Without a trace of nerves the alto tenor bursts into song -- Cannio's "The Soldier in Love" in Italian -- as he stands by the stage where some of Konstantin Stanislavsky's most famous productions were performed.
Alex Prior, the great-grandson of the world-famous director, then launches seamlessly into the Russian folk song "Korobeiniki."
He then goes home with his mother.
Prior, 10, is no ordinary classical singer but a child prodigy with the voice of a 40-year-old tenor. He sings "as if possessed of the soul of some former great man of opera," raved a Times of London critic.
A year and a half ago, Prior was an ordinary schoolboy. Since then, he has enrolled in the Royal College of Music and performed for tens of thousands of people, including the London mayor, the Russian ambassador and the Duke of Kent. Born in London to a Russian mother and a British father, Prior sings in English, Russian, Italian, French and Latin.
His singing talent was discovered accidentally.
"I was singing, and mum was in the kitchen and she asked me what tenor I had put on," Prior said in an interview Friday in the private theater of the house-turned-museum where Stanislavsky once lived in downtown Moscow.
His father was not so enthusiastic at first, having little love of opera or classical music and no appreciation of his son singing in the middle of the street or at home for no reason at all. His school even sent a letter to his parents after he began spontaneously singing in class and during cricket matches.
"He was annoying, standing up in inappropriate places and singing," said his mother, Yelena Bromley-Prior, who emigrated to Britain in 1989.
His father -- whom Bromley-Prior described as "a typical English middle-class businessman" -- changed his mind, though, once he realized the boy's talent. A video of one of Prior's songs is already playing on Britain's Classic FM TV channel -- the classical world's version of MTV -- and record companies are expressing interest in signing him.
Dubbed the young Pavarotti by some newspapers, Prior left Moscow for home Sunday after spending two weeks at a school for young musicians in Suzdal, learning from singers from the Bolshoi Theater.
"'Nessun Dorma' is easy," he said blithely. "Arias are difficult."
Prior, for all his maturity of voice, is still recognizably a small child. He gets annoyed with his mother when she answers questions for him, fidgets and needs his crooked bow tie fixed when he stands up to sing.
Finding out that he is a very distant relative to the composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Prior reacted like most other 10-year-olds would if they had just learned they were a cousin of David Beckham. Running into the room, he said excitedly, "I'm related to Tchaikovsky! ... That is just cool."
Sitting in the stands, watching Prior, was another relative of Stanislavsky, his nephew Stepan Balashov, 90. Balashov, who has worked in the museum for the past quarter of a century, remembers his uncle well ("Oh, he was very shy ... but he could be strict as well"). He expressed pride that Prior had decided to come to the Stanislavsky Museum on Friday to show off his talents to reporters.
"This year, on the 140th anniversary of his birth and the 65th of his death, it's a pleasure that the genes of Konstantin Sergeyevich [Stanislavsky] are continuing in the young," Balashov said.
Stanislavsky, an actor, director and co-founder of the Moscow Art Theater, revolutionized the theater world with his process of character development. The Stanislavsky Method was the catalyst for method acting -- widely considered the most influential acting system on modern stage and screen.
Prior and Balashov hugged each other gently as they said goodbye Friday.
"I don't know if he will become a singer," Balashov said. "The voice is a very delicate thing. You have to keep it preserved. And it depends on who's teaching him."
Boy singers have exceptionally short careers before nature changes their voices. Balashov earlier Friday explained how he had sung beautifully as a child as well but then his voice broke when he was 12. On hearing this, Prior immediately cried out to his mother, "His voice broke at 12!"
Prior has other strings to his bow. As well as singing, he plays the piano and French horn and composes music.
"He's still young and it is difficult to see what will be in the future," said Vladimir Gryaznov, 21, a student at the Moscow Conservatory who accompanied Prior on the piano. "But if he works seriously and properly, he can succeed."
Alex Prior, the great-grandson of the world-famous director, then launches seamlessly into the Russian folk song "Korobeiniki."
He then goes home with his mother.
Prior, 10, is no ordinary classical singer but a child prodigy with the voice of a 40-year-old tenor. He sings "as if possessed of the soul of some former great man of opera," raved a Times of London critic.
A year and a half ago, Prior was an ordinary schoolboy. Since then, he has enrolled in the Royal College of Music and performed for tens of thousands of people, including the London mayor, the Russian ambassador and the Duke of Kent. Born in London to a Russian mother and a British father, Prior sings in English, Russian, Italian, French and Latin.
His singing talent was discovered accidentally.
"I was singing, and mum was in the kitchen and she asked me what tenor I had put on," Prior said in an interview Friday in the private theater of the house-turned-museum where Stanislavsky once lived in downtown Moscow.
His father was not so enthusiastic at first, having little love of opera or classical music and no appreciation of his son singing in the middle of the street or at home for no reason at all. His school even sent a letter to his parents after he began spontaneously singing in class and during cricket matches.
"He was annoying, standing up in inappropriate places and singing," said his mother, Yelena Bromley-Prior, who emigrated to Britain in 1989.
His father -- whom Bromley-Prior described as "a typical English middle-class businessman" -- changed his mind, though, once he realized the boy's talent. A video of one of Prior's songs is already playing on Britain's Classic FM TV channel -- the classical world's version of MTV -- and record companies are expressing interest in signing him.
Vladimir Filonov / MT Stanislavsky's nephew Stepan Balashov is pleased with Prior's blossoming career. |  |
| |
"'Nessun Dorma' is easy," he said blithely. "Arias are difficult."
Prior, for all his maturity of voice, is still recognizably a small child. He gets annoyed with his mother when she answers questions for him, fidgets and needs his crooked bow tie fixed when he stands up to sing.
Finding out that he is a very distant relative to the composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Prior reacted like most other 10-year-olds would if they had just learned they were a cousin of David Beckham. Running into the room, he said excitedly, "I'm related to Tchaikovsky! ... That is just cool."
Sitting in the stands, watching Prior, was another relative of Stanislavsky, his nephew Stepan Balashov, 90. Balashov, who has worked in the museum for the past quarter of a century, remembers his uncle well ("Oh, he was very shy ... but he could be strict as well"). He expressed pride that Prior had decided to come to the Stanislavsky Museum on Friday to show off his talents to reporters.
"This year, on the 140th anniversary of his birth and the 65th of his death, it's a pleasure that the genes of Konstantin Sergeyevich [Stanislavsky] are continuing in the young," Balashov said.
Stanislavsky, an actor, director and co-founder of the Moscow Art Theater, revolutionized the theater world with his process of character development. The Stanislavsky Method was the catalyst for method acting -- widely considered the most influential acting system on modern stage and screen.
Prior and Balashov hugged each other gently as they said goodbye Friday.
"I don't know if he will become a singer," Balashov said. "The voice is a very delicate thing. You have to keep it preserved. And it depends on who's teaching him."
Boy singers have exceptionally short careers before nature changes their voices. Balashov earlier Friday explained how he had sung beautifully as a child as well but then his voice broke when he was 12. On hearing this, Prior immediately cried out to his mother, "His voice broke at 12!"
Prior has other strings to his bow. As well as singing, he plays the piano and French horn and composes music.
"He's still young and it is difficult to see what will be in the future," said Vladimir Gryaznov, 21, a student at the Moscow Conservatory who accompanied Prior on the piano. "But if he works seriously and properly, he can succeed."
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