BORN TO BE A STAR

[Andrew Alexandre Owie]

 

BORN TO BE A STAR

EPISODE ONE

 

HE

I don't know how it all started. Maybe since she's come for our band rehearsal wearing her slippers. Or maybe since I've heard her voice for the first time.

 

SHE
When I saw him hanging in mid-air outside the first floor window I thought he was crazy, but he was exactly the one whom I needed.

 

HE
I don't still know what it was, love at first sight or at first sound. I've got no idea! 

 

THE TITLE SONG

 

Lyrics by Onegin Yusifoğlu Hacıqasımov.
Music by Eghil Schwarz

YOU AND ME
(THE ETERNITY FORMULA)

 

You and me, we’re a recipe of eternity,
You and me, we’re a symbol of love,
You and me, that's when into each other’s eyes
We look so affectionately!

 

Ages keep crumbling,
The world’s getting old,
It’s us who are only eternal,
Just you and me.

 

You and me, we were forever indeed,
You and me, we’re sadness and joy,
You and me, that's the basic thing,
The first beginning of all the worlds.

 

You and me, we don't need too much.
You and me, what do we want?
We just want the eternal piece!
Piece in all  the Earth!

 

1.

St. Petersburg. 1957. Early morning.

Pavel Shakhovskoy (informally, Pasha), a promising undergraduate at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, is in bed with his casual girlfriend, reporter Lena. They're fast asleep. Suddenly, his old parents, a house wife and a retired Navy captain one, are back home from their dacha.

 

2.

Parents: We are home!
Mother (noticing women's shoes in the hallway): Be quiet, Sasha!
Pavel (to Lena): Get up, parents have arrived, get up quickly!
Father: Is anybody home, I wonder if anybody is at home?
Mother: Don't shout, he's still asleep.
Father: What do you mean by "asleep"?
Pavel (to Lena): Instantly that way!
Father: So late, and he's still asleep. Wasn't it me who would tell you that I should have enlisted him in the Navy?
Mother: If it were up you,  you would have enlisted all in your Navy, let alone old ladies and sucklings.
Father: Agree!  After all, it would have made a  man out of him.

 

3.

In the staircase

Lena (playfully, with a joke): Have I been auditioned successfully?
Pavel: What are you about, well, later,  then ...
Lena: Okay, okay.
Pavel: I'll phone you.
Lena: When?
Pavel: Then!
Lena: Well, I kiss you.
Pavel: Now, go, please!

 

4. 

Inside of the flat

Pavel: Oh, dad, mom.  Already home?
Father: We are, but where have you been?
Pavel: Rehearsals, then we auditioned the female soloists. I had to spend night there.
Mother: So you stayed overnight at the Conservatory?
Pavel: Yes, I did!  Well, the bridges were moved apart, you know ...
Father: Look, whenever he tells lies, he never blushes.
Pavel: Why do you say I'm lying?

Father: Because there are no movable bridges between our house and your Conservatory.
Pavel: So what?
Father: Whole lot!
Pavel: I'm late for the Conservatory. Gonna go!
Mother: Are you hungry?
Father: Me not!
Mother: Pasha,  what about your having breakfast?
Pavel: Alas, mommy, I have got no time. I am to pass a final composition and to audition the Polish choir.

 

After kissing his mother and handshaking with his father, he leaves.

 

5.

In the staircase.

 

As he descends the stairs, Pavel feels the rhythm of the easy steps of the girl next door following him downstairs. Driven by the male curiosity, because at first he cannot see who walks so gracefully down stairs, music is born in Paweł's soul. The stack of music sheets in his hands scatters, swirling in the air and falling down.

Girl next door: Hello, Uncle Pasha.
Pavel: Hi, Dashka, how  you have grown!
Girl: Shall I help you?
Pavel: No, thanks.

 

6.

Street.  The monument to a great Russian composer Mikhail Glinka in front of the Conservatory.

 

Pavel:  Stepan!
Stepan: Hi!
Pavel:  What a wonderful day!
Stepan:  Oi! May I have your yoghurt?

Pavel:  What, you've got a headache?
Stepan: Please... !
Pavel:  I don't  remember the  moment when we all parted either! Listen, man! (addressing the monument): You're my witness, Maestro! (to Stepan) She's the lightest airy fairy with her fluttering curls. 

Stepan: Who's she?
Pavel: Whoever, it doesn't matter! A girl wearing her little blue belt. On the steps, downstairs, la la la la la la!

Stepan: Where to? 

Paweł: Who cares! To somewhere! You look at her, and your heartbeat echoes, upstairs, poom, poom, poom, poom, poom! And that moment she passes by, and those la la la la la la follow her!

Stepan:  To come true  those seeings of yours desperately need a singer woman. What about your yesterday's Lena?
Pavel: Ah! Well, she could have been better. (pointing to a pop star's poster) We are to be there soon too. Let's go. Come on!  You gonna deal with harmony, as it is more interesting for you, and I gonna deal with the melody.
Stepan: We desperately need a good, woman's voice!
Pavel: Imagine how I run downstairs, and, all of a sudden, my music sheets get scattered, and I start looking for them everywhere.
Stepan: Oh, look here, we also have got a Polish choir to look for our singer woman too.

 

7.

St. Petersburg University

 

Russian student Inna: Zośka, it’s so upsetting that all but us will go on a day trip to Gatchina. It's just because we are the first psychology students at the Faculty of Philosophy, and we'll have to learn today.

Polish student Zofia: It's because of me and Klaudia! 

 

8.

University Party Committee Secretariat

 

University Party Committee Secretary: Come in!
Inna: Pal Olegovich, good afternoon!
Secretary: I'm sorry, girl, I don't remember your name.
Inna: Inna Derkachova.
Secretary: Well, what do you want, Inna Derkachova?
Inna: I would like to ask you to permit our foreigners to visit Gatchina.
Secretary (ironically, kidding): "Our foreigners"?

Inna: Yes!
Secretary: Funny. Well, who are "our foreigners"?

Inna: They are Polish. Zośka and Klaudia, they are active and friendly girls. Especially Klaudia, her character is as strong as a rock.
Secretary: So they can't simply wait to go to Gatchina!
Inna: Yes, they do, but as they are foreigners, they are forbidden to go there. But this is unfair!
Secretary: Who knows, who knows! Please tell me, what do you think, why do they insist on visiting Gatchina? What do they want to see there?
Inna: Of course, it is the palace!
Secretary: In addition to the palace, there are also military plants there! That's it!

 

9.

Zofia, Inna, Klaudia in the street

 

Girls: Klaudia, where to now? Again to the library for your regular date with Karl Marx?
Klaudia: Will  you go to Gatchina?
Zofia: No, we won't.
Klaudia: Because of us!

Inna: Girls, take it easy! Let's be back to the dorm! I completely forgot about it, let's go to the dorm as soon as possible, I've got  such a news for you!

 

10.

In the University dormitory

 

Inna: Yesterday, a new announcement appeared on the notice board, which might be of a particular interest for you and Zośka. It reads that tomorrow, almost today, in the lobby of the small library, there will take place  the first rehearsal of the Polish Community Choir. I found out as well that it would be conducted by a young and talented student from the Conservatory.
Zofia:  I wouldn' t miss it!

 

11.
A Conservatory classroom. While playing grand piano Pavel frivolously inserts an elusive jazz pattern into the classical piece.

 

Professor: Well, that's enough, enough! You've passed your test, I appreciated your hooliganism. But what's about your Oratorio? Except for the introductory part, you haven't represented anything so far.
Pavel: Lack of time.
Professor: This is an everybody's problem. As to your own problem, it seems to be a lack of commitment and focusing. You shouldered responsibility for that choir. Now you've initiated this band and called it in a foolish way, The Lil Oaks.
Pavel: The Lil Lindens.
Professor: That's even worse!
You should engage in serious music, young man! (annoyingly) All right, go away!
Pavel: Thank you and goodbye, Alexey Dmitrievich.
Professor: Stepan, where are you going? Please come up to the instrument, maestro!

 

12.

In the street in front of the Conservatory

 

Pavel (to Stepan): Gotta go! Come on, keep up! Stay focused! As soon we come, get immediately involved in work. Take a closer look!  We need three tenors, two sopranos, basses. Well, and a frontwoman, of course!

Stepan: They are all freshmen.
Pawel: Why all, not all! Besides it's of no importance!
Stepan: Simply, I expect our frontwoman to be experienced.
Pawel: I'll make a leading singer out of any singing girl! Provided that she's got some voice!
Stepan: Out of anyone?
Pawel: Any! I see you don't believe me!
Stepan: I haven't said it.
Pawel:  Ready to swear then?
Stepan: Well, let's make a bet instead.
Paweł (changing his mind, better defining what he wants): Actually, I don't need any singing girl, I need the best singing girl, as far as you know my serious attitude for music. In view of that attitude you must learn that I won't bear anyone's being late, and I'd also recommend you to never ever argue with me. Grasped it, buddy?

 

13.

 

In her dream sleeping Klaudia remembers her father, she's calling him, 'Daddy, Daddy!'

 

Inna (to a hungry girl student, a thief of two spoonful of jam from the bedside cabinet of Klaudia): What are you doing? How dare you to rummage around on other students' bedside cabinets? Put it in place!
A girl student "thief": What do you  care? Stay out of this! By the way, their scholarship is 900 rubles a month, they  are being paid such big money just for their pretty faces and good looks!  My parents killing themselves for person-days in the collective farm. They've never seen such big money! Let those folks come back to Poland. I doubt that they'll get that much money there too. (she leaves)

Klaudia: Those screams of hers! Again! What did I do wrong to deserve it?
Inna: Nothing, she simply envies you. Take it easy!
Klaudia: Where is Zośka?
Inna: Where? Gone to the choir!
Klaudia: To the choir, of course! But she didn't even wake me up!
Inna: You were reading all night long!

 

14.

CHOIR

 

Pavel: One, two, three!

 

The choir is singing

 

Pavel: Well done! Styopa, have you heard it? Immediately find and remove the falsity!
Stepan: Yessir! Will do! I've heard it! So, girls, that very place you've sung, let's start from there ...

 

Humming the right tune for the choir to follow

 

Stepan: Let's repeat it once more, three, four, and...!

 

The choir is singing

 

 

Zofia: Klaudia, join us!
Pavel: Stop! What's happening?
Klaudia: I'm sorry, Sir!
Pavel: I don't understand!
Klaudia: I'm sorry for my being late.
Pavel: I see that you are late. What is your name?
Klaudia: Klaudia. Klaudia Kowal.

Pavel: Why are you wearing slippers, Klaudia Kowal? Well, explain it to me, be kind to explain why you are in slippers. Do you only wear slippers for the choir rehearsals or do you also do it whenever you visit  the University? You seem to just think that music is not as much serious as is your study in the college!

 

Klaudia is running away in tears

 

Zofia: Mr. Shakhovskoy, it's my fault, can I get her back?
Pavel: No! We continue the rehearsal.
Stepan: Well, good! Briefly from this place, so, well, I see you can sing it. One, three, four. Again!

 

 

 

 

 

TO BE NOT CONTINUED

Edytowane 16 Maja 2022 przez Andrew Alexandre Owie (wyświetl historię edycji)

[Andrew Alexandre Owie]

Strictly speaking, the title song was being performed by Larisa Mondrus since the early 60s.

 

 

Edyta Pjecha never sang it unlike many other songs that she had to share with the other pop stars. The latter practice was usual that time.

However, we should mind that Klaudia Kowal and Pavel (Pasha) Shakhowskoy were the aggregated images of the then pop stars and composers of the Russian pop music correspondingly. Pasha is a composite of those composers, mostly represented by Jews! Jewish pop singers were not rare too, but ordinary people never gave the importance to that, as there reigned the international brotherhood among the nationals of the country. 

 

I am not satisfied with the title song in the TV Series, IMHO, it should have sounded milder, not that bravura. 'Song of Songs' for all that. 

 

Edita Pjecha (Édith-Mariе Pierha) was not of the Jewish descent, she was a purebred Polish girl.

 

 

During the war years her stepfather worked in a coal mine in France, and she only spoke French.

 

 

In the first years of her life in Russia, she spoke Russian with a noticeable accent, but then she quickly lost it. Yet she retained  her unique timbre of voice.

 

 

Pop stars all over the world live well. No matter where, whether in China,  in the United States or Russia. It has always been that way. The salary of an engineer in Soviet Russia was 120 rubles a month on average, after payments of tax and housing and communal services, there was about 72 rubles. The average income of a famous singer, a favourite of millions, was about 700-800 rubles on average per a concert. They could afford of much, flats, cars, etc. As for Pjecha, the very fate, her fortune, left her no choice. She had to be a Star, and she became a star in the foreign big country, and she made a long standing  brilliant  career on stage. She was also a film star.

 

 

In fact, she and her first husband, Alexandre Bronevitsky, were a very smart couple.

 

 

But he was a controversial personality, his image as the main character of the series for the most part retained only his devotion to music and exactingness that grew into tyranny.

 

 

By the way, in real life he combined the character traits of several members of his ensemble as they were shown in the TV Series  and was not so impulsive.

 

 

Initially, she sang in Polish, and debuted with the song "Czerwony autobus" ("Red Bus").

 

 

She was the first to remove the microphone from the stand, began to move on stage and to talk with the audience.

 

 

She was the first to celebrate the anniversaries of her creative career and her birthdays on the stage.

 

In 1983 and 1986 she performed for  servicemen of the Group of Soviet Forces in Afghanistan (Kabul, Bagram, Jalalabad, Kunduz).

 

Edita Piekha with her grandson

 

[Andrew Alexandre Owie]

The "round" or "infectious" song, the very tune that Pasha was obsessed in the first episode of the TV Series, was written by Mikhail Tanich (Tanchilewicz) and Igor Shaferan and composed by Oscar Felzman. The song reads, "Addressed a friend, the song goes in a circle,// Because the Earth is round. La la, la la!" The first and iconic performer of the song was another pre-image of Klaudia Kowal, a famous pop star Nina Dorda.

 

 

In 1946 Nina Dorda performed in the orchestra of "Moscow" hotel restaurant where she met a pianist Mikhail Lipski whom she married. Lipsky made a significant impact on his wife's artistic career, having elaborated a popular stage image for her.

 

 

Later Nina Dorda became a star of the Moscow Music Hall and toured round the world, and, as she admits, allowed herself to be a "moral panic" come true, a feminist. One of the first among young women in post-war Moscow the girl started driving  her own car "Pobeda". It shocked  the Communist Party leaders and activists of the Young Communist League.

 

Yuri Pimenov "New Moscow" 

 

Nina Dorda was the prototype of the singer Vera Gorda, the heroine of Vasily Aksyonov's novel "The Moscow Saga".

 

The working moment of filming the TV serial 

 

***

 

I'll translate a few episodes. The opening episodes are very poetic, a true love poem. But then the creative imagination of the authors dimmed a lot, and even the brilliant actors and actresses did not manage to compensate for the mistakes of the screenwriters. Those who wrote the show were born in the 1990s, and their understanding of many aspects of the Plusquamperfect era was rather primitive. The stereotypes killed the show just as curiosity killed the cat. Both extremes should be avoided at all costs.

 

___________

ANTIDISCLAIMER

To be continued within my means and capacities and for good measure. No special promises or timing. Results ain't guaranteed. 

 

 

Edytowane 21 Stycznia 2021 przez Andrew Alexandre Owie (wyświetl historię edycji)