October 25 is a special day for the Galina Vishnevskaya Opera Centre – it is the birthday of its founder. Every year this day becomes a celebration of the great operatic art. On October 25, classical music has been performed in honor of this extraordinary woman with an amazing destiny for many years now. World Opera Day is celebrated this day too by an amazing coincidence.
On October 25, 2022, a monument to the People’s Artist of the USSR Galina Vishnevskaya festive opening ceremony took place at Ostozhenka street. A remarkable and symbolic place was chosen – at the main entrance to the Opera Centre. The monument’s author is a sculptor, People’s Artist of the Russian Federation, – Alexander Rukavishnikov. The monument was created of marble, granite and bronze.
The ceremony was attended by Alexander Kibovsky – Head of the Department of Culture of the City of Moscow, Mikhail Shvydkoy – Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for International Cultural Cooperation, Vladimir Urin – General Director of the Bolshoi Theater, Polad Bulbul ogly – Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Russia, Alexander Sokolov, Rector of the Moscow Conservatory, Mikhail Bryzgalov – General Director of the Russian National Museum of Music, Viktor Sadovnichy – Rector of Moscow State University. A special solemn touch to the ceremony was given by the singing of the Yurlov Russian State Academic Choir led by the People’s Artist of Russia Gennady Dmitryak.
The monument was unveiled by Olga and Elena Rostropovich.
“I am a Russian woman, a Russian singer, and I consider it my duty to convey to Russian opera singers what I know, what my unforgettable teachers taught me,” Olga Rostropovich cited these words by Galina Vishnevskaya. Now a monument to the great Russian woman stands next to her beloved home – the Opera Centre, which bears her name.
A grand concert was held that night. Olga Rostropovich, the Centre’s Artistic Director, has warmly welcomed those present, introduced the soloists, the orchestra and the conductor. The Opera Centre’s graduates of different years sang in honor of their beloved teacher. Now they are the leading soloists of the major opera theaters in Russia, already honored and people’s artists: soloists of the Bolshoi Theater of Russia Svetlana Lachina, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Agunda Kulaeva, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Oleg Dolgov, People’s Azerbaijani artist Elchin Azizov, soloists of the Moscow Musical Theater ‘Helikon-Opera’ Konstantin Brzhinsky and Alexei Tikhomirov, soloist of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Musical Theater Maria Pakhar, soloist of the Kolobov Moscow Novaya Opera Theater Veronika Ershova, soloist of the Yekaterinburg State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater Vladislav Popov.
The program comprised of opera classics masterpieces. The finale was the final chorus from Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, performed by the participants of the concert and the students who currently study. They filled all the aisles between the rows and there was a feeling as if the entire space of the hall was filled with beautiful music and “flooded with diamond radiance”.
The audience couldn’t hold back their tears! It was a good, bright day.