AFTER READING "HAMLET": THREE VIEWS ON A MASTERPIECE BY W. SHAKESPEARE

DOI: 10.36871/hon.202004012

Authors

M. P. Zachinyaeva
Russian State Specialized Academy of Arts, Moscow, Russian Federation

Abstract

This article is devoted to modern interpretations of W. Shakespeare's famous play in Russian music at the turn of the XXth — XXIst centuries on the example of R. Shchedrin's "Hamlet Ballad" — an instrumental work for the cello ensemble (2004), operas of the same name by S. Slonimsky (1991) and V. Kobekin (2006). Little-known pages from the history of creation and stage fate of "Hamlet Ballad" by R. Shchedrin are opened. The main emphasis in the publication is placed on the work of Vladimir Kobekin as the most radically read domestic version of the classic tragedy of the English playwright. The author defines the historical preconditions and reasons explaining the genre transformation of the opera into a comedy. Moreover, the author considers the distinctive features of Arkady Zastyrets's play, on which V. Kobekin relies in his libretto, from the "classical" Russian translation by Boris Pasternak, which is the basis of the opera by S. Slonimsky. The facts of the creative biography of contemporary Russian playwright and translator Arkady Zastyrets (1959–2019) are more fully revealed. The article also touches upon the musical dramaturgy of V. Kobekin's opera "Hamlet".

Keywords

"Hamlet", W. Shakespeare, N. Akimov, R. Schedrin, S. Slonimsky, V. Kobekin, A. Zastyrets, modern opera