Brian Mendonça
As
the barges float along
To
the sun we sing our song.
Volga
Volga our pride
Mighty
stream so deep and wide.
-Song of the Volga Boatmen
The world held its breath when Russian soprano
Aida Garifullina joined British pop star Robbie Williams for the opening
ceremony of the FIFA World Cup in Moscow’s Luzhniki stadium on 14 June.
However the media (and Robbie) were not so
charitable. While Robbie hogged the headlines in the press, Aida seemed like Giuseppi
Verdi’s imprisoned princess in his opera by the same name (First performed in
Cairo in 1871). Aida Garifullina stood in the shadows. She was upstaged by an
ageing icon in an outrageous shimmering red suit. Aida had to play second
fiddle, if at all, on her own soil.
Never mind that Robbie also gestured at the crowd
obscenely. The media were lapping it up. It seemed a capitulation of Russian
pride to the West.
Aida is a Russian operatic soprano of Tatar
origin. She is seen as one of the most exciting young sopranos worldwide. Yet
she had only a two-bit role in an opening cameo featuring a song composed two
decades ago, viz. ‘I’m loving Angels instead.’ In fact, a much younger (and
soulful) Robbie’s black and white vevo music video of the song is far better.
The cultural politics of the media unfolds when
you see a classically trained female vocalist of international repute given
short shrift to a cheesy pop vocalist playing to the gallery. The fact that she
was a Russian gem should have been highlighted since she was performing and
representing the host country Russia. Never mind World Music Day on 21 June.
The brooding melancholy of Russian music is
brought home in the traditional ‘Song of the Volga Boatmen’ collected by Mily
Balakirev and published in his book of folk songs in 1866. The piece is also arranged
for classical guitar for studies on the 5th string (A) to teach the
bass notes.
Spanish composer Manuel de Falla wrote an
arrangement of the song titled ‘Canto de
los remeros del Volga’ in 1922. The arrangement was done at the request of
diplomat Ricardo Baeza of the League of Nations to provide monetary assistance
for more than two million Russian refugees who had been displaced and
imprisoned during World War I. All proceeds from the song’s publication were
donated to this effort. Pianist Azumi Nishizawa’s recent interpretation of the
piece is particularly compelling on YouTube (Granada, 2011).
The Volga is the biggest river in Europe. It is
located in the Russian North West. The length of the Volga is 3530 kilometres. People
crisscross the river on barges. While doing their work they sing songs. The
song of the Volga boatmen is one such folk song.
Russian classical music is a genre in its own
right. From the lyrical Tchaikovsky in the nineteenth century, to the dissonant
Prokofiev and the strident Stravinsky in the twentieth, we have several musical
idioms of the Russian psyche.
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aidagarifullina.net Published in Gomantak Times Weekender, St. Inez, Goa on Sunday 24 June 2018. Pix of Aida from Wikipedia entry on her; pix of painting by Russian realist painter Ilya Refimovich Repin titled 'Barge haulers of the Volga.' (1870-73)
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