Tamara Sinyavskaya: "Vincenzo de Viva dropped his jaw when he heard Magomayev: 'Veramente Italiano!'"

On October, 20-21 Moscow will host the Muslim Magomayev international vocalist contest, dedicated to the 70th years since the birth of the legendary singer. The contest will be held in two rounds – opera and variety performance. 207 performers from 18 countries have already applied to participate in this event. However, according to Dmitry Bertman, art director of the Helikon Opera musical theatre, after careful selection, there are only 10 states left: Germany, USA, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Iran, Uzbekistan, and, of course, Azerbaijan among them.

- Are you planning on holding the contest’s final in Baku? In the Philharmonic Hall or in the hall where the Eurovision was held?

Mikhail Gusman, Honoured Artistic Worker

Maybe not the contest itself, but the concert of the contest winners.The contest will be held in the Crocus City Hall, it’s already arranged.

- But maybe one of the future contests will be held in Baku?

Tamara Sinyavskaya, Magomayev’s widow, People’s Artist of the USSR

It’s quite possible. For example, we were offered to hold our contest in Italy. It turns out there are a lot of fans there. By the way, we’ve invited an Italian maestro on the jury, his name's Vincenzo de Viva. I met him when I was in Japan in November. We talked about Moscow, which he had never visited. And I gave him a D of Muslim and asked him to listen to it. He had a notebook with him. And the next morning, when he listened to it, he was… Sorry for the rude expression, but he dropped his jaw. He said that he couldn’t believe it was a Russian singing. I said Muslim wasn’t a Russian, but Azerbaijani. But he said that it sounded like ‘veramente Italiano’, true Italian. So I felt he was interested in singing and in new singers, - and he’s, as far as I remember, the chancellor at Santa Cecilia and a regent of a number of musical theatres… so I’ve invited him on our jury. He was very grateful and is looking forward to the contest. So we have an Italian maestro on our jury.

 - Do you plan to sign a contract with the contest winners?

Aras Agalarov, Crocus City Hall founder, entrepreneur and public figure

You see, this contest is special as it is not the ‘New wave’, we don’t look for young talants. Tamara have already told you about the participants’ age. People who have already established themselves as singers, who already have jobs come here. So the victory as well as the participation in our contest is a sort of quality brand. We don’t pose the search of young talents as our main goal – even though it also may happen. I think the very fact of participation is an honor for them and the participation as much as the victory would be a serious step in their careers.