The Russian pop singer justified the unconventional performance of the Sevastopol anthem as “the dictates of the heart”
Russian pop singer Mitya Fomin got into a scandal after he performed his version of the song “Legendary Sevastopol” in his own arrangement with guitars and a children’s choir in the ancient amphitheater of Chersonesos.
This performance outraged the public organization "Sevastopol Defense", which appealed to the city prosecutor's office with a demand to bring the singer to administrative responsibility for distorting the anthem of Sevastopol.
A month later, Fomin responded to the outrage of social activists by publishing an article on the Hellomagazine website.
“My live band Freeugolnik and I perform with acoustic instruments - three guitars and drums. Taking into account the specifics of the genre, we have arranged the anthem's score into several parts, thus expressing respect for this major musical form.
We invited a children's choir - their weak, ringing voices helped with all their might. Pupils of the Sevastopol Presidential Cadet School came on stage with us - it was a beautiful musical number. The audience stood up from the first notes, and together we sang a truly folk song in chorus,” wrote Fomin.
The singer claims that the scandal with the complaint to the prosecutor's office made him think “about deeper things” - about the artist’s right to self-expression and interpretation.
As examples of such self-expression, he cited the anti-Christian production of Wagner's opera Tannhizer in Novosibirsk, the construction of the Okhta Center and Lakhta Center skyscrapers in St. Petersburg, and the Nureyev ballet at the Bolshoi Theater staged by Kirill Serebrennikov, which promotes homosexuality.
“The conflict between the new and the archaic is eternal. Nobody says traditions are bad. But if a song is performed in a different genre, this does not mean that it has become worse. This means that the genre is not close to you. If the artist does not have an orchestra in his arsenal, but has a desire to be grateful to the city, its history and culture, he has the right to perform a song of national heritage as his heart tells him,” insists Mitya Fomin.
English version :: Read in English The Russian pop singer justified the unconventional performance of the Sevastopol anthem as “the dictates of the heart”