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Andrei Sannikov: “People’s Album” Can Be Taken To Big Tour Right Now

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Andrei Sannikov: “People’s Album” Can Be Taken To Big Tour Right Now
ANDREI SANNIKOV

The musical performance is of current interest for Belarus even 20 years later.

On September 4, the premiere of the play “The People’s Album” took place at Podlaskie Opera in Bialystok.

The main characters were both the participants of the very album – that was about 25 people, – and new people.

“The People's Album” was recorded in the former studio of the legendary radio 101.2 in 1997, and became one of the biggest cultural events of the independent Belarus: it united not only more than two dozen of its creators, but also thousands of listeners across the country.

Well-known Belarusian politicians, public figures, journalists, Belarusians living in Poland and many others came to see the performance.

Leader of the European Belarus civil campaign Andrei Sannikov, who attended the musical performance in Bialystok, gave his comments to charter97.org.

– Would you share your impressions about “The People's Album”?

– I’ve got the strongest and most vivid impressions. I’ve been enjoying “The People's Album” since its debut. What I saw in Bialystok yesterday – that was just fantastic. I consider it one of the most striking cultural phenomena of Belarus. It was very solid, I am tempted to say, a work of a genius.

Once again the thesis is confirmed that if you make a piece of work about something local, near and dear, what you know well, it acquires a universal sound. We can say that “The People's Album” sounds in a new way, not only from the musical point of view, but also from the sense bearing one. For example, you can recall the hero of the “The People's Album” Yusik, who wants to live in the Soviet Union, and is waiting for Russian tanks with hope. It sounds today not only up-to-date, but frighteningly up-to-date.

I think that it is, first of all, really a cultural phenomenon, and secondly, it deserves to be shown in the world. I hope that this performance will be showed in other countries after Bialystok, and, of course, in Belarus.

I would like to thank all those, who organized this celebration. In the first place, Belsat, which took on the organizational part, and, of course, all the artists and the participants.

I looked at the guys yesterday. They were as young as 20 years ago. Without any exaggeration. Having elegant form, theatrical, plastic. Beautiful music, beautiful voices. It really was an event not only in the life of Belarus, but in European one as well.

– Why should Belarusians see this project 20 years later?

– We don’t have that many outstanding works. Our young people, perhaps, are no longer aware of the “The People's Album.” They might have heard just some songs. “The People's Album” performs many functions: educational, historical, it shows how people lived in Belarus, what happened here. There are philosophical speculations, and satire, too. I think, it will be interesting to young people.

– You have mentioned that “The People's Album” should be shown in the world. Is it possible in the future?

– Almost everyone, who was present yesterday, asked head of Belsat Agnieszka Romaszewska-Guzy to think about it. As it is a totally finished product, that can be taken to a big tour right now.

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