DOI: 10.36871/hon.202002017
Authors
O. A. Podguzova
Ippolitov-Ivanov State Musical Pedagogical Institute, Moscow, Russian Federation
Abstract
Sergey Borisovich Yakovenko is the People's Artist of Russia, a famous musician, vocal teacher
and Doctor of Art History. He entered a bright page in the history of Russian vocal art of the XXth
century. Starting from the 1950s, as a vocalist, he was in great demand for chamber vocal performances,
with some of them being composed by modern musicians. Yakovenko was able to operate
freely with a whole stock of expressive means, inherent for avant-garde music, allowing him to
take part in the most difficult performances of the latest vocal and vocal-instrumental compositions,
which manifested his inclination to the theater, to the disclosure of the dramaturgy of works.
S. B. Yakovenko’s stage talent declared itself in its fullness during the performance of mono-
operas, among them "Diary of a Madman" by Yuriy Butsko (1968), which received a great
resonance in the theatrical life of Russia. The general content of this article is the analysis of
S. B. Yakovenko’s
performing skill, which gave birth to a wide range of character images, generated
by the protagonist’s imagination. After the analysis of audio and video recordings of the
vocalist’s performances, as well as his numerous scientific works and conversations, the author
discovers several important features typical for the performing interpretation by S. B. Yakovenko.
These are his vocal-dramaturgical principles and vocal-theatrical direction. In Y. Boutsko’s
opera "Diary of a Madman" the unique performance palette of S. B. Yakovenko allows the
singer to create eight various, rapidly interchanging images, using exclusively the resources of
his voice, while being on an empty stage without props and with little or no gesture or mime.
Keywords
vocal-dramaturgical principles of artistic images of the mono-opera "Diary of a Madman" by Y. Boutsko, interpretation, S. Yakovenko, vocal-theatrical direction
