"Upon the Brink of the Abyss": Some Thoughts on the Opera Feast in Time of Plague by A. Manotskov
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Abstract
The article is dedicated to Alexander Manotskov’s opera “Feast in Time of Plague”, which took place in autumn 2019 in Krasnoyarsk. It is noted the novelty of interpreting Pushkin’s plot in the opera. It is illustrative the history of its creating: the first half-hour version was written in 1996, the second (Krasnoyarsk) one the composer defined as a “recomposition” by supplementing the libretto with Latin stanzas of the funeral mass, with lines from Psalm 129, with a poem by O. Mandelstam, but the performing staff – with a chorus. The analysis of the composition and figurative structure made possible to build a genre parallel with an ancient tragedy and to emphasize the important role of the chorus in developing a generalized symbolic plan of the action. The article notes that this feature predetermined the use of the choral theatre techniques in the staging decision of the director Elena Pavlova. Thereby the Krasnoyarsk performance inscribed into the mainstream of the leading trends of modern musical theatre. Special attention is paid to musical drama of the opera and, specifically, to the theme of Plague, which is presented as a quote from an Indonesian gamelan. It is emphasized its importance as a cross-cutting thematic idea, what confirms the dominant position of Plague in the opera and prejudices the Feast presence.
As a result, it is drawn a conclusion that the composer and the director in their play reveal one of a relevant problems of the modern world that is associated with the loss of spiritual and moral guidelines in the society: Plague is interpreted as a symbol of a disaster leading to the spiritual death of mankind.
Keywords: Alexander Manotskov, A.S. Pushkin, opera “Feast in Time of Plague”, libretto, musical dramaturgy.
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