I got acquainted with the work of Gyuli Kambarova back in my student years at the conservatory. At that time her extraordinary musical abilities were already evident by large and distinguished her from other students. Holding a reputation of a highly professional musician and composer, she was happy to accept my proposal to write music for the documentary You Are Not Alone! Gyuli was rightfully awarded a special award for her music at the film forum “Fathers and Sons”. Gyuli’s social skills and ability to accept criticism bring much delight to our collaborative work! The first positive experience continued in 2019, when I invited the talented composer Gyuli Kambarova to write music for my new documentary Voice for the Voiceless. The soundtrack for the documentary made it possible to create the necessary film atmosphere and turn the audience’s attention to an important social problem – discrimination against people diagnosed with HIV. I appreciate our creative tandem with Gyuli. I believe that music is the highest art in the world! Words at times require music, but music never needs words. The purpose of music is to touch and excite people’s hearts! That is why it is so important for me to partner with a masterful, highly professional and extraordinary composer Gyuli Kambarova.
Why is opera important? Why is any art important? It offers us a reflection of who we are, how we relate to others, and what it means, collectively and individually, to be human. Opera performed live is a uniquely thrilling experience – at its best, it is hugely powerful and the most emotionally direct of all art forms. The combination of dramatic narrative, stagecraft and music, and especially the range and vulnerability of the human voice, make opera the art form that comes closest to expressing pure emotion. It is storytelling at its most vivid and manipulative. Opera seeps into popular consciousness and bleeds into other forms, sound-tracking TV shows, sports anthems, adverts and films – where its music is often used as a shortcut to create a heightened emotional tension at climactic moments. Those big moments in opera are usually the ones that deal most directly in the big human themes: life, love, death, loss, passion, joy, anger – but opera can be subtle as well as showy.