Legendary Belarusian music project ‘Narodny Albom’ to be staged in Poland’s opera house
On the eve of its 20th anniversary the prominent Belarusian project ‘Narodny Albom’ (People’s Album) will turn into a musical performance. Belsat TV is the architect and executive producer of the event.
On September 4, the performance ‘People’s Opera. 20 years’ will be premiered at Opera Podlaska as part of the festival “The East of Culture. Different Dimension”. The performance is directed by Matvey Saburau, the author of many videos of famous Belarusian music bands Lyapis Trubetskoy, The Toobes, Bez Bileta.
According to the organizers, both the participants of the Albom (about 25 persons) and new characters will appear in the performance.
Landmark project of 90s
Narodny Albom was recorded in 1997 in the studio of the legendary radio station 101.2 and became one of the biggest cultural events of independent Belarus: it brought together not only several dozens of its creators, but also thousands of fans across the country.
At that moment, the Albom was a real gem: its songs were sung, read and recited, Syarhei Skuratau, a teacher of the Belarusian language,said in the movie The Road to Dreams. Syarhei repeatedly sang the songs and played the guitar at the lessons.
And it is unknown how many children sang its songs at their language, literature, history and music classes. It should be noted that the Białystok premiere will be the second attempt to stage the album: the first was made by students of Yakub Kolas Lyceum.
Truly People’s Album
The album lives up to its name. Around 25 people, even passers-by and guards ar radio 101.2 took part in creating the album, rock musician Alyaksandr Pamidorau, who performed Jewish folk song Lomir zich iberbetn for the album.
This collective spirit of relaxed creativity have been united all the people involved even after the release of the album and, perhaps, will also unite them these days.
“For me, Narodny Albom remains an island of sincerity when total strangers become a family,” Kasia Kamotskaya, the female voice, said at the end of the 2000s.
New level
It may sound ironical but it was the lack of money and any discipline that helped so many different people stick together and create the iconic album.
“No one made bones about doing something silly. Mikhail Anempadystau wrote song texts by fits and starts, when he had free time; I do not think he lost sleep over editing them. Our task was not to spoil his texts with our three chords. Everything was done in a stupid way, sometimes we played terribly, we hardly bothered about how this or that piece of music will . Everything was being done in a laid-back way,” prominent musician Lyavon Volski recalls.
According to him, the September premiere will not be conceptually different from the original.
“This time the orchestra – 20 musicians – will perform. After all, everything is to take place in Białystok Opera which is a huge venue of large technical capacity. There is no place like that in Belarus. That is why we have expanded list of participants and will make new arrangements of songs. It means that it will be the good old Narodny Albom, but at a significantly higher level,” says Volski.
Visa support on part of Belsat TV
The performance ‘Narodny Album. 20 years’ will be part of the festival ‘Wschód Kultury. Inny Wymiar’ (The East of Culture. Different Dimension) which is coordinated by Białystok Center for Culture (Białostocki Ośrodek Kultury), the National Center for Culture (Narodowe Centrum Kultury) and supported by portal kulturadostepna.pl.
The event is held in three major cities of eastern Poland – Rzeszów, Lublin and Białystok. Cultural professionals, musicians and artists from the Eastern Partnership countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine – are expected to participate in the festival.
The traditional feature of all events is free entry to the film shows, performances and concerts. This year, thanks to Belsat TV support, Belarusians will be able to get Polish visas. More detailed information about visas will be on belsat.eu soon.
