All That’s Soviet Isn’t Russian : Opera: Four musicians from the Tbilisi Opera Theatre will open the Soviet Arts Festival with a Russian opera that is not part of their Georgian national tradition.

SAN DIEGO —  As the Soviet Arts Festival is about to prove, not all Soviet art is Russian. The Faberge Imperial eggs, for instance, are luxurious Russian artifacts commissioned by the czars, but the festival’s icon exhibit organized by the Timken Gallery is from the treasury of Georgian religious art on loan from the State Art Museum of Georgia. Modest Mussorgsky’s opera “Boris Godunov,” which opens the festival Saturday night, recounts the turbulent political upheavals of 16th-Century Russian history, but, for the four visiting musicians from Georgia’s Tbilisi Opera Theatre, “Boris Godunov” is not part of their Georgian national tradition. Although Georgia is now one of the 15 Soviet republics, the roots of Georgian culture pre-date its inclusion in the Soviet Union in 1921.

If bass Omar Khoperia, who will sing Varlaam in San Diego Opera’s “Boris Godunov” production, had his druthers, he would be singing in Zakhary Paliashvili’s “Absolom and Eteri,” a classic of the Georgian opera tradition.

“It would be much more pleasant for me to sing Georgian national music in San Diego,” said Khoperia through an interpreter provided by San Diego Opera. “ ‘Boris Godunov’ is one thing--Georgian opera is another.”

It is not that conductor Jansoug Kakhidze and his three Tbilisi Opera singers don’t like “Boris Godunov.” Kakhidze, whose English is fluent enough to interrupt and clarify his interpreter, proudly talked about a “Boris” performance by his Tbilisi Opera company in Moscow’s prestigious Bolshoi Theatre on tour four years ago. Georgians take pride in their own musical heritage, however, which is distinct from the Russian tradition.

Kakhidze, who will conduct San Diego’s “Boris,” is Tbilisi Opera’s director and head conductor, as well as a conductor of Georgia’s State Symphony. (San Diego Opera’s “Boris Godunov” production brings together two principal singers from Leningrad’s Kirov Opera, the four Georgians, and American stage director Nathaniel Merrill, as well as the San Diego Opera chorus and other American singers in comprimario roles.) That Kakhidze could participate in the San Diego festival with several members of his company is an unmistakable result of perestroika , according to Khoperia. Before the Gorbachev era, he noted, only a single singer would be allowed to perform in the West. In addition to Khoperia, the visiting Tbilisi contingent includes tenor Teimuraz Gugushvili and bass Gia Asatiani.

Last year at Boston’s Soviet arts festival, “Making Music Together,” Kakhidze made a highly favorable North American debut conducting a contemporary Soviet opera, Rodion Shchedrin’s “Dead Souls.” Boston selected Kakhidze to conduct the Shchedrin opera, even though he had not conducted it prior to the Boston Opera production.

“Shchedrin and I are great friends,” said Kakhidze, “even though he lives in Moscow, which is far from Tbilisi. I have toured all around Europe conducting his compositions, and I consider him one of the prominent contemporary Russian composers.” Shchedrin’s Second Piano Concerto, which will receive its West Coast premiere with the San Diego Symphony Nov. 2, was presented in Boston under Kakhidze’s baton.

Both Khoperia and Kakhidze stressed that Georgians find singing as natural as most cultures find speaking. In spite of a long tradition of folk singing, Kakhidze explained that Georgian opera did not come into its own until the early decades of the 20th Century. Although the operas of Paliashvili and contemporary Georgian composers such as Gia Kancheli rarely are performed outside of the Georgian Republic, in purely musical terms, they compare with the national, patriotic operas of, say, Smetana and Dvorak.

“Georgian people like very much to sing. If three Georgians get together, they will start singing in parts,” said Khoperia, alluding to the polyphonic nature of Georgian folk song.

“Georgian people have beautiful voices,” Kakhidze said. “Most do not work as professional singers, but they sing when working, at weddings, when sitting at table--every connection between people is celebrated in singing.”

Unlike most European vocal folk music, which consists of a single melodic line, Georgian folk song developed a complex polyphonic tradition early in its history. It is basically choral singing, rather than solo singing. San Diegans who attend the Georgian State National Singing and Dancing Ensemble at the Spreckels Theatre (Nov. 1-5) will hear some of this traditional Georgian choral folk music.

“In Europe, instrumental music was more developed,” Kakhidze said. “But in Georgia, singing was everything.”