To the 75th anniversary of the great Russian singer of our time Elena Obraztsova, Firma Melodiya presents the singer's concert recorded on 29 July 1980 in Moscow.
The concert at the Column Hall of the House of Unions took part within the cultural programme of the Olympic Games. The singer was accompanied by the Academic Orchestra of Russian Folk Instruments conducted by Nikolai Nekrasov. The programme comprised old Russian romances.
The singer turned to this genre when she was at the peak of her acting and singing career after she shone in classical Russian and foreign repertoires on the world's best opera stages for many years. Brilliant Carmen and Azucena, Santuzza and Marina Mniszech, she was always a singer who deeply sensed and understood the Russian soul.
The legendary Nadezhda Obukhova whose art Obraztsova admired so much was a wonderful performer of old romances. However, Obraztsova never imitated Obukhova at all.
"Departing from music and poetic text, I try to diversify the timbre palette so that some certain emotional colouring could be created using purely vocal means".
From the height of her mastery and experience of the heroines she had sung and lived on stage – the bright, strong and tragic ones – Obraztsova creates exciting and memorable characters in the genre of romance as well.
The audience did not want the singer to leave the stage for a long time. The crowd blocked the street expecting Obraztsova to walk out from the staff entrance and gave her a new, even more enthusiastic ovation. The concert has been shown many times on TV, and the recording sold many copies in a flash. Today that recording is again available for the singer' numerous fans.
