The Open World Of Creativity

It is always interesting to trace the progress of gifted artistic personalities who can manifest themselves in several creative realms. One of these personalities is Vitalii Chiresh, a soloist of the National Opera, remarkable for his deep, powerful bass.

A graduate of the Repin Art College, he was and still is fond of portrait painting. But it so happened that his singing and music career has become no less successful, and this combined service to two different muses turned out to be very fruitful, as an opera singer should possess artistic skills as well in order to create vivid images. It is on the stage that Vitalii becomes a sculptor, too, adding plasticity, visuality and a sense of space to his heroes.

An artist employed at the National Palace studied vocal at the Conservatory (class of Prof.Nicolae Chiosa). Later on came the years of successful work with the "Doina" choir, the National Opera ... and a keen interest in musical composition. The latter paradoxically manifested itself in two divergent trends: jazz and church music.

The Liturgy by Vitalii Chiresh, a composition in 12 parts, is based on his church choir singing experience. It was highly appraised by Veronica Garstea, the renowned "Doina" conductor. Vitalii took part in many premieres of choral and cult music in Chisinau: Handel's "Messiah", "Stabat Mater" by Dvorak and Requiems by Mozart and Verdi; he sang Beethoven's "Messa", and his more recent interpretation of Rakhmaninov's "Bells" was genuinely striking.

An opus such as "Bells" in cult music can be matched with the part of Zakkaria ("Nabucco") in secular music, and it is namely this part performed by Chiresh that prompted so much praise in British press: "A voice like a rumble of a bell", "A young singer without effort", "Equally good in bass and baritone registers".

Besides "Nabukko", there were unforgettable performances of the traditional bass repertoire staged in the National Opera: "Rigoletto" and "Aida", "Turandot" and "The Barber of Sevilla", etc., but Vitalii's dreams go farther to singing both Silva and Attila in Verdi's "Ernani", Boris in "Boris Godunov" by Musorgsky, Phillip in "Don Carlos" by Verdi. Verdi is a special theme for Vitalii, as it is Verdi's power and musical greatness, magic and drama that help singers to achieve mastership. Boris is another facet, represented by the Slavic vocal bass school from F.Shalyapin and Ye.Nesterenko in Russia to N.Gyaurov in Bulgaria and sincerely admired by Chiresh.

This variety of tastes and preferences is subordinated to a single general line - an academic basis in painting, opera and jazz. As a result, Vitalii Chiresh has already reached a certain level in all the spheres he is interested in: he sings, acts, paints, composes. He is working on a future compact disc with classical opera arias sung to the piano. "I want to be a total singer," says Vitalii, "Who would master all genres and musical styles and develop them and himself."

By Ludmila Mamaliga