Opening of the XVII season of the annual music festival “Khibla Gerzmava invites ...”, dedicated to the memory of Zurab Sotkelava, in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.
Said Bargandzhia
The XVII festival “Khibla Gerzmava invites ...” opened with a grand concert in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, on Thursday, March 14.
The first concert of the festival is dedicated to the memory of an outstanding opera singer, People's Artist of the USSR, Bolshoi Theater soloist, friend and mentor of Khibla Gerzmav Zurab Sotkilava, who died in September 2017.
“I am very friendly with his family, I loved him very much and he did a lot for my development sometime ago. He is my compatriot, of course, it was twice my pleasure to dedicate the first concert of this festival to him. If he were with us today, he would gladly take part in it. He sang to the end of his days. God, what a joy that such wonderful people were and are in my life,” said Khibla Gerzmava on the eve of the concert in an interview with the “Russia-Culture” TV channel.
The opera singer shared her emotions about the festival and spoke about its importance.
“For me it is a very important day, first of all, because this is the Great Hall of the Conservatory and this is already the XVII festival, which was once born in Abkhazia and geographically walks, lives around the world and I am very proud and happy about it” she noted.
It was on the stage of the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory in far 1994 that the young opera singer Khibla Gerzmava from Abkhazia was waiting for a real triumph. She took part in the International Tchaikovsky Competition named after Peter Ilyich, where she performed Rosina's aria from the opera “The Barber of Seville” by the Italian composer Rossini, and also Snow Maiden's aria from the opera of the same name by the Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
The performance of 24 years old Gerzmava at the competition became a real sensation, and the jury made an unprecedented decision. For the first time in the history of the competition, the Grand Prix was presented: neither before nor after Khibla the Grand Prix was presented to anyone. This award has become a significant springboard for the artist’s singing career.
This year, together with Khibla Gerzmava, the famous Argentine opera singer, tenor Jose Kura, took the stage, and the renowned Italian maestro Daniele Callegari took the stand of the Russian State Orchestra of Yevgeny Svetlanov.
The idea to invite famous musicians to the festival was born in February last year, when Khibla Gerzmava performed in the “Othello” by the Dresden Semper Opera House, where José Cura became her partner, conducted by Daniel Callegari. It was then that a decision was made to perform arias and scenes from “Othello” by Giuseppe Verdi in concert performance.
Even at the entrance to the Great Hall one could observe a large group of people who did not have time to get a ticket to the concert of the opera diva Khibla Gerzmava.
“There was a feeling that tickets scattered instantly. We did not have time to buy them and came with my husband here in the hope that I could still get them, but no chance. And as you see, there are a lot of people like us here,” said Moscow resident Tatyana.
Among the audience of the festival are representatives of the Abkhaz Diaspora of the Russian capital who revere the singer’s work: the head of the Moscow Abkhaz Diaspora Beslan Argba, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Abkhazia in Russia Igor Akhba and Deputy Minister of Culture and Preservation of Historical and Cultural Heritage of Abkhazia Batal Kobakhia, who flew to Moscow specially for the festival.
“We have all witnessed her triumph for 17 years. Khibla is a person who invited outstanding musicians and singers to Abkhazia. We are waiting for Khibla Gerzmava with the continuation of the XVII festival in Abkhazia, she will come in October and I do not want to disclose all the ideas, there will be surprises,” said Batal Kobakhia.
The concert was also attended by the press secretary of the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Abkhazia, Georgy Berzeniya, who has long identified himself as one of the admirers of Khibla Gerzmava.
“I am in Moscow for work, but I could not miss the concert of our Khibla Gerzmava. The festival “Khibla Gerzmava invites ...” is one of the main musical events in Abkhazia, and now far beyond its borders. Thanks to Khibla Gerzmava, over the years, many world-famous musicians have visited our republic. The festival is always welcome in Abkhazia and this year is not an exception,” said Berzeniya.
The music festival “Khibla Gerzmava invites ...” was founded by an opera diva in 2001 in Abkhazia. From 2014, it expanded its boundaries and took place in Moscow in the Great Hall of the Conservatory, on the stage of the Musical Theater named after K.S. Stanislavsky and Vl.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, in Vienna in the golden hall of Musikverein, in Carnegie Hall, in the Swiss city of St. Moritz. During the existence of the festival, such giants of world music as Vladimir Spivakov, Elena Obraztsova, Denis Matsuev, Ildar Abdrazakov, Deborah Brown and
others participated in it. Art historian Svyatoslav Belza was a long-standing permanent concert host. The festival is of particular importance for all music lovers in Abkhazia, because every year Khibla Gerzmava brings the best musicians and the best music programs to her homeland.
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