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Elena Nezhdanova-Cunningham Opera After 1970 December 1, 2012 Russian Opera in the Post-Communist Era The year of 2012 is a turning point in the history of Russian opera. The genre had undergone colossal changes and stepped into the modern world, thanks to the OperGruppa (Opera Group) created by a young, talented director, a graduate from the prestigious Russian Institute of Theater Art, Vasiliy Barkhatov. Barkhatovs project, named Laboratory of Contemporary Opera, advocates Russian modern operas, allowing new composers to present their recently composed works on major Russian concert stages. The mission of OperGruppa is to promote contemporary Russian opera, to create preconditions for the renewal and development of national musical theater and its convergence with modern culture; to overcome the distance between contemporary classical music and the audience, and to create a new audience that receives Russian musical theater as a part of contemporary art. 1 The composers, whose works will be presented, already gained recognition in the West and it is Barkhatovs mission to present these contemporary works in their native land. The four operas that will be staged by the end of 2012 by four composers are: Francisk by Sergey Nevsky, Three-Four by Boris Philanovsky, Blind by Lera Auerbach, and Dream of a Minotaur by Olga Raeva. This is an exciting new step for the Russian opera. If contemporary productions have been long thriving in the Western European countries and in the US, Russia appears to be lagging in this sphere. During the press-conference that followed the premiere of new

Vasily Barkhatov, Opergruppa. www.opergruppa.com (accessed December 1, 2012).

opera Francisk, Barkhatov openly complained about the status of the current Russian operatic stage, saying that it is boring without the contemporary opera.2 In his statement, Barkhatov pointed out, that the reason why modern operas are seldom produced in Russia is because the directors and the audience treat new operas with a great caution and even bluntly dislike it.3 This paper will look into what has been happening on the Russian operatic stage since 1980. Some operas that will be presented have received national recognition and some were less successful. This research will examine two Russian postmodernist composers and their operas: Alfred Schnittkes Life With and Idiot, Leonid Desyatnikovs Children of Rosenthal. In spite of a negative musical landscape towards contemporary music and critical reactions of Russian audience, these artists brought something new and innovative to the operatic stage. It is apparent that the Russian operas continue to be staged according to the old principals that established in Russian opera theaters long ago.4 The eminent oppression during Stalins reign in USSR caused many composers of the time to languish. The slogans like formalism and confusion instead of music that first labeled Dmitri Shostakovichs opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District, subsequently labeled any Soviet composer who did not propagate the Communist party through their compositions. During the Soviet era opera in Russia stood on a fluctuating ground. Online encyclopedia Krugosvet describes opera during the Soviet regime as the most democratic and, at the same time, the most

Maia Krjlova, Avant-garde With a Beard, New Izvestiya, September 17, 2012, http://www.newizv.ru/culture/2012-09-17/169880-avangard-s-borodoj.html (accessed December 1, 2012). 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid.

idealistic musical genre, therefore it was strongly controlled by the party.5 However, after Stalins death, more Soviet composers attempted to write new operas between the years of 1960-1990.6 Rodion Schedrins opera Dead Souls written between the years of 1966 and 1976 was based on the famous book by Nicolai Gogol. This opera was influenced by the music of Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich and had its premiere at the Bolshoi Theater in 1977. 7 Composer Andrey Petrov, known mostly for his film music, in 1975 wrote an opera Peter the First that was based on the life of young Peter the Great. The tonal language of Petrovs opera is known to be reminiscent of Mussorgskys Khovanshina.8 A Russian avant-garde composer Nicolai Karetnikov, who was a part of the nonconformist group in the USSR, was known to be influenced by the music of the New Viennese School. One of his composition teachers, with whom he studied privately, was a pupil of Berg and Wabern. Karetnikov drew his compositional inspirations from the twelve-tone method. None of his music was approved in the USSR during his life time.9 Karetnikov wrote two operas: Till Eulenspiegel that was based on a novel of Charles de Coster and The Mystery of the Apostle Paul. Both operas were composed between the years of 1960 and 1970 and neither of them stepped onto the Russian operatic stage. However, it is known that the Moscow Cinema Orchestra recorded the operas in secret, section by section, for several years. Only in the early 90s the two operas finally had their premiers in Germany, during

Online-Encyclopedia Krugosvet, s.v. Russian Opera. http://www.krugosvet.ru/enc/kultura_i_obrazovanie/muzyka/RUSSKAYA_OPERA (accessed December 1, 2012). 6 Ibid. 7 Gozenpud, Opera of Rodion Schedrin Dead Souls, Classical Music, May 31, 2011, http://www.classicmusic.ru/dushi.html (accessed December 1, 2012). 8 Gozenpud, Opera of Andrei Petrov Peter the Great, Classical Music, May 31, 2011, http://www.classicmusic.ru/petr.html (accessed December 1, 2012). 9 Wikipedia, s.v. Nikolai Karetnikov, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Karetnikov (accessed December 1, 2012)

the final years of Karetnikovs life.10 Without a doubt, the taste for contemporary music and acceptance of it in Russia did not transpire without growing pains. If in the Western Europe and in the US the movement towards the avant-garde music occurred naturally, in Russia this style struggled to become an accepted musical language for many years. In spite of the negative views towards experimental music that hung over the heads of the composers during the Soviet regime. Thanks to the fall of the Iron Wall , the changes at last began to occur in the mid-1980s when Russia built a bridge with the West.11 A Soviet composer, who gained an equal respect in his native land and abroad, was Alfred Schnittke. Schnittke was born in 1934 in the city of Engels, former Soviet Union, to a German-Jewish father and a Russian-German mother. 12 In the beginning of 1990 he relocated to live in Germany. Schnittke was a part of the late Russian avant-garde movement, along with composers Edison Denisov and Sofia Gubaidulina. Schnittkes music is described as polystilistic, due to his juxtaposition of various compositional techniques and styles. This method let Schnittke create his own, individual approach to composition, which was modern in its term, yet somewhat accessible to the listener.13 Schnittke composed three operas during his life time: Life With an Idiot, Gesualdo, and Historia von D. Johann Fausten. Life With an Idiot was his first opera. It was written in 1991 and was

10 11

Ibid. Alexandra Samokhvalova, Absurd Theater Phenomena on the Concert Stage: A. Schnittkes Opera Life With an Idiot. (PhD. diss., Russian Institute of Theater Art, 2001). http://www.dissercat.com/content/fenomen-teatraabsurda-na-muzykalnoi-stsene-opera-shnitke-zhizn-s-idiotom?_openstat=cmVmZXJ1bi5jb207bm9kZTthZDE7 (accessed December 1, 2012) 12 G. Schirmer Inc., Alfred Schnittke. http://www.schirmer.com/default.aspx?TabId=2419&State_2872=2&ComposerId_2872=1389 (accessed December 1, 2012). 13 Online Encyclopedia Krugosvet, s.v. Alfred Schnittke. http://www.krugosvet.ru/enc/kultura_i_obrazovanie/muzyka/SHNITKE_ALFRED_GARRIEVICH (accessed December 1, 2012)

premiered in Amsterdam at the Nederlandse Opera house in 1992. The libretto for this opera was based on a controversial novel by Victor Erofeyev and was staged by Boris Pokrovsky. The idea to use Erofeyevs book as a libretto was given to Schnittke by a Russian cellist and conductor, Mstislav Rostropovich.14 The plot of the opera is set during the Soviet era in Russia. The central characters of the opera are: a person simply referred to as I, his Wife, and their adopted idiot named Vova, which was meant to be a short name for Vladimir Ilich Lenin. An interesting element of the plot is that it is told as a story that has already taken place, even though the events on the stage do not follow a concrete chronological order. The opera begins with a party at I and Wifes house: they are celebrating the new addition to the family Vova. The party is suddenly interrupted when Vova runs on to the stage, gets a hold of the Wife and decapitates her with a pair of scissors. This morbid act sexually excites I. The next scene suddenly takes us to the asylum where I found Vova. The guard at the asylum introduces Vova to I. Vova cannot speak and throughout the whole opera continues to repeat the same word Ech! At first I is disappointed by this, but the guard assures him that Vova is shy and will begin to speak once he accommodates to the new surroundings. The scene ends with I re-telling the story of how he, his Wife, and Vova came to be. The next scene brings us back to I and Wifes house. It appears that some time has already passed and we see Vova acting aggressively towards his new house mates. I and the Wife quarrel often, mostly due to Wifes hostility towards Vova. Somehow Vova begins to use their fights and slowly seduces the Wife. After Vova receives from the Wife

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G. Schirmer Inc., Alfred Schnittke.

what he desired, he suddenly becomes well-behaved. I is forced to live in a different room, while Vova and the Wife take over the bedroom. Wife becomes pregnant with Vovas baby, whom she aborts. This enrages Vova and he turns his attention to I. The two men now live together in a homosexual relationship. Wife becomes jealous and wants to take Vova back, however he kills her with the pair of scissors.15 The absurdity of the story, along with peculiar musical language of Schnittke, brings Russian opera to a whole new level. The story appears to be an allegory to the Soviet regime, which Erofeyev so cleverly crafted into a novel, which later was turned into a libretto. We see the travesty of Lenin, who is portrayed as an idiot, bringing destruction to the great mind Russia, when it is seduced into liaison with the Marxist utopia. Erofeyes seems to implicate that Russia brought this tragedy upon itself, mistaken progress for chaos.16 He portrays Vladimir Ilich Lenin as a blessed, holy-fool-type abnormality, national in form and content - a national idol, who in the end caused more harm than good.17 It is no surprise why the premiere of this opera first occurred abroad, gaining Schnittke much critical acclaim, and not in Russia. After the successful premiere of Life With an Idiot in Nederlandse Opera Theater, Victor Erofeyev said, "I think this opera would shock people in Russiawhen I wanted to do it at the Bolshoi, they told me they were too

15

Boosey & Hawkes, Schnittke, Alfred: Life With an Idiot (1992), http://www.boosey.com/pages/opera/moredetails.asp?musicid=195 (accessed December 1, 2012). 16 John Rockwell, Schnittkes Opera in World Premiere, The New York Times, April 15, 1992, under Arts, http://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/15/arts/schnittke-s-opera-in-world-premiere.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm (accessed December 1, 2012). 17 Ibid.

bolshoi for it - meaning that at the time this opera was too big for the Russian audience to accept.18 Life With an Idiot was staged four times between the years of 1992-1993. The opera received praise in Amsterdam after the premiere, also in Vienna, and at the Turin Festival in Italy. However, when the opera was finally performed in Moscow in 1993, it received mixed reviews from the audience and was harshly criticized by musicians.19 The controversial topic of the libretto, explicit sexual content, and rather bizarre music of Schnittke all could be the valid reasons why this opera, at the time, was indeed too big for the Russian audience. In 2003 for the first time in over twenty years the Bolshoi Theater commissioned an opera. The chosen composer to write an opera was Leonid Desyatnikov, who presented the audience with a controversial opera The Children of Rosenthal. A post-modernist writer, Vladimir Sorokin, wrote the libretto, and the opera had its premiere in March of 2005. This is the second serious opera that Desyatnikov wrote. The first one was Poor Lisa, a oneact chamber opera (1976) based on the famous novel Bednaya Liza (Poor Lisa) by a Russian 19th century author Nicolai Karamzin.20 The Children of Rosenthal is an opera in two acts: it begins circa 1930 and ends around the early 1990s. A main character Dr. Alex Rosenthal is based on a historical person a German genetic scientist. The story of Dr. Rosenthal is not authentic but is rather transformed into a fantastic fable. In the beginning of 1930s Dr. Rosenthal discovered a process of cloning. In the length of the decade he was
18 19

John Rockwell, Schnittkes Opera in World Premiere. Yarunsky, Alfred Schnittkes Life With an Idiot, Intoclassics Blog, entry posted January 19, 2009, http://intoclassics.net/news/2010-11-22-1014 (accessed December 1, 2012). 20 Wikipedia, s.v. Leonid Desyatnikov, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonid_Desyatnikov (accessed December 1, 2012).

able to perfect his experiments and figured out a way of cloning people. However, such experiments were stopped by the Nazi party who feared that cloning will oppose their theory of pure race. This is where the plot of the opera takes a major turn. After Dr. Rosenthals laboratory gets destroyed by the Nazi party, he immigrates to the USSR and begins secretly working for Stalin. Stalin orders Dr. Rosenthal to use his scientific discovery to clone the proletariat body in order to strengthen the power of the party. Dr. Rosenthal complies, but since he is also a great music lover he decides in spare time to clone famous composers Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, and Mussorgsky.21 The Children of Rosenthal is an opera in two acts. Each act is divided into what Desyatnikov refers to as pictures: two pictures in the first act and three in the second. The events in the first picture of Act I take place around the year of 1975. Dr. Rosenthal is working with his colleagues on cloning the final composer, Mozart. The scientists are enthralled for having found a collarbone of the great composer, which permits them to clone him at last. The next scenes describe the return of Dr. Rosenthal to his home where he delivers the news to his four children (Verdi, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, and Mussorgsky). The young composers-clones begin to reminiscence about their childhood and are delighted to be gaining Mozart as a brother. This is the end of Act I. A large screen in the back of the stage shows videos and images in the beginning of the opera and at the end of Act I, for a purpose of narration. The end of Act I is announced by changing images of various Russian Communist leaders.

21

Gjulyara, Sadjkh-Zade, Opera It is But a Psychiatric Hospital, Deification of Madness, Peoples. ru, http://www.peoples.ru/art/music/composer/desyatnikov/ (accessed December 1, 2012).

The time frame of Act II is around the year of 1992. Dr. Rosenthal is already dead and his laboratory is closed by the government due to the insufficient funding. Composers are left alone and desolate. The beginning of picture three takes place on a train station. Since the death of Dr. Rosenthal, the five composers are forced to work as street musicians to make a living. People gather around them to listen them perform and they seem to enjoy it. At this time a group of young prostitutes also stop by to listen. One prostitute, Tanya, attracts young Mozart. They fall in love and decide to run away together. The rest of the brothers decide to follow them. Their plan, however, falls apart after Tanyas pimp grows angry when he finds out that she wants to leave him, and poisons Tanya. He also uses the same poison to poison the vodka that later all five composer drink. The final scene takes place in the hospital, where Mozart suddenly awakes. He is told of the death of the four composers and Tanya. He then learns of his immunity to the poison. The opera ends with Mozart seeing images of his dead brothers and Tanya singing. His last words are: You are no longer here. You left forever. And I am alone in this world.22 In the opera, each picture musically represents each of the five clone-composers. The first picture Desyatnikov composed as a mini-opera, faintly resembling a Wagnerian style. Here clone-Wagner, sung by a mezzo-soprano, sings a sad song about a dying swan. The second picture has a duet between Tchaikovsky and the nanny. Desyatnikov portrays clone-Tchaikovsky (Petrusha) as a rather whiny character. One can hear in the harmonies and orchestration elements of lyricism, the Russian soul, that are as sociated with the music of Peter Ilich Tchaikovskys. Desyatnikov points out in his interview that he

22

The Children of Rosenthal, opera synopsis, Institute Pro Art, March 29, 2012, http://www.proarte.ru/ru/komposers/desiatnikov/Deti_Rosenthalya.htm (accessed December 1, 2012).

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wanted the music in each picture to be written in the style of each composer, however he never quoted any specific themes from their works. 23 The Children of Rosenthal could hardly be called a triumph. According to some reviews, the opera was a scandal due to the strong opposition to Vladimir Sorokin, who wrote the libretto.24 The premiere of the opera was protested by over 200 members of the Pro-Kremlin young organization Moving Together, shouting the words, Sorokin out of the Bolshoi.25 According to some protesters, the so-called pornographic libretto forced the name and the reputation of the Bolshoi Theater into mud.26 Some viewers were deeply offended by the opera, saying that, It is a travesty that this filth is being shown at the theatre which is the figurehead of our cultural lifethis is a triumph of devilry on the open stage.27 However, not all reviews were negative. An agent of the Russian federal cultural agency, Mikhail Shvydkoi, made a supportive statement saying that the music in this opera is fantastic and that the opera is a social work about a difficult relationship between the artist and the state. The same heroes exist in Carmen and Madam Butterfly." 28 In his own defense, author Vladimir Sorokin also exclaimed that, "it is always hard for new things in literature and art to beat a path...one needs to fight for art.29 The news of Vladimir Sorokin being a chosen librettist for the new opera caused quite a stirring. Sorokin, who is Russian post-modernist writer, had a history of being
23

Olga Rusanova, The Children of Rosenthal: the New Opera of Leonid Desyatnikov (Interview), Radio Mayak, March 16, 2004, http://www.musiccritics.ru/?id=3&readfull=4125 (accessed December 1, 2012). 24 Tom Parfitt, Protests Fail to Halt Russian Opera, The Guardian, March 24, 2005, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/mar/24/russia.arts (accessed December 1, 2012). 25 Ibid. 26 Ibid. 27 Ibid. 28 Parfitt, Protests Fail to Halt Russian Opera. 29 Ibid.

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persecuted for writing inappropriate and highly offensive novels in Russia. It is known that in 2002 the Moving Together activist group declared a criminal case against Sorokin under Russian Article 242: illegal distribution of pornographic materials and objects caused by an outrage towards his 1999 novel Blue Lard.30 Sorokin is known to write his novels in the key of disgust.31 An example of it can also be found in his novel The Norm where he portrayed Soviet life in a twisted, grotesque way. He used the title of the book as a metaphor, having the characters eating the newly established norm human feces. Such blunt imagery and scandalous plot of the novel gained Sorokin a title of Pornographer and Feces-Eater, given to him by the same angry activist group.32 Even though the opera does not convey any pornographic imagery or other types of vulgarity, it is not a surprise why the premiere of The Children of Rosenthal was met with such strong opposition. Vladimir Sorokin presented Leonid Desyatnikov with the idea to write an opera about cloned composers. It is not very clear why this particular theme became a subject for an opera, but it can be speculated that perhaps it meant to provoke thoughts about the future of opera. In an interview with Radio Mayak Desyatnikov explained his reasons for choosing the five composers to be characters for The Children of Rosenthal. In his opinion, they are the emblems in the history of the classical opera, each placing an important milestone in the operatic repertoire, and he wanted his cloned composers to represent the fading of the past.33 Thus we as audience may ask ourselves a question: should we allow

30

Masha Lipman, A Night at the Opera, The New Yorker, April 4, 2005, http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/04/04/050404ta_talk_lipman (accessed December 1, 2012). 31 Ibid. 32 Ibid. 33 Rusanova, The Children of Rosenthal: the New Opera of Leonid Desyatnikov (Interview).

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the music to move forward, not stand in its way towards originality, or should we continue to remain in the past to the point of it becoming interminably stagnant? According to some critics, the modern opera in Russia does not stand a chance of survival, it doesnt matter what kind of new music is being composed by contemporary Russian composers, or what is being created by new directors and famous opera singers, the audience is unable to accept opera as a contemporary subject For example, in the opinion of Russian audience the operas, such as, Alban Bergs Wozzeck and Dmitri Schostakovichs Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District ARE the contemporary operas The composer and the librettist need to be already in their graves in order for the audience to have a proper listen of their works.34 The composers like Alfred Schnittke and Leonid Desyatnikov could be considered the pioneers of the contemporary opera in Russia. Both composers brought something new and original into their operatic works. Whether or not they succeeded in their quest to capture the audience, the fact remains that both composers were unafraid to bring the Russia contemporary opera to a next level. Now with the help of Vasily Barkhatov and the OperGruppa, the contemporary opera in Russia may have a strong chance of not only to survive, but possibly become a success and lay a strong foundation for future contemporary composers and their works.

34

Artem Vargaftik, Is Contemporary Opera Surviving in Russia? May 13, 2005, http://www.polit.ru/article/2005/05/11/voprospospelov/ (accessed December 1, 2012).

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Bibliography

Barkhatov, Vasily. OperGruppa. www.opergruppa.com (accessed December 1, 2012). Boosey & Hawkes. Schnittke, Alfred: Life With an Idiot (1992). http://www.boosey.com/pages/opera/moredetails.asp?musicid=195 (accessed December 1, 2012). Gozenpud. 2011a. Opera of Andrei Petrov Peter the Great. Classical Music (May 2011). http://www.classic-music.ru/petr.html (accessed December 1, 2012). ----. 2011b. Opera of Rodion Schedrin Dead Souls. Classical Music (May 2011). http://www.classic-music.ru/dushi.html (accessed December 1, 2012). G. Schirmer Inc. Alfred Schnittke. (August, 1998). http://www.schirmer.com/default.aspx?TabId=2419&State_2872=2&ComposerId_28 72=1389 (accessed December 1, 2012). Krjlova, Maia. Avant-garde With a Beard. New Izvestiya (September 2012). http://www.newizv.ru/culture/2012-09-17/169880-avangard-s-borodoj.html (accessed December 1, 2012). Lipman, Masha. A Night at the Opera. The New Yorker, April 4, 2005. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/04/04/050404ta_talk_lipman (accessed December 1, 2012). Online-Encyclopedia Krugosvet. s.v. Alfred Schnittke. http://www.krugosvet.ru/enc/kultura_i_obrazovanie/muzyka/ SHNITKE_ALFRED_GARRIEVICH (accessed December 1, 2012) ----. s.v. Russian Opera. http://www.krugosvet.ru/enc/kultura_i_obrazovanie/muzyka/RUSSKAYA_OPERA.ht ml?page=0,7(accessed December 1, 2012).

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Parfitt, Tom. Protests Fail to Halt Russian Opera. The Guardian, March 24, 2005. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/mar/24/russia.arts (accessed December 1, 2012). Pro Arte. The Children of Rosenthal. Institute Pro Art. www.proarte.ru/ru/komposers/desiatnikov/Deti_Rosenthalya.htm (accessed December 1, 2012). Rockwell, John. Schnittkes Opera in World Premiere. The New York Times, April 15, 1992. http://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/15/arts/schnittke-s-opera-in-worldpremiere.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm (accessed December 1, 2012). Rusanova, Olga. The Children of Rosenthal: the New Opera of Leonid Desyatnikov (Interview). Radio Mayak, March 16 2004. http://www.musiccritics.ru/?id=3&readfull=4125 (accessed December 1, 2012). Sadjkh-Zade, Gjulyara. Opera It is But a Psychiatric Hospital, Deification of Madness. Peoples.ru. http://www.peoples.ru/art/music/composer/desyatnikov/ (accessed December 1, 2012). Samokhvalova, Alexandra Arkadjevna. Absurd Theater Phenomena on the Concert Stage: A. Schnittkes Opera Life With an Idiot. PhD. diss., Russian Institute of Theater Art, 2001. In Online Dissertation Library Dissercat. http://www.dissercat.com/content/fenomen-teatra-absurda-na-muzykalnoi-stseneopera-shnitke-zhizn-s-idiotom?_openstat=cmVmZXJ1bi5jb207bm9kZTthZDE7 (accessed December 1, 2012).

Vargaftik, Artem. Is Contemporary Opera Surviving in Russia? Polit.ru, May 13, 2005. http://www.polit.ru/article/2005/05/11/voprospospelov/ (accessed December 1, 2012). Wikipedia. Nikolai Karetnikov. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Karetnikov (accessed December 1, 2012) ----. Leonid Desyatnikov. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonid_Desyatnikov (accessed December 1, 2012).

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Yarunsky. Alfred Schnittkes Life With an Idiot. Intoclassics.net, January 19, 2009. http://intoclassics.net/news/2010-11-22-1014 (accessed December 1, 2012).

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