Dmitry Chernyakov - director (photo below) of opera and drama performances. Born in Moscow in 1970. He did not come to the current profession right away. For some time the young man studied at an architectural institute, and only then entered GITIS.
First staging
Dmitry Chernyakov set his debut performance in the third year. He was then a little over twenty years old. He was embarrassed to do a production in Moscow. Dmitry perfectly understood that in this case he had no right to make a mistake. Therefore, the young man gained his first directorial experience in Tver. It happened in 1991. In an interview, Dmitry said that he was very interested in work at that time and did not even notice how the USSR collapsed.
Opera
At first, Chernyakov’s work did not correlate with this genre. It seemed to Dmitry that the drama theater gives the director more opportunities. After all, there the actors are not connected with vocals. After graduating from GITIS, the young man got a job at the Russian Drama Theater, located in Vilnius.
But everything changed in 1998, when Dmitry staged his debut opera performance in Novosibirsk. It was a world premiere based on the work “Young David” by V. Kobekin. The performance has become a very important cultural event.
Teachers
The work of the hero of this article is a vivid example of what is called the "director's theater." Dmitry is skeptical of the achievements of his predecessors in the field of opera. In the field of opera directing, he openly calls Russia “the country of the Third World”, which “misunderstood, overlooked” everything that has long been experienced in the West.
Chernyakov considers his "teachers" representatives of such a direction of Scandinavian cinema as Dogma. It prevailed in the 1990s and focused on the rejection of complex installation, scenery, combined shooting and other self-restrictions.
Own approach
Minimalism is what Dmitry Chernyakov chose for himself. The director, whose personal life will be described below, primarily seeks to interpret the scene as a playing space. According to him, if the line he started is brought to its logical conclusion, then only a rug and two chairs will remain on the stage. That will be the final of the Khovanshchina and Eugene Onegin.
It is noteworthy that when the director began his career in opera with a new work, he no longer collaborated with contemporary composers. Chernyakov was engaged in staging classic masterpieces of the past. But the young man presented them in a completely unexpected way.
Original productions
For almost all of his own performances, Dmitry Chernyakov himself designs scenography and costumes. And his interpretations of the classical masterpieces of the opera always cause genuine amazement in the public. Moreover, the director’s freedom of action can be seen not only in the performance as such, but even in history. For example, the opera Life for the Tsar, which premiered at the Mariinsky Theater, caused cognitive dissonance among many viewers. Entourage and costumes tied its action to the twentieth century. And this came into complete contradiction with the Polish musical characteristics of the enemy camp.
Dmitry Chernyakov very often transfers the actions of masterpieces of the classics to the present. This is one of his favorite tricks. So he did with "Tristan and Isolde" and "Aida", in which there was not even a hint of Ancient Egypt.
Separately, it is worth noting the "Katerina Izmaylova", staged Chernyakov in German Duisburg. Dmitry replaced the merchant's house with a modern office, and the bedroom of the main character performed in the Asian style. The final of the performance was also unexpected. After the reprisal against Sonnet, the main character does not commit suicide. The girl is beaten to death by the guards.
Other overseas performances
Katerina Izmaylova is not the only opera staged by Dmitry Chernyakov outside of Russia. The director became the author of several more performances. In Berlin, he staged Boris Godunov, in Madrid Macbeth, in Zurich Enufu, and Milan in The Player. Dmitry always remains true to himself, considering works familiar to everyone from a very unexpected angle. So, in Macbeth, the director replaced the witches with a street crowd, which incites the protagonist to kill. And in “Boris Godunov”, after raising the curtain, the spectators see the destroyed building of the Moscow Central Telegraph on Tverskaya Street ...
Criticism
The director's innovation often shockes the audience, creating rather strange situations. For example, after the release of the “Carmelite Dialogues” by F. Pulenka in the Bavarian opera, the composer's heirs demanded to remove the play from the repertoire. And in 2006, Galina Vishnevskaya was so outraged by the production of the Eugene Onegin at the Bolshoi Theater that she refused to celebrate her 80th birthday there. From what is happening on stage, the opera singer was gripped by despair.
Personal life
Dmitry Chernyakov prefers not to talk about her. Therefore, information about the director’s personal life is missing. The only thing in Runet is rumors that he has an unconventional orientation.