The WORLD PREMIERE

People’s artist of the USSR and Russian Federation — legendary dancer, choreographer, director, teacher, actor, painter, poet Vladimir VASILIEV is finalizing staging the world premiere of his new production of MASS H-MOLL of J.-S.BACH DONA NOBIS PACEM — GIVE US PEACE. with the soloists, orchestra, choir, ballet of the State Tatar Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre in Kazan. The musical director and conductor Vincent de Cort (Netherlands)

The WORLD PREMIERE (The High Mass ha never been staged at an opera House) will take place in Kazan On April 14 and 15, 2015, and immediately after it the whole Tatr Opera Theatre will take this production to Moscow to be presented at the Bolshoi Theatre on its Historical stage on the day of Vladimir Vasiliev’s 75-th jubilee on April 18 (joint project of the Tatar and Bolshoi theatres with a financial support of the Russian Ministry of Culture).

The program of Vladimir Vasiliev’s jubilee events will also include Vladimir Vasiliev’s exhibition to be opened on April 20 (until May 17), 2015 at the Gallery of the State Theatrical Museum named after A.A.Bakhrushin at Malaya Ordynka, 8;
the production of Vladimir Vasiliev HOUSE AT THE ROADSIDE performed by the State Altai ensemble of songs and dance to be presented on May 1 in the Big concert Hall of the Great Patriotic War Museum on Poklonnaya Hill, the two exhibitions of Vladimir Vasiliev’s paitings — on May 15 (until May 29) at the Russian Cultural Centre in Rome and on June 16 (until June 30) at the Saloon of Historical photos named by Karl Bulla in Sankt Petersburg

Vladimir VASILIEV about his production of Mass H-moll of I.-S.Bach DONA NOBIS PACEM. GIVE US PEACE

God is all that is best in man. To find God in oneself — is to find in oneself all that is best of what the cosmos gave us.

C.S. Lewis, outstanding Irish writer, literary scholar and lay theologian

I have long dreamed, probably ever since I first heard Bach’s Mass in B minor, of doing a production of it , harnessing all the forces of music theatre. For me the Mass represents the peak of man’s achievement in music. It soars upwards, into the cosmos making, I am sure, anyone listening to it think about elevated, sublime matters — the name ‘High’ given it by future generations is not fortuitous. Here there is no darkness, even in its tragic moments, no juxtaposition of good and evil. The entire Mass is permeated with beauty and with the glorification of good, peace and love, which will save the world. In my view its divinity lies not in its narrative and the form of its composition, which were intended for a church service, i.e., not in its religious basis, but rather in that divine enigma which fills man with awe and makes him think about the eternal, and in its extraordinary impact on the listener. It embraces everything: bottomless depths and cosmic distance, the infinite spaces of creation. And in all this – Thought and Soul – the two sides of a single, rational whole. It is in the search for their harmony, perhaps, that the key to divine meaning is to be found.

The scale and profound philosophical meaning of this celestial music demanded an equally large-scale scenic treatment and generalization. The music dictated to me all the stage treatments both as director and choreographer, and also the decision to make use in computer design of Svetlana Bogatyr’s drawings with their philosophical content which totally coincided with my understanding of Bach. This production, taking its name from the last, most important words in the Mass – Give us peace — is a meditation about the Universe, about mankind as a whole and each person individually, about the search for God within oneself and the finding of particles of his divine manifestation. It is about our soul’s identification with God via the expression of love, goodness, light, via our knowledge, understanding of each other. And in conclusion – it is about the importance of people uniting together, the insight that it is only in giving light, love and peace to another person that a human being acquires happiness and the hope of salvation and rebirth.