Music for Captain Corelli

It’s one thing to have specially composed music for a show but there can’t be many regional theatres that have that music being played for them by a full symphony orchestra. But when the music is written by one of Georgia’s leading composers, who also happens to be the Chief Conductor of the Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra and Artistic Director of the Djansug Kakhidze Tbilisi Centre for Music & Culture, you can expect something a bit special.



Vakhtang (checked shirt on the right) and his daughter Natalia
(who plays Pelagia) during a break in rehearsals to celebrate
puppeteer Anna's birthday 



Vakhtang Kakhidze (Vato) was born into a musical family and graduated from the Moscow State Conservatory as a composer in 1981. He went on to study conducting with his father, world famous Georgian conductor Djansug Kakhidze. He has since composed music for ballet, drama and film as well as symphonic pieces for the concert hall.

His work with Levan Tsuladze, director of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, includes the award-winning Lady With a Dog (Duruji Prize 2009) and Decameron (2011). He twice won the Georgian Theatre Union Award for best music composed for drama performance (1998 and 2005) and in 2010 was awarded the Shota Rustaveli Prize, Georgia’s highest arts honour.

His daughter Natalie (Nato to her friends) took a different path after originally studying music and decided to concentrate on theatre. She made an immediate impact and now regularly works at the Marjanishvili and also the Royal District Theatre in Tbilisi. She was Levan's first choice to play Pelagia - indeed she was cast before any of the other actors in the play.

In this short interview Vato describes the process of composing music for the theatre and his working relationship with Levan.

The orchestra is busy preparing for the Autumn Tbilisi International Music Festival but found time to record music for the Captain Corelli. The festival itself opens on 20 September with Chinese conductor Tan Lihua conducting Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No 3 (soloist Tamar Licheli from Georgia) and Sibelius Symphony No 1 as well as Tibetan Dance Music by Ke Jie Fang. On 24 September Vakhtang conducts his orchestra in a programme of Gershwin with George Mikadze on piano.

Alongside his original music composed for the show, Vato has put together a soundtrack of music from the Mediterranean combing the sounds of Greece and Italy. Levan, the director, is very keen on using music in his productions, underscoring the action and heightening emotional moments. Music ranges from Orthodox Church chants to folk music, 1940s popular music and opera - and of course Tony Casement, who plays Captain Corelli, has been busy learning to play the mandolin!

These two clips show the string section of the orchestra laying down tracks for the wind section to add their contribution at a later time. The recording took place in the orchestra’s own magnificently restored concert hall but apologies for the sound quality here - the recording was made on a simple Flip camera - but you can hear the music in all its glory when you see the production.