• In Defense of The Snow Maiden: Critics about the First Performance of Soviet Opera House in Saratov in 1918

УДК: [782.1+792.54](470.44)"1918"

DOI: 10.35852/2588-0144-2024-1-28-41

EDN: CXCUGM

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Natalia S. Grigoreva

Post-Graduate student. Scientific supervisor: Krasnova Olga Borisovna, Cand. Sc. in Sociology, Professor of Musical History Department, Saratov State L. V. Sobinov Conservatoire., Teacher of Academic Singing Department, Chief International Relations Manager
Saratov State L. V. Sobinov Conservatoire
Saratov, Russia
E-mail: surenko@yandex.ru

In Defense of The Snow Maiden: Critics about the First Performance of Soviet Opera House in Saratov in 1918

Abstract

During the Civil War all the issues of cultural heritage perception were discussed by the representatives of opposing social groups: supporters of the new social order, conservative intelligentsia and the government. Saratov’s “first Soviet opera” was opened with the performance The Snow Maiden. The critics claimed that this opera was close to common people and remembered about Rimsky-Korsakov’s sympathy to the ideas of the revolution. The local press wrote that The Snow Maiden was received by the public much better than other operas despite the fact that it was not immediately accepted by the Russian audience in other cities. The article gives a brief overview of critical texts about this opera, identifies reasons of its increasing success during the studied period, compares opinions of both Moscow and local press. A brief description of critical notes on The Snow Maiden performance in different years allows us to understand the reasons for its growing popularity, to compare the position of the Moscow and local criticism, which explains the logic of choosing it as the theatre’s first production in a new social situation. In the context of the local journal and newspaper polemics of those years, the production of The Snow Maiden, with its bucolic origin in Saratov in the times of the revolution, can be assessed as a reconciling and compromising cultural gesture against the worsening of social antagonism and class struggle.

Keywords

N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, The Snow Maiden, A. N. Ostrovsky, Soviet opera, Saratov, Russian revolution of 1917th, Russian Civil War.

For citation

Grigoreva N. S. In Defense of The Snow Maiden: Critics about the First Performance of Soviet Opera House in Saratov in 1918. Theatre. Fine Arts. Cinema. Music. 2024, no. 1, pp. 28–41.

DOI: 10.35852/2588-0144-2024-1-28-41

EDN CXCUGM

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Received: 25.12.2023

Revised: 29.01.2024

Accepted: 14.02.2024