Prokofiev's Soviet Operas
Seiten
2021
Cambridge University Press (Verlag)
978-1-107-46079-9 (ISBN)
Cambridge University Press (Verlag)
978-1-107-46079-9 (ISBN)
Prokofiev's last four operas are major works of his career in the Soviet Union, yet the original versions remain unfamiliar since they exist only in manuscript form. This book offers bold new interpretations, draws on a wide range of primary and secondary sources, and includes comparisons with works of literature, film, and theatre.
Prokofiev considered himself to be primarily a composer of opera, and his return to Russia in the mid-1930s was partially motivated by the goal to renew his activity in this genre. His Soviet career coincided with the height of the Stalin era, when official interest and involvement in opera increased, leading to demands for nationalism and heroism to be represented on the stage to promote the Soviet Union and the Stalinist regime. Drawing on a wealth of primary source materials and engaging with recent scholarship in Slavonic studies, this book investigates encounters between Prokofiev's late operas and the aesthetics of socialist realism, contemporary culture (including literature, film, and theatre), political ideology, and the obstacles of bureaucratic interventions and historical events. This contextual approach is interwoven with critical interpretations of the operas in their original versions, providing a new account of their stylistic and formal features and connections to operatic traditions.
Prokofiev considered himself to be primarily a composer of opera, and his return to Russia in the mid-1930s was partially motivated by the goal to renew his activity in this genre. His Soviet career coincided with the height of the Stalin era, when official interest and involvement in opera increased, leading to demands for nationalism and heroism to be represented on the stage to promote the Soviet Union and the Stalinist regime. Drawing on a wealth of primary source materials and engaging with recent scholarship in Slavonic studies, this book investigates encounters between Prokofiev's late operas and the aesthetics of socialist realism, contemporary culture (including literature, film, and theatre), political ideology, and the obstacles of bureaucratic interventions and historical events. This contextual approach is interwoven with critical interpretations of the operas in their original versions, providing a new account of their stylistic and formal features and connections to operatic traditions.
Nathan Seinen is Assistant Professor of Musicology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His articles have appeared in Music & Letters and the Cambridge Opera Journal, and he is the 2010 recipient of the Alfred Einstein Award from the American Musicological Society.
Introduction; 1. Semyon Kotko and the melodrama of high Stalinism; 2. Buffered by Buffa: Betrothal in a Monastery; 3. Kutuzov's victory, Prokofiev's defeat: the revisions of War and Peace; 4. The Story of a Real Man and late Stalinist subjectivity; Conclusion.
| Erscheinungsdatum | 16.07.2021 |
|---|---|
| Reihe/Serie | Music since 1900 |
| Zusatzinfo | 39 Printed music items; 1 Halftones, black and white |
| Verlagsort | Cambridge |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 167 x 249 mm |
| Gewicht | 480 g |
| Themenwelt | Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Musik ► Klassik / Oper / Musical |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte | |
| ISBN-10 | 1-107-46079-4 / 1107460794 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-107-46079-9 / 9781107460799 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
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