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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #135 on: 20:30:02, 14-04-2007 » |
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Hi t-p You're quite right, it's Muradeli - my mistake... I was imagining his name as more "Georgian" than it really is! Have you managed to hear any of his operas? I was shown the score of "Velikaya Liubov'" in the Archives at the Conservatoire, in fact it was suggested to me I might like to stage the piece.... however, I decided to turn down this charming opportunity as a foreigner, since an opera right now suggesting that Russians were the best buddies of Chechens... well, you know the Russian saying "it's a stupid dog who tries to stop two others from fighting"  Do you know the Muradeli Music School? It's on Ostozhenka, and probably once had beautiful C19th interiors... one of those former palaces "liberated for the proletariat" which have been mostly wrecked as a result. It has two nice pianos (one Bosendorfer, one Bluthner) on the stage now ;-) They have concerts there sometimes. |
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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trained-pianist
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« Reply #136 on: 20:36:33, 14-04-2007 » |
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I know songs by Muradeli (I think I do). I think in my time there was an opera about Russian solder who lost his legs in WWII. What was his name Meresiev or something. Was it written by Muradeli.
I think Muradeli made a bad name for himself being in composer union a hatch man (or am I confusing him with Chrennikov). I am going to google.
I think it is wise to stay away from this opera, you are very wise. I doubt this is a good music. It is probably wooden and characters are false. Of course all nationalities were friends and brothers in my time.
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trained-pianist
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« Reply #137 on: 20:45:14, 14-04-2007 » |
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http://nostalgie.com1.ru/SB/Muradeli_Vano/ Бухенвальский набat is very famous song that everybody knows. He was a secretary of composer union. I think I am wrong with Meres'ev opera. It must been Chrennikov. Muradeli had a gift for melodies I suppose and a good sense how to survive in an easiest possible fashion. However, it did not work with his opera. I did not see his ballet Zoya Kosmodin'yavskay. It was staged before my time. However, I can not imagine how the partisan woman would be dansing. They were doing plots with current history at that time.
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #138 on: 21:57:37, 14-04-2007 » |
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It's an interesting question - returning to the more general topic of Shostakovich etc - how to perform and interpret those "Socialist Realist" works now. The Bolshoi made a big success with Shostakovich's "Svetlie Ruchei" - a ballet about how a ballet company from Moscow are sent to a Collective Farm in the Kuban to help with the harvest as "shock workers". The idea sounds like a terrible political lecture, but in fact it's a sparkling comedy. But other works of the period are more obviously problematic to perform - especially the absurdly pro-Communist hymns and anthems for the Opening Of The Party Congress and this kind of work. Perhaps they should just be ignored or forgotten?
I have also mentioned a couple of times how Helikon Opera "reworked" STORY OF A REAL MAN (Prokofiev) 3-4 years ago, and by a clever production they made it into a plea to the present Russian Government to do something about the living conditions of disabled war veterans today. There was nearly a riot at the premiere (at which 85% of tickets had been given free to war veterans). The riot was mainly due to a changed ending - instead of Stalin visiting the crippled man in hospital, the time is the present, the crippled man is back in the hospital in old age, and the only person interested in his acts of heroism is... a German newspaper reporter. (t-p, you can imagine the reaction of showing a German journalist in a story about WW2 in the USSR...) The producer (Bertmann) appeared on stage at the end, and a veteran called for quiet... then saying "Dmitry Alexandrovich, we want to thank you. We are the forgotten generation. Only foreigners remember us - but not Russia, for whom we fought. This story is not in a museum - it is OUR story, how we live now. Thank you, Dmitry Alexandrovich!".
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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trained-pianist
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« Reply #139 on: 22:12:49, 14-04-2007 » |
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Reiner, It is such a moving story and sad too. This poor people (solders) were used by people in power and then forgotten. The whole generation of young people (even 20 years old) are affected by this. There is always a threat to be drafted to the army and such a mad dash to try to avoid it (to get to some University). I feel so sorry for that.
I would not know the story if it would not be for you. I am so cut off now.
Did not Schostakovich write another ballet more appropriate in our time?
I can not imagine how this balle Svetlii Ruchei (Light Stream?) could be relevant now. I don't think this socialist Realist piece should be reworked and plot changed (I am not sure). I never thought about that. There were many movies about the subject and many comedies.
His anthems can be used by nationalists. I hope Russia will not succumb to any body like Hitler. It is fascinating topic for conversation. Historians will deal with it for years to come (centuries if our race survives).
what about Kabalevsky's music? Is it out of date now?
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #140 on: 22:19:09, 14-04-2007 » |
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Hi t-p
There are several more Shostakovich ballets, but I haven't seen them... even though they've been performed recently. The Bolshoi Theatre have produced "Bolt" ("The Saboteur")... another "Socialist Realist" work, about a factory saboteur who tries to break the machinery to prevent the factory meeting its Production Quota for Socialism. Of course, this is very hard to believe in now, and I'm not sure how audiences would react to it. It's an interesting question... if this wasn't Shostakovich's music, would anyone have bothered to stage these works?
I wish I knew more about Kabalevsky, but to my shame I know almost nothing about him, except playing some of his piano etudes when I was still a kid.
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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Bryn
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« Reply #141 on: 22:20:55, 14-04-2007 » |
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t-p, it's normally translated into English as "The Limped Stream".
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #142 on: 22:26:24, 14-04-2007 » |
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Guys, Gals,
We're in danger of leaving the beaten track here, so how about starting a separate thread on other lesser known Soviet composers which could run parallel with, rather than cutting into, this one? There's Kabalevsky, Shaporin, Schedrin and Salmanov for starters...
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trained-pianist
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« Reply #143 on: 22:31:21, 14-04-2007 » |
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Sorry, Ron Dough. We were discussing Limped Stream, though. This is Schostakovich ballet. Also his anthems. How do you think we should deal with them. Should they be forgotten?
Also should they change plots of his ballets and operas?
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richard barrett
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« Reply #144 on: 22:36:14, 14-04-2007 » |
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t-p, it's normally translated into English as "The Limped Stream".
Don't you mean "The Limpet Stream"? or "The Limpid Scream"? |
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Bryn
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« Reply #145 on: 22:40:47, 14-04-2007 » |
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #146 on: 22:56:04, 14-04-2007 » |
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t-p,
The changing of the book for ballets (giving them a new plot, or reorganising the one they started out with) has been pretty standard practice for many years. When there are no words to direct the story it's not so difficult, but unless a new libretto is produced, changing the plot in an opera is rather more awkward, although sometimes the story can be freshly interpreted without the need to alter the words...
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #147 on: 23:00:49, 14-04-2007 » |
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"Limpid Stream" is certainly one translation, but "svetly/ya/oe" is usually translated as "bright", or "shining" in other contexts. The title is the fictitious name of the Collective Farm they've been sent to.. "Bright Brook" might be another way of translating it :-) I think it's supposed to have a slightly tongue-in-cheek "gung-ho" twang to it.
The work was pulled from the repertoire subsequent to the ban on LADY MAC, but this was really crying over spilt milk, because it had been playing to good houses for 2.5 years previously. It's almost impossible to fault the impeccable Socialist credentials of the piece - Collective Farm-Girl dances the principle role in a ballet staged in a melon-field to win back her man (a Soviet Agronomist). It has a nice clone of the Midsummer Night's Dream plot-structure... two pairs of lovers who fall out of love, fall in love with the wrong partners because of a terrible misunderstanding, and then fall back in love with their other halves just in time for the big dance-number finale... in which (for humorous plot-related reasons) the girl has to dress up as a boy... and the leading man has to dance a solo number in drag... the funny part being not that he gets it wrong, but that he can do it better than the girl.
Astoundingly the reasons given for removing the work from the repertoire was that it "demeaningly portrayed socialist workers", which is utter tripe... if anyone is demeaned in the ballet, it's the effete ballet performers, who come back from their time on the farm not only toughened-up, but with a sincere respect and regard for the workers there. More likely it was a "just-in-case", "might-as-well-whilst-we're-about-it" ban since LADY MAC had already been pulled - and to make Shostakovich's disgrace more complete. It also took everything he had in repertoire out of the public arena, so that he no longer had any business to be present backstage at the Bolshoi Theatre... that may have been a further motivation.
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« Last Edit: 23:04:52, 14-04-2007 by Reiner Returns »
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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trained-pianist
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« Reply #148 on: 23:09:09, 14-04-2007 » |
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I think it ballet should be called Bright brook or Bright stream or Happy stream. It is about Happy Stream and Happy life in Soviet Russia. I can not think of any other meaning beside Svetloe Budutshee (Bright Future - Socialist idiom) to connect the name of a ballet in Russia, thought people saw all sorts of double meaning. I think they pulled it from performing it for reason Reiner says they did (out of fear that the other one was cancelled). It was panic time and people in power positions were removed swiftly and send away. There was many moving up the ladder opportunities.
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Bryn
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« Reply #149 on: 23:24:26, 14-04-2007 » |
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Well, "Limpid" is the version I have come across most often, but Googling lends support to "Bright" by a factor of only a little under 2.
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