Konstantin Raikin: "Baku has changed a lot, but still has most important thing"

In late July, Moliere's play Don Juan, starring Konstantin Raikin and Timofei Tribuntsev, will be presented on the Planeta KVN Stage in Moscow for the first time. Yesterday, they held a press conference titled "Moliere in Moscow: The premiere performance of Don Juan in Satyricon", on the sidelines of which the director of the Satyricon theater, People's Artist of Russia Konstantin Raikin told Vestnik Kavkaza about the recent performances on the stage of the Azerbaijan State Russian Drama Theater named after Samed Vurgun, where they presented a poetic solo performance 'Konstantin Raikin. In his voice' and Moliere's The doctor in spite of himself.

- What do you think about changes in Baku?

- Baku is kind of a native city for me, because my relatives, my closest people, lived there. Then my life changed, but my attitude to this city remained the same. My father adored Baku, he said that there's always a wonderful audience there, it has always been a multi-confessional, multicultural city with a mixture of nationalities and cultures.

I've been in Baku with Sovremennik, where I worked at one time. It was also a wonderful, unforgettable tour. Then there was a huge break.

And recently I had a chance to visit the city one more time. The young artists of our theater, who visited Baku for the first time, were fascinated with this city. I was very pleased that they like it, that they are impressed by it. There is a nice audience there, and we had a great success.

The city has changed a lot. But one can not say that it has changed beyond recognition, it has simply blossomed. It is amazing. Still, it is very important that, despite all the changes, the city still has the most important thing. That's what happened with Baku.

- How do you assess the cultural potential of the city? Do you have any plans to repeat the tour?

- It isn't only up to us. I would be happy to visit it and bring back some other performances, because the last time we were limited by the small size of the theater where we worked, although this theater is like home to me, it is headed by my friend, a really good person who celebrated his jubilee recently. Now I want to bring to Baku something bigger than chamber performances. But it also depends on the inviting party.