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- "I worked as a janitor in the morning, went to Gnesinka at nine, and sang in restaurants in the evening"
"I worked as a janitor in the morning, went to Gnesinka at nine, and sang in restaurants in the evening"
For you to leave a story, you need more good deeds, says Sergey Penkin. The Honored Artist of Russia built a temple in his homeland in Penza, dreams of his own stage for young talents and worries about the fate of the Saratov Opera and Ballet Theater, which has been unable to restore for several years. On the eve of his 65th birthday, the singer told about this in an interview with Izvestia, inviting journalists to his apartment, where major repairs had recently been completed.
"Just my name on the poster is enough for me"
— Izvestia is the first media outlet that can evaluate the new interior of an apartment. Your portraits and posters are on the walls. But how did the caricature of Louis de Funes end up among them?
— I was in Saint-Tropez, and I liked this painting with Louis de Funes. And my portraits will be gone soon. I hung them up so they wouldn't stand against the wall. I understand that it looks like some kind of personality cult.
Sergey Penkin
— Why do you have bright colored walls in your apartment — lemon, purple, red?
— I love you. Winter, slush, everything is kind of dreary. And you come home and enjoy it. An eternal holiday. I did everything according to my own design. If you also turn on the colored lighting on the ceiling, it becomes quite comfortable.
— On March 21, you will have a concert in the Kremlin. Who have you invited to participate?
— The concert in the Kremlin is an important event. I didn't specifically address anyone: just my name on the poster is enough. The audience will hear the hits, there will be a premiere of several songs. I will sing with my musicians and with the Academic Large Concert Orchestra named after Yuri Silantyev. The Kremlin is a very pompous hall, but I try to make everything at home, "like in the kitchen," so that people feel comfortable. I know there aren't many tickets left.
— Almost everything is sold. And it's not even March yet.
— And mind you, I give a big concert every year, either in the Kremlin or at the Crocus. I used to perform in the Rossiya Concert Hall — it's a pity that it was demolished. Imagine, the hall was built in the USSR, and the technical equipment is at the highest level. During the intermission, the audience left the hall, and during this time the floor turned over, and a dance floor appeared instead of chairs. The real hall is a transformer. There are no such people now.
Sergey Penkin
Although there are more concert venues in Moscow, there are still not enough of them. Previously, there were cinema and concert halls in every district. People live on the outskirts, and not everyone wants to go downtown to see a play or concert.
— Do the artists want to travel outside the Garden Ring?
— It depends on which artists. If you love your profession, you will go anywhere. And those who are focused only on earning money are unlikely to choose such sites. This is wrong, because art does not forgive falsehoods.
— Are you ready to perform in DC?
- of course. And it doesn't matter how the playground is equipped: I bring everything with me — a truck of light, sound. And, of course, we spray the auditorium with a good cologne.
— You are an associate professor at the Faculty of Musical Art at the Institute of Fine Arts. Is your career growth possible further?
- of course. Thanks to the teaching of pop and jazz vocals, I received the title of Honored Artist of Russia. The Institute submitted the documents. For me, this is an additional responsibility, the desire to produce results only with a quality mark. I have no right to mess around.
"Pugacheva came to Claudia Ivanovna Shulzhenko and studied acting skills"
— Starting from September 1, universities in Russia are planning to expand a pilot project to introduce a new education system. At one time, there were rumors that they were going to abandon the Bologna system altogether. How would you feel about that?
— I'm glad if that happens. Soviet education was the best. I teach the way I was taught in the USSR. In Gnesinka, we taught everything: stage speech, dancing, and acting. Now sometimes they sing in such a way that it is difficult to understand in what language. Diction is a problem. Pugacheva, already a famous singer, came to Claudia Ivanovna Shulzhenko and studied acting.
People's Artist of the USSR Claudia Ivanovna Shulzhenko during a concert
You can teach at my pop and jazz department in three years. But if an applicant comes from the street, completely unprepared and expecting quick success, no. In Soviet times, people were embarrassed when they were asked to sing in public. And now... like in the movies: "Who's going to the poultry farm?"—"Me!"—"Who's going to the cement plant?"—"Me!" The feeling of shame was gone.
— Should an artist be shy?
— Don't be shy, but worry and be confident in what you're doing. Confidence comes with a good education and a deep understanding of the profession. Those who lack skills compensate for this with a "show-off". And this is a sign of insecurity and complexes.
— Do you follow the fate of your students after graduation?
- of course. One of the students participated in a competition in Italy and received the Robertino Loreti Award — the artist personally presented him with the award. And when the other one was asked: "Who did you study with?" —Penkin's." "Well, then it's clear." I was pleased.
Education is very important. When I was getting my second degree at the Institute of Contemporary Art, the great composer Evgeny Pavlovich Krylatov approached me and said: "Sergey Mikhailovich, you have the surname Krylatov in your diploma. And when I graduated from the conservatory, my last name was Shostakovich." That's why he wrote such music — and how many beautiful children's songs came from his pen.
Composer Evgeny Krylatov
— So you have one handshake before Shostakovich.
— It's working. All teachers are guides. We are not inventing anything new. Now young people are inventing some kind of quantum whistling. All this, in my opinion, is nonsense, just to show how smart they are. In fact, there is an Italian school — this is the ABC for the singer. If you've mastered it, you can sing anything: pop, jazz, rap, classical. There should be a basis.
— Now there is a fashion for retro. The young man dances to Tanya Bulanova, wears kokoshniks like Nadezhda Kadysheva. What is the reason?
— For me, retro is Shulzhenko, Utesov. Perhaps they are tired of the one-day pop, they want something else. Or it just got into TikTok and got hooked. I'm glad that people listen to this kind of music: it's kind, without vulgarity. It's good that people are drawn to the roots.
— People are not shy about wearing clothes with symbols of Russia.
— It's great, but you don't have to love your homeland for show.
Sergey Penkin
— And how?
— As the Russian merchants and nobles did. Earning millions, they built hospitals, orphanages, and donated money to the needs of the country. It is a pity that now the descendants are breaking down what they built. They closed it with a fence, and now, instead of the old one, there is a skyscraper. Well, build high-rise buildings on the outskirts. Leave the center of the capital historical.
— It feels like you're a foreman at heart.
— (Laughs.) Did you know that at the beginning of the 20th century, the Garden Ring was on the outskirts of Moscow? Leo Tolstoy lived in the center, on Pyatnitskaya Street, and in Khamovniki he had a country house.
"I worked as a janitor and traveled half the world at the same time"
— How did you meet the Rolling Stones in your life?
— I worked as a janitor and traveled half the world at the same time. If I had to go on tour, I came to the housing department and said that I was going to the hospital. I was released, and two weeks later I returned tanned. They asked: "Where have you been?" Well, I couldn't say that I toured in Tunisia.
When I worked as a janitor, I got my own living space. There were many people in the apartment on Ostozhenka Street: Zhanna Aguzarova, Egor Konchalovsky, Alexander Gradsky, Andrey Razin, Stepan Mikhalkov, Andrey — Brezhnev's grandson. And everyone helped. It was the coolest apartment in Moscow, and getting there was considered a blessing.
Alexander Gradsky
In the morning, from six to eight, I worked as a janitor, by nine I went to Gnesinka, and in the evening I sang in restaurants and variety shows at the Kosmos, Intourist, and Minsk hotels — like in the movie Interdevochka.
— And you traveled abroad at the same time?
- yes. In 1990, we went to Canada, performed in a nightclub for Russian emigration. There were beautiful girls on stage with us — in feathers, costumes, embroidered with Swarovski stones. After the concert, they offered to go Downtown for a photo shoot. We didn't have such skyscrapers then — everything was shining, lights, beauty. A guy came up to us and said: "Where are you from?" — "From the USSR". - "Come on!" They showed their passports. He says: "You're so bright, wouldn't you like to perform in concert with the Rolling Stones?"
— Just like that, off the street and right with Mick Jagger?
- yes. There was a lot of interest in our country back then. I was hesitant at first, but the guys waved their hands: "Are you crazy?! Of course, let's go!" The next day we were shown on Canadian television, then in the USA. They started calling me Prince Silver. We had a tour of America, then there was Venezuela, and we performed in Caracas for a month. The local press wrote about me on the front pages. All my publications are archived.
Mick Jagger, singer of the Rolling Stones (right)
— A janitor from Ostozhenka and a world star?
— If you think about it, the main thing is not to be afraid to dream. When I was in school in Penza, I played the song Souvenir by Demis Roussos on a reel-to-reel tape recorder, and I could not imagine that one day I would sing it with him as a duet on the Kremlin stage.
— Then in the USA there was an interest in everything Soviet, and now Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov are banned.
"That's stupid."
— But at the same time, our compatriot Semyon Bychkov headed the Paris Opera, and Hollywood star Ralph Fiennes staged Eugene Onegin, which became an event.
— Ordinary people in Europe love Russian music, they read Dostoevsky and Pushkin. Marlene Dietrich, having arrived in the USSR, wanted to meet Konstantin Paustovsky. He came to her at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, and the world star, in a dress embroidered with pearls and diamonds, knelt in front of the writer. No matter what happens, all I hear from my foreign friends is that they miss us. After all, art is always art.
The tour of singer Marlene Dietrich in the USSR
By the way, you can even work from a distance. Sarah Brightman and I recorded the duet I Will Be with You. She's in London, I'm in Moscow. When we sent the recording, we received a comment from her: "Tell Sergey to sing less falsetto, otherwise they will think that I am on his backing vocals."
And with Anna Netrebko, the duet did not work out. She once wrote: "Seryozha, let's do a duet." I replied that I needed to think about the song. But they never did.
— What is Sergey Penkin dreaming about now?
— I dream of returning the art councils. So that talented singers, not mediocre ones, come on stage. To perform not in underpants, but in beautiful dresses and suits. For me, Irina Ponarovskaya is an example of what an artist should look like. She is a trendsetter. I would also like to open my own theater so that the audience can hear the talented guys. I know there are singers who sing better than me, but we don't hear them. They can't break through.
Irina Ponarovskaya
— But now there are a lot of TV shows that are looking for talent. They seem to appear, but after the first fame comes oblivion.
— One of my students went to the Voice. He asked me to listen to him today.
— Why is federal broadcasting not the key to success?
— Because they don't always show the most talented. Some don't have money, some don't have connections. And then you still need to start with apartment buildings, restaurants, concerts for five to ten people. Then more will come. And so unwind.
— What do you mean, "sama-sama"?
— I judge by myself. After the "50-50" program in 1991, I was noticed, and then a man came and offered a concert in Kharkov — my first solo album. I tried to get on some platforms myself. We need to show ourselves to people. The Internet can't help everyone. It's one thing to listen to an artist on your phone, but it's another to listen live.
"I don't feel 65 anymore"
— You sang the role of Lensky in the opera "Eugene Onegin" on the stage of the Dnepropetrovsk Opera and Ballet Theater. Don't you want to go back to the opera house?
— And he sang without microphones! Although often even in opera, a sub-sound is used. When I sang at Intourist, they offered me La Scala. I refused. The theater is beautiful, the music is great, but you don't grow up there: you sing a limited repertoire. And on stage, you can improvise, do things with your voice that are impossible in the classics.
La Scala Theatre
— You are rarely seen on TV shows. Why?
— I'm not interested in where they invite you. And they don't invite you to places where you would like to appear.
— You were a member of Superstar in 2008. The show was revived a few years ago. There you can see those who are rarely shown on TV, but the audience remembers them. Aren't you invited there?
"My name." But I don't want. Except for the sake of the audience. And to be appreciated by people who are far from music.… Well, it doesn't happen that an egg teaches a chicken. I am impressed by the way Alexey Glyzin behaves — intelligently, without arguments. And what to prove and to whom?
— And where do you want to appear?
— For example, in holiday concerts. They don't invite you. I'm still not on the radio. It means that someone is jealous, and I am competing with someone.
—That's strange. You collect the Kremlin, but they don't take the radio stations.
— It's better this way than the other way around. When an artist doesn't get off the air, but he can't assemble the audience. I am grateful to my viewers — they are loyal. My concerts are like an art gallery: children come to see Olaf, young people come out of curiosity, and then they become regular viewers.
Sergey Penkin
— You are turning 65. For men, this is the retirement age.
— And I'm already retired. I was given it at 62. When I received my pension for the first time and told about it at home, we all laughed together.
"A lot?"
— 25 thousand.
— What about 30 thousand, an addition to the pension for honored and folk artists from Moscow?
— 40 thousand. Imagine, I'm 65 years old and I get 65 thousand (laughs).
— A good pension.
— I don't feel 65 anymore. I can't stay at home, I like to walk, I always need to do something. We need to live now, like the last time. Movement is life.
— And as before, can you go out on Ostozhenka?
— I can. I'll finish the renovation now and invite my friends. I am grateful to them for their help, because there were many shortcomings.
Sergey Penkin
— Were the builders deceived?
— We didn't do it right. The craftsmen have become spoiled in Moscow, and we have to look for builders from the provinces. They say that there are not enough workers. This is how men from villages would be invited to work in shifts in the capital. But they earned money and built themselves a new house.
— After all, the foreman died in you.
— We need to do more good things. So that when you're gone, your story will remain.
— You built a temple in Penza.
— Built it. And now we would like to build a theater, but we need a lot of money.
— What else does your soul ache for?
— For the Opera and Ballet Theater in Saratov. It has not been repaired for many years. It's not a recreation center, it's an opera house. A drama theater burned down in Penza, and in a year it was restored and made even better. I really want to be heard by those on whom the fate of the Saratov Theater depends. It is a shame that in a city with such musical traditions, the famous hall cannot receive an audience. It was a great venue with great acoustics. It's a pity that this is happening.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
