"My husband and I walked with our suitcases through the streets of the medieval city of joy del Colle, looking around with horror: "Where are the people?"Cafes, shops, shops – everything is closed. Cars are. Looks like a Ghost town. Then we were told: in Italy, a Siesta is a rest even the thieves and the police," says Opera singer, Professor of solo singing of the Chuvash pedagogical University Tatiana Fortes. Lack of knowledge of local traditions did not prevent her from reaching her goal – the local Rossini theater, where the international music competition named after Pietro Argento was held, and to take third place.

"I learned about the contest on the Internet. Once it was exclusively Italian, today it attracts musicians from all over the world. I studied the conditions, prepared the program: three arias in Italian, French and Russian, and sent an application for participation", - says Tatiana – all these issues the singer decided at his own expense. Helped husband, he was accompanied by the singing wife as a "group moral support."

"180 participants from almost 30 countries came to the competition. Those who did not have time to book a hotel room in advance, had to shoot some corners outside the city. And it was impossible to be late for performance – missed the turn, was discharged of participation", - Tatyana Vladimirovna explains. Russia in addition to the Cheboksary vocalist was represented by several singers from Moscow and St. Petersburg.

"In Italy, after listening to European soloists, I realized that I was on the right track. Especially impressed by the Italians, their mastery of voice, the ability to sing not just piano, and pianissimo. We need to learn from them the skill to use a wide range of colors, a gentle attitude to the sound, - says associate Professor of chspu. - By the way, the same was said by the jury members of the recently held Tchaikovsky competition, calling their desire to sing loudly all the time as one of the significant shortcomings of Russian vocalists."

Natalia Titova