IRON INTELLECTUAL

"The theatre is a school of life," says Akif Malikov, the director of the Azerbaijani State Academic Ope-ra and Ballet Theatre, an honoured art figure of Azerbaijan. He has led this country's main musical theatre for 28 years of his life. In parallel, for 10 of those years, he also led the Azerbaijani State Philharmonic. People say that the figure 28 is suitable enough to be entered in the Guinness Book because many eminent culture figures had tried to work on that post before the incumbent director took the job but, unfortunately, none managed to stay there for long. After all, the theatre is not just what ones sees happening on the stage - the end result of teamwork. The main thing is what stays behind the curtain - the work of the conductor together with the director and the actors, the lighting technicians and the stagehands. The theatre requires hard and diligent work. In an interview with R+, Akif Malikov spoke about the life of the theatre, premieres, full houses and his family.

- Akif Turanovich, please tell us about your childhood and your years of studies…

- I was born in Baku, in Pervo-mayskaya Street. In my memory there still are pictures from my childhood - the fountains near the Philharmonic and the Sabir monument. Baku becomes more beautiful and modern by the year, but the old town left a lasting impression from my childhood. Nobody in our home did music, but I gravitated towards the piano since I was a baby. In the beginning, I simply pressed the piano keys and then tried to sketch musical images. When I was five, I was brought to the piano pedagogical practice class at the Bulbul music school for gifted children. I continued my education at the Azerbaijani State Conservatory in the class led by a brilliant teacher, Prof Mayor Rafaelovich Brenner. I must say that I showed promise. I was tipped for a career of a great musician. However, starting from the first form, I was very willingly engaged in community service. When I was 22, I was appointed first secretary of the Suraxani district committee of Komsomol [All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, also known as VLKSM, in the USSR] in Baku. I received one more higher political education and graduated with honours from the High Komsomol [School under the Central Committee of VLKSM] in Moscow. Therefore, I have two higher educations - musical and political. But I never abandoned music.

- How do you prepare for a performance?

- My love for the theatre makes me work as hard as I can. Every single detail is important - the state of the set and costumes, and lighting solutions. Audiences' perception depends on all this. I watch performances very meticulously, but I do not forget that real people are on stage - people with their joys and disappointments. The stage helps them believe in themselves, which is a great happiness. We stage high-level performances, as evidenced by regular full houses and great success with audiences. This is very encouraging.

- Who are your audiences nowadays?

- Our theatre is one of the most visited ones. We had to recover from ruins its reputation as a prestigious glorious theatre. We started to invite highly professional artists. These were Yelena Obraztsova, Maria Biesu, Virgilijus Noreika, Vladislav Piavko and also ballet dancers - the now late Maya Plisetskaya, Nina Semizorova, Nadezh-da Pavlova, Galina Mezentseva, Vyacheslav Gordeev. There were normally full houses for their performances. Full houses became almost regular, and the domestic and foreign press published positive reviews. The performances by the renowned masters of the stage also served as master classes. Guest conductors gave members of orchestras an opportunity to develop new skills, and performers also enhanced their feeling of responsibility. Great attention was paid to the sets and costumes, which were completely renewed with the support of the Culture Ministry. Among our viewers are representatives of many embassies and foreign companies, who book prestigious seats for a whole season. Our theatre is also known as the theatre of the diplomatic corps. People of different age and professions come to us, including pensioners and students from the Choreographic School, whom we give invitations. They are friends of our theatre. We gave birth to a tradition whereby students from the school perform together with professionals, and in this way we enable them to get the feel of the real stage.

- Over the past few years the level of the performance of the symphonic orchestra of the theatre has considerably improved. What is the reason for this?

- We have wonderful conductors, such as Cavansir Cafarov, the chief conductor of the theatre, a professor, and a people's artist of Azerbaijan; Yalcin Adigozalov, a people's artist of Azer-baijan; and Eyyub Quliyev, winner of international competitions. Each year, the orchestra of the theatre successfully performs at the prestigious international opera festival in Bavaria. Our repertoire always includes works by Azerbaijani authors, thereby promoting our national academic art. The year 2014 was marked by tours and premieres. For the first time in history, our ballet troupe performed at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. They performed the ballets "Layla and Majnun", "Don Quixote", and "Seven beauties" by Qara Qarayev; "1001 Nights" by Fikrat Amirov; and "Love and death" by Polad Bulbuloglu. The theatre's recent tour of St Petersburg and Minsk was a success as well. But a change of generations needed to be made to achieve decent professionalism for performances. This is very painful but very necessary. As a result, the theatre is collaborating with a number of famous theatres of the CIS and Turkey. The benefit of such professional contacts is high. Eight premieres have taken place. The ballet "Rast" performed to Niyazi music and Giacomo Puccini's opera "Cloak" premiered. The notes had been brought from Germany, and the production involved well-known German director Ludwig Baumann and the chief conductor and artistic director of the Immling opera festival in Bavaria, Cornelia von Kerssenbrock. Azerbaijani singers honourably carried out their mission. We invited People's Artist of Russia Liya Sabitova to produce the ballet "Tango of Love". For children, we performed Oqtay Zulfuqarov's ballet "The magic apple" and the Pietro Mascagni opera "Cavalleria Rusticana". On the occasion of the 70th birthday anniversary of People's Artist of Azerbaijan Polad Bulbuloglu, we performed his ballet "Love and death". We have a lot of plans for next year as well, such as the opera "Queen of Spades" by Tchaikovsky, "A Masked Ball" by Verdi, and Ashraf Abbasov's ballets "Nigella" and Tchaikovsky's ballet "Francesca da Rimini". We are expecting visits by People's Artist of Ukraine Olga Nagorna (soprano), People's Artist of Belarus Vladimir Gromov (baritone), ballet dancer and People's Artist of Belarus Olga Gayko, and a singer from Turkey, Deniz Yetim (soprano) who will perform in the opera "Tosca".

- What plays are most popular?

- We have an extensive repertoire of more than 60 plays. Although we perform Uzeyir Hacibayov's opera "Layla and Majnun" on a monthly basis, it is still in demand. It is conducted by our choirmaster, Honoured Figure of Art of Azerbaijan Sevil Haciyeva. Also in demand are Qara Qarayev's ballet "Seven beauties" and Fikrat Amirov's ballet "1001 Nights".

- What does it mean for you to be a leader? To think, evaluate, scrutinize all subtleties and small details of theatrical life? Or do you favour specific and at times stringent measures?

- It depends. We even had to complete an unfinished score for the ballet "Nizami" by the late Fikrat Amirov. I asked composer Musa Mirzayev to do it and stipulated that the author's style should be taken into account. I am not even talking about the dominance of intrigues and gossip in the theatre. The time arrived to put an end to them and rally the team. To be a successful manager of a large theatrical team, one must have organizational skills, communication skills, high culture, cast-iron will and determined character. But there must also be intelligence in relationships. The difficulty lies in the fact that actors are emotional people, often prone to superiority complex. Their personal ambitions may impede a common cause. Therefore, it is very difficult to achieve cohesion and synchrony of the whole system. It requires the director to carry out painstaking and hard work that stays behind the scenes. Our outstanding artists normally leave the stage at a certain time, thereby showing respect for themselves and their audiences. But sometimes I have to strongly recommend making a decision to that effect. This results in grievances. I would also like to point out that a lot of talented young promising female ballet dancers and singers work in the theatre now - they are the ones that articles need to be written about, not me - because articles have already been written about me - for example, the number one dancer Nigar Ibrahimova, ballet dancers Ayan Eyvazova and Timur Odusev, Honoured Artist of the Republic singer Afaq Abbasova and others.

- Theatrical life is full of surprises. What curious stories can you recall?

- Yes, of course, there have been such stories. For example, in the opera "Koroglu" the protagonist goes on stage on horseback. But on that day, our horse was taken ill, and another one was sent to us from the hippodrome. They said it was a gentle and obedient horse. Indeed, in the beginning everything went smoothly until the artist reached the culmination of his aria. The horse rebelled and threw the rider off. People calmed the animal, but the protagonist bluntly refused to finish playing his role on horseback. He went on to sing his song on foot. But, luckily, everything ended well. Another incident involved a cat. In the opera "Aida", during the final episode in the dungeon, when Aida and Radames say goodbye to each other, a fat cat suddenly came on the stage in a portentous manner, sat down opposite the protagonists and started listening. He was a music lover, so to speak. Then, he approached the orchestra pit and started attentively viewing the musicians. There were roars of laughter in the concert hall. The curtain was immediately put down and the most interesting thing was that when the curtain was accidentally raised back, Radames and Aida were chasing after the cat on the stage, and this caused merry liveliness in the concert hall again. When I was working in the Philharmonic, I was lucky enough to communicate with the brilliant Mstislav Rostropovich, who came into my office during a break between rehearsals and said a subtle joke over the tea table: "One conductor was asked why there were not women in his orchestra. He answered: Because beautiful women distract male musicians while non-beautiful ones distract myself - I'm afraid of them."

- Do you like playing the piano?

- I like doing it, it when I have time for it. I start playing my favorite Azerbaijani folk songs in my own interpretation, and I even dream of recording a CD with those songs...

- Tell us about your family. Did your children follow in your foosteps?

- There is an unspoken tradition in our family - the right to choose a profession. That was the case with me, and my brother, who chose the military. That was the case with my two daughters. Narmina and Sabira successfully combine their academic activities with work in the field of international relations and in the oil sector. But the most important thing is that they grew up to become personalities that are capable of bringing benefit to this country. That will be the case with my grandchildren as well. They are small now - three boys and one girl (she is the spitting image of my mother and has the same character). I feel special connection with my eldest grandson, Maqsud. My younger grandson, Murad, loves eating, and Farhad loves making a bit of noise. What will they become? They have freedom of choice. The main thing is to be a professional in what they do and also a little bit of a fanatic, in which case they will definitely derive happiness from the work they love doing. I am sure that they will be growing up as people who are not indifferent to problems facing other people, society and their motherland. After all, I also view family and motherland as indivisible.

It is the duty of an intellectual to be always close to their homeland and to play an active role in developments related to it. I am not involved in politics, but I think it a duty of a citizen to express their opinion on issues of public concern. You cannot confine yourself to narrow professional frameworks, nor can you stand aloof from developments in your country or be indifferent. I have a good strong family, I am a happy husband, a father, and a grandfather. That is my outlet. When people ask me whether my wife is jealous of young beautiful actresses in the theatre, I answer - I was lucky with my wife, we have been together for decades, and her understanding and confidence are very important to me. Up until a certain time, I sincerely believed that I would not ne able to love anybody else but my daughters. However, my grandchildren were born and so did great love for them. And there is no greater happiness than the fact that you are loved by those whom you give your boundless love. When our second daughter was born, my friends told me to comfort me: "There should be one man in the house!". I agree! Just as there should be one leader in the theatre!