“Any role is a reason to become more voluminous and holistic”: Maria Smolnikova about the series “Chaliapin” and work on the Italian accent

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Maria, in the series “Chaliapin” you play the wife of Fyodor Ivanovich – Iola Tornagi. Tell us how you felt when you were offered the role?

There was a feeling that I must definitely play her, that it is very important for me to get closer to her personality and get to know Chaliapin himself more. For me, any role is an occasion to become more voluminous and holistic, to absorb the experience of another life. Of course, I felt awe and joy before meeting Iola Tornaghi, but also fear of responsibility. But love and curiosity won.

What did you learn about Iola Tornaghi while preparing for the role? What facts from her biography impressed you the most?

Of course, the most impressive thing was how, being the prima ballerina of Italian ballet, she left her career and her country and went to a huge foreign Russia after her love. How brave and desperate do you have to be?!

Do you like historical roles? Is it difficult to play the heroine of another time, another era?

Yes, I really like to play in historical films, I am drawn there. Time travel always gives a rethinking of today. And in general, historical films often imply a meeting with some great personality, whose deeds and creations have passed through the years, preserved in eternity, with the fate of this personality, with a whole life.

Your heroine has beautiful costumes. How did you feel in these outfits, did they help you in creating the image?

All costumes were custom made. And I really liked that they were made, not only trying to repeat in detail the outfits of that era from photographs, but also completely thought out the whole image. Since Iola is Italian, we took something from there, added special elements to her style. All the fittings were attended by our producer Ekaterina Vladimirovna Zhukova – an amazing person, she feels all this very subtly, intuitively perceives. I listened to her and learned from her, absorbed everything she said. It was a very interesting process that helped to immerse yourself in the character.

Iola was the star of the Italian ballet, and in the frame you had to dance. How did you cope with this task?

I started to prepare in advance, and for about two months I did ballet. Pretty intense, so my knees even hurt and I had to slow down. But then the start of filming shifted, and there was a big break. And when we had already started working on the project, I had only a week left to learn the dance numbers. There was little time, and I was very worried. And it seems to me that I did not cope with everything. But I tried to do my best and immerse myself in this process as much as I could.

Iola, when she met Chaliapin, did not know a word of Russian. On the screen, you speak Italian confidently. Did you have to learn the language specifically for the film?

Yes, a month and a half before the start of filming, I specifically began to learn the text. I studied with my friend, an opera singer – as you know, all opera singers know Italian. She explained a lot to me, recited, and I listened and simply absorbed the information into myself, so that later everything would be automatic. And at some point I even began to understand what I was saying. The melody of the Italian language itself gave me the opportunity to reveal the character of Iola. These are such amazing, subtle things: through speech, its rhythm and melody, you can feel a person. And plunge into another destiny, into a completely different world.

Iola spoke Russian with a charming accent. Was it hard to get it?

This is an acting profession: you listen and observe, and then you try to reproduce it, repeat it. I did the same. Being a foreigner is so exciting. You can re-look at the world that surrounds you.

Your heroine, out of love for Chaliapin, left her homeland and left the stage forever. Don’t you think that this is a big, maybe even too big sacrifice for the role of a housewife? Could you leave the stage to become a wife?

I can’t answer the question of whether this is too big a sacrifice. And I don’t even have the right, because the secret of Iola’s life and fate will remain with her forever. This is the secret that every person has. And no matter how much someone writes diaries that open the door to their inner world, there are still questions that only he himself can answer. Of course, plunging into the role, I, based on my own understanding of life and personal experience, tried to understand and justify her act. But I probably wouldn’t be able to. For me, my business is very important – it is a part of me, and if I refuse it, I will lose this part.

It seems to me that if you make some kind of sacrifice, you should completely let go of the situation, and not expect anything in return. Otherwise, it turns out that somewhere inside you acted with yourself not out of love, not completely honest, betrayed yourself. And then you start to suffer. And Iola, being a ballet genius, a prima with a great theatrical future, having made such a passionate, desperate act, of course, gave up part of herself. And, perhaps, that is why everything turned out this way, why Chaliapin left her. But, again, I’m afraid to say anything. These are just my thoughts and observations. And the magnitude and courage of her act delight me.

Do you think Iola regretted choosing a family and not a career as an artist? After all, she had to face treason …

I also asked myself this question. Maybe she regretted it … But I think she didn’t formulate it that way. It seems to me that she is one of those people who do not regret, but try to follow life, open up to it, accept pain, learn lessons. Seeing her children in front of her, Iola found new meanings, revealed some of her inner secrets, became wiser and stronger.

Do you think she was able to forgive her unfaithful husband and keep her love for him?

I think so.

Her rival Maria (approx. Julia Snigir) is constantly in anxiety: will her changeable happiness slip away. And Iola – how did she endure the breakup? What do you think made her strong?

I think it was a betrayal for her anyway. But she was a person who knew what will is, and a believer. I think that at that moment she had some kind of deep conversation with God, in which she drew strength and faith, and still strove for love and forgiveness. This process is not very easy, but it seems to me that she chose this path.

How do you feel about the personality of Fyodor Chaliapin?

Reading books about him, I fell in love with him more and more, admired him. By some miracle, he managed to see the deadness of opera and intuitively understand that in opera, in vocal art, there are not enough principles of dramatic theater. He had to face the established way of life, traditions that had already become obsolete. It happens, time goes by, and the theater must change. But few are ready for these changes. And Chaliapin saw it all, felt it, fought for the truth. And, of course, he had an incredible voice. All this together and entered his name in the history of culture! He is an innovator. A genius who had to overcome a lot. He is very close to me. I’m learning from him. And it becomes easier for me, knowing that what torments me, tormented Chaliapin too.

Do you think it is possible to coexist with a man who remains a big child until old age? Or is love evil, and it is impossible to resist a genius?

I think it’s impossible to resist the genius! But, of course, not everyone is able to withstand the presence of a genius. I’m sure this is a special gift.