a huge interest of critics and the public. So it happened with the production of the 21-year-old director, who became the artist-director of this mini-opera. Such performances are usually called sensational.

Way to the Mariinsky

In 2005, from the walls of GITIS came out the newly-made stage director of musical performances Vasily Barkhatov. His biography began with the Rostov State Musical Theater, where he received the opera "Director of Music" from two works by Mozart and Salieri, authors whose names, simply put together, already give birth to many associations.

At this time, the artistic director of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg Valery Gergiev was looking for directors for a new project. His goal was a scenic embodiment of all the works of Shostakovich, written by him for the musical theater. Barkhatov became one of the participants in the project. Vasily, the director recommended by the leadership of the Rostov Musical Theater, staged the opera "Moscow-Cheryomushki" in the Mariinsky Theater in 2006. Later, this unexpected Shostakovich was presented to the European public in London.

"The Golden Mask"

Gergiev Barkhatov considers his real godfather. When in 2007 he invited Vasily to the Mariinsky Theater, a rare opera was chosen for the production - Enukha Janacek. This performance, like many subsequent productions of Barkhatov, was nominated for the Russian National Theater Award "Golden Mask".

Unexpected ideas of the young director were perceived as a provocation. There were many such moves. One of the most shocking is the introduction to the play of the opera "Benvenuto Cellini" by Berlioz, a character depicting the protagonist in his old age. Some shocked the choice of the actor for this role, which made Vasily Barkhatov. Photo by Sergey Shnurov, who is standing on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater, will continue to excite opera esthetes for a long time.

At the main theater award of the country, Barkhatov's performances were often nominated:

• Opera A. Smelkov "The Brothers Karamazov" (2009) in the Mariinsky Theater,
• The musical Michel Legrand and Jacques Demi "The Cherubourg umbrellas" (2010) in the musical theater "Carambole" (St. Petersburg),
• Opera R. Shchedrin "Dead Souls" (2011) in the Mariinsky Theater,
• Opera Wagner "The Flying Dutchman" (2014) in the Mikhailovsky Theater and others.

The versatile director

Barkhatov's extensive interests and indomitable energy led him to participate in projects that are not related to his profile specialty, and his turbulent imagination and extraordinary staging techniques were useful in the dramatic theater and on television. The first non-profile production was Shiller's "Robbers" at the Pushkin Moscow Drama Theater (2009), then in "The Comedian's Shelter" he staged another Schiller drama - "Cunning and Love" (2011).

Performance 2012 in the Moscow Art Theater. Chekhov, which was called "The New Suffering of the Young V.", reminded many of the stylistics of the television show, which Barkhatov was also actively involved in. On the First Channel with his participation were shown "Olivier-show", Yesterday Live, "Phantom of the Opera", etc.

In 2012, Barkhatov tried his hand at filmmaking, putting the film "Atomic Ivan", the script to which he wrote himself. He also staged circus shows and made clips.

But the main thing for him are musical performances for Russian and foreign theaters. Among the most notable works:

• Operetta of J. Strauss "The Bat" at the Bolshoi Theater,
• Khovanshchina in the Basel Theater,
• "Antigone" Tommaso Traette in the Vienna Theater An der Wien,
• "Eugene Onegin" in the National Theater of Lithuania, etc.

The outlaw of calmness

They will never calm down those who are most interested in life, who is the wife of Vasily Barkhatov (since 2015 - opera singer Hasmik Grigoryan), yes, where he sleeps, but what he eats. He has long protested when he is called the youngest director of the world, and asks to discuss not his youth and personal life, but his work in opera, theater, television and cinema.

Vasily's performances are not ignored. They are admired by those who want a revival of mass interest in operatic art, they are hated by those who guard classical traditions. It remains to be hoped that in the future Barkhatov will provide us with many more reasons for disputes.