• Traditions of the Russian Сlassical Theatre and the Opera A Conversation between a Man and a Dog by A.V. Novikov (Based on A. Chekhov’s Story)

УДК: [782.1+792.54]:821.161.1

DOI: 10.35852/2588-0144-2024-1-157-174

EDN: QTEJEV

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Izabella I. Krylovskaya

Cand. Sc. in Art Studies, Associate Professor of the Department of Arts and Design
Far Eastern Federal University
Vladivostok, Russia
E-mail: belcanto@mail.ru

Traditions of the Russian Сlassical Theatre and the Opera A Conversation between a Man and a Dog by A.V. Novikov (Based on A. Chekhov’s Story)

Abstract

The traditions of Russian classical theatre, established by A. Ostrovsky and A. Chekhov in the 19th century, are reflected in music theatre. Modern researches undoubtedly confirm the influence of both writers on the development of music and dramatic genres. Chekhov’s drama and prosaic texts attracted the composers of the second half of the 20th — beginning of the 21st centuries. So far there are known more than sixty works for music theatre that are based on his stories. There is also an unknown mono-opera A Conversation between a Man and a Dog by A. Novikov — a composer from Khabarovsk. It can be classified as a literary opera (K. Dahlhaus’s term), which was widespread in the 20th century. Chekhov’s texts interpretations contributed greatly to this process. To present the new opera, there was required an integrated approach, associated with identifying and evaluating the sources, studying the history of the performance, analyzing the literary source and libretto, managing genre and intonation analysis of music material, and music dramaturgy. The waltz intonations, as well as the rhythmic intonations of jazz, become of great importance in this new type of the opera. Special attention to the word indicates the continuation of the traditions of Russian chamber vocal genre. The researchers trace the path to Chekhov’s dramaturgy as a way from Gogol to Ostrovsky, while the path to the music of A. Novikov’s mono-opera seems muchly enriched: Dargomyzhsky — Mussorgsky — Prokofiev — Shostakovich. As a result of the study, the intonation sets are revealed that provide a grotesque coloring to the image of the main character, and the techniques of alogism and hyperbolization endow the Chekhov’s official person with the features similar to the satirical characters of A. Ostrovsky.

Keywords

A. P. Chekhov, Russian opera, music theatre, A. Novikov, A Conversation between a Man and a Dog, music theatre of the Far East.

For citation

Krylovskaya I. I. Traditions of the Russian Сlassical Theatre and the Opera A Conversation between a Man and a Dog by A. V. Novikov (Based on A. Chekhov’s Story). Theatre. Fine Arts. Cinema. Music. 2024, no. 1, pp. 157–174.

DOI: 10.35852 / 2588-0144-2024-1-157-174

EDN QTEJEV

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Received: 16.12.2023

Revised: 18.01.2024

Accepted: 01.02.2024