The Peculiarities of Yakov Zadykhin’s Libretto and its Musical Embodiment by Alexander Mosolov in the Opera “Dam”

Abstract

The article reveals the features of the libretto of Alexander Vasilyevich Mosolov’s opera «Plotina» (“The Dam”), created in collaboration with librettist Yakov Leontievich Zadykhin. «Plotina» is not only the composer’s largest work, summarizing the creative period of the 1920s, but also an important experimental experience within the framework of the GATOB’s project to create the genre of Soviet opera. Details of the process of approval by the Commission for the Creation of Soviet Opera, 
organized in the theater, of the personality of the librettist Ya.L. Zadykhin are covered, and some details of his creative biography are revealed. The libretto of the opera is considered as an experience of cooperation of the collective of authors: composer, librettist and theatrical managers of the project, B.V. Asafiev and S.E. Radlov. The features of the plot based on real events on an industrial theme are revealed, the specifics of the libretto’s literary language and the linguistic means used to characterize the characters are revealed, examples of the libretto’s influence on the musical embodiment of the characters’ characteristics are identified. The materials of the collections of the Russian National Library (RNB), the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI), the Central State Archive of Literature and Art of St. Petersburg (TsGALI) were used.

References

1. Meshko, Nina K., comp. 1986. A. V. Mosolov: stat’i i vospominaniya [А. V. Mosolov: Articles and Memoirs]. Moscow: Sovetskiy kompositor. (In Russian).

2. Barsova, Inna A. 2008. “Avstro-nemetskiy avangard v Rossii: poslerevolyutsionnoe desyatiletie [Austro-German Avant-Garde in Russia: Post-Revolutionary Decade].” Muzykal’naya Akademiya [Music Academy], issue 2 (722), 174–82. (In Russian).

3. Barsova, Inna A. 1989. “Iz neopublikovannogo arkhiva Mosolova [From Mosolov’s Unpublished Archive].” Sovetskaya muzyka [Soviet Music], issue 7/8, 69–75. (In Russian).

4. Barsova, Inna A. 1976. “Aleksandr Mosolov: Dvadtsatye gody [Alexander Mosolov: The Twenties].” Sovetskaya muzyka [Soviet Music], issue 12, 77–87. (In Russian).

5. Barsova, Inna A. 2007. “Progulki po vystavke ‘Moskva — Parizh’: Tvorchestvo Aleksandra Mosolova v kontekste sovetskogo muzykal’nogo konstruktivizma 1920-kh godov [Walking through the exhibition ‘Moscow to Paris’: The Work of Alexander Mosolov in the Context of Soviet Musical Constructivism in the 1920s].” In Eadem. Kontury stoletiya: Iz istorii russkoy muzyki XX veka [Contours of the Century: From the History of Russian Music of the 20th Century], 43–54. St. Petersburg: Kompozitor. (In Russian).

6. Vlasova, Ekaterina S. 2010. 1948 god v sovetskoy muzyke. Dokumentirovannoe issledovanie [1948 in Soviet Music. A Documented Study]. Moscow: Klassika-XXI. (In Russian).

7. Vlasova, Ekaterina S. 2020. “Soviet Сlassical Opera: Ideas and Realities.” Nauchnyy vestnik Moskovskoy konservatorii / Journal of Moscow Conservatory 11, no. 4 (December), 102–31. (In Russian). https://doi.org/10.26176/mosconsv.2020.43.4.006.

8. Vorobyov, Igor’S. 2006. Russkiy avangard i tvorchestvo Aleksandra Mosolova 1920-kh — 1930-kh godov [Russian Avant-Garde and the Work of Alexander Mosolov in the 1920s–1930s]. 2nd edition, revised. St. Petersburg: Kompozitor. (In Russian).

9. Vorobyov, Igor’ S., and Anastasiya V. Sinayskaya. 2007. Kompozitory russkogo avangarda [Composers of the Russian Avant-Garde]. St. Petersburg: Kompozitor. (In Russian).

10. Vysotskaya, Marianna S., and Galina V. Grigorieva. 2011. Muzyka XX veka. Ot avangarda k postmodernu [Twentieth Century Music. From Avant-Garde to Postmodern], textbook. Moscow: Moscow Conservatory Publishing. (In Russian).

11. Gojowy, Detlef. 2006. Novaya sovetskaya muzyka 20-kh godov [New Soviet Music of the 20s]. Translated by Natalya Vlasova. Moscow: Kompozitor. (In Russian).

12. Gudzenko, Panteleymon P. 1986. “Nachalo sotsialisticheskoy industrializatsii [Beginning of Socialist Industrialization].” In  Istoriya Ukrainskoy SSR v desyati tomakh [History of the Ukrainian SSR, in Ten Volumes], vol. 7: Ukrainskaya SSR v period postroeniya i ukrepleniya sotsialisticheskogo obshchestva (1921–1941) [Ukrainian SSR in the Period of Building and Strengthening of Socialist Society (1921–1941)], 162–78. Kyiv: Naukova dumka. (In Russian).

13. Kim, Anastasiya V. 2023. “‘Plotina’ (‘The Dam’) by Alexander Mosolov. The History of Creation.” Opera musicologica 15, no. 3, 178–205. (In Russian). https://doi.org/10.26156/ OM.2023.15.3.011.

14. Kruchyonykh, Aleksei E., and Velimir Khlebnikov. 1913. Slovo kak takovoe [Word as such]. Moscow: Ya. Dankin and Ya. Khomutov. (In Russian).

15. Levik, Sergey Yu. 1970. Chetvert’ veka s operoy [A Quarter of a Century with Opera]. Moscow: Iskusstvo. (In Russian).

16. “Leningrad. V komissii po sozdaniyu sovetskoy opery [Leningrad. In the Commission for the Creation of Soviet Opera].” 1929. Zhizn’ iskusstva [The Life of Art], no. 16 (April 14), 14. Available at: https://electro.nekrasovka.ru/books/1483 (accessed March 22, 2024). (In Russian).

17. “Leningrad. Novye opery [New Operas].” 1929. Zhizn’ iskusstva [The Life of Art], no. 29 (July 21), 15. Available at: https://electro.nekrasovka.ru/books/2154 (accessed March 22, 2024). (In Russian).

18. Raku, Marina G. 2019. Opernye shtudii [Opera Studies]. St. Petersburg: Izdatel’stvo imeni N. I. Novikova. (In Russian).

19. Radlov, Sergey E. 1929. “K sovetskoy opere [To the Soviet Opera].” Zhizn’ iskusstva [The Life of Art], no. 1 (January 1), 6. Available at: https://electro.nekrasovka.ru/books/1467 (accessed March 22, 2024). (In Russian).

20. Sollertinsky, Ivan I. 1929. “Vozmozhnye printsipi sovetskoy opery [Possible Principles of Soviet Opera].” Zhizn’ iskusstva [The Life of Art], no. 31 (August 14), 3. Available at: https://electro.nekrasovka.ru/books/2149 (accessed March 22, 2024). (In Russian).

21. Tufanov, Aleksandr V. 1924. K zaumi: Fonicheskaya muzyka i funktsii soglasnykh fonem [Toward Zaum’: Phonetic Music and the Functions of Consonant Phonemes]. Petersburg: Author. (In Russian).

22. Sitsky, Larry. 1994. “Aleksandr V. Mosolov: The Man of Steel.” In Idem. Music of the Repressed Russian Avant-Garde, 1900–1929, 60–86. Westport: Greenwood Press.