Interpretation of an Operatic Work. Concerning the Problem of the Conception of Production

Main Article Content

Irina E. Goryunova

Abstract

The article addresses the problems connected with the process of producing opera existing at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. Attention is focused on the sphere of stage direction, since this is where the main innovative features are concentrated which have exerted an influence on the development of musical theater in the world. The author considers the question of choosing the right conception of stage direction for a performance to be the most crucial and determining the path of contemporary opera production. The various methods of production are traced, including the narrative, the illustrative, the poetical, the conceptual synthesis and the “provocative.” The latter is examined in detail as being the result of the increasing commercialization of the theater, on the examples of opera performances by the greatest opera groups in Russia and other countries and the creative approach of well-known opera producers and conductors. The topical question of bringing in “a contemporary appearance” to opera classics is touched upon. This problem is examined from the point of view of the appropriateness of the music and dramaturgy to the stage solution, the  correspondence of the innovations to the composer’s initial conception, as well as the contemporary language of the theater.

Keywords: contemporary opera, opera production, operatic dramaturgy, conception of the production of a performance, the producer’s “provocation,” the Bolshoi Theater of Russia

Article Details

How to Cite
Goryunova, I. E. (2012). Interpretation of an Operatic Work. Concerning the Problem of the Conception of Production. Music Scholarship / Problemy Muzykal’noj Nauki, 11(2), 56–61. Retrieved from https://musicscholar.ru/index.php/PMN/article/view/354
Section
Musical Theater
Author Biography

Irina E. Goryunova, Saint-Petersburg State Conservatory named N. Rimsky-Korsakov

Candidate of Arts (PhD) and a professor  of Department of Direction of Musical Theater