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Your life wasn't easy.
Do you think you are a happy person?
Of course. Im a happy woman, a happy mother, a happy wife.
Here is my family.
Only two grandchildren are absent, they cant leave the US at the moment,
as one of them didnt pass an exam, and another is in a similar situation.
My other four grandchildren are here, as well as my daughters and friends.
Im a happy woman.
This book is twice as thick as any book either of us has at home.
Is this connected with illustrations or have new chapters been added about your life in Russia?
No, there are no changes.
Some new photos were added.
We made an enclosure, the article by Boris Pokrovsky devoted to me.
He understood me like nobody else: my character, my artistic and singing talents.
He knew me.
He pictured me and we included it in the book.
Every person has several crucial moments in life.
Could you name a couple of yours?
Of course, one of them is meeting Rostropovich, my husband.
It was 1955.
The other is my friendship with Shostakovich.
These are two meetings which defined my life in all aspects.
You said the book was re-worked.
Do you wish some moments in life could be re-worked too?
No, I don't want change anything in my life.
First of all, I dont like the subjunctive mood.
What happened cannot be changed.
If I had to repeat my life, I would live it exactly like it was.
When was it easier to make a career for a talented person: that time or today?
What should a person do to make his talent shine as yours does?
One should work, strive for perfection in all undertakings.
How do you support young talents?
I have a school, where we teach our students stage art.
After conservatory students have no idea how to act on stage.
They cannot make a step.
I have spent 67 years in this sphere since 1944, when I was 17 I entered the Operetta Theatre.
I know many things and can teach them.
To get a role in a theatre in the West you should have a recognized name,
to have a name you must perform on stage.
It is a vicious circle.
I established this studio for young artists, who have a voice and musical education.
However, I don't promote any of my students.
I teach them singing and working.
Ruslan and Lyudmila, Yevgeny Onegin, Iolanda, Carmen, Rigoletto, Boris Godunov are being staged.
They get great experience.
They work hard and understand that if you do not work, you won't be taken anywhere.
Nobody waits for us abroad.
We should arrive and promote ourselves.
It was easy for me to arrive from the Bolshoi Theatre,
I had no need to come to auditions and ask: "Please, listen to me!"
Today it is so.
On October 28th the main stage of the Bolshoi Theatre was opened after reconstruction.
Your life is closely connected with this theatre.
What chances does the Bolshoi have to revive and become a great theatre again?
My daughters attended it two weeks ago and saw the reconstructed halls of the Bolshoi Theatre.
They were amazed by its beauty.
This theatre is probably the best in the world, at least for me.
As for the content, time will tell.
The book is astonishing.
One of most blistering scenes is your good-bye to the Bolshoi Theatre, when you lie down on the stage.
A reader cant help but cry.
You said that there was too small an audience for you.
How do you view audiences today?
The audience at the Bolshoi is different.
As for me, I have never come on stage for the audience, I have always sung for God.
That is why I lay down on the stage, when I said goodbye to the theatre.
If you were President of Russia, what would you change in our life to make it better? 68 00:08:43,500 --> 00:08:47,300 Pensions, of course.
The poor are suffering in the country.
Like blind kittens they move from door to door, where nobody can explain or give anything to them.
That's what should be changed.
In your book you write that when you were young you dreamed about a concert artist career,
as it gives more freedom to a singer.
However, later you entered the Bolshoi Theatre.
Was it difficult to get along with many troupe members?
You know, I had the happiest career in the theatre.
I cannot remember a moment when I didn't get what I wanted.
Why was I treated carefully?
I came to the theatre as an experienced artist, before it I had performed in operetta for 8 years.
I was relaxed on the stage.
I could sing in a choir, solo and anything else.
Directors and conductors loved me, I was given everything I needed.
I have never asked anyone for anything.
Neither in the theatre nor in life.
I had no free education.
When I had completed 7 years in school, the Great Patriotic War began.
Then the blockade of Leningrad.
In 1952 I came to the Bolshoi Theatre without any musical education.
I want to express gratitude to my teachers, Vera Garina and Boris Pokrovsky.
And of course, to my husband, Rostropovich.
He accompanied me in all my concerts in Russia and abroad.
I couldn't sing without his accompaniment.