PREMIERE HALF A CENTURY LATER (S. M. Slonimsky’s opera “The Master and Margarita” on the stage of the Samara Opera and Ballet Theatre named after D. D. Shostakovich)

UDC 782
DOI: 10.36871/hon.202401133

Authors

Elena B. Dolinskaya,
Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Moscow, 125009, Russian Federation

Abstract

In October 2023, the premiere of S. M. Slonimsky’s chamber opera “The Master and Margarita” took place at the Samara Opera and Ballet Theatre named after D. D. Shostakovich, which became a significant event for Russian musical theatre. Completed in 1972, the opera was performed at the Leningrad House of Composers, but in a reduced form, and was rejected by cultural officials. The concert production of the opera by M. Yurovsky in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory in 1989, could not fully satisfy the composer, as well as the Hamburg production of 2000, which was in German. Only half a century later, the opera “The Master and Margarita” saw the light of the theatrical footlights in its original version. The three premiere days in Samara demonstrated the public’s interest in S. M. Slonimsky’s work. It was also important that the core of the performers consisted of young singers, who took part in the production along with venerable vocalists. The musical director of the theatre and conductor Evgeny Khokhlov, as well as the director Yu. Alexandrov had to gradually immerse themselves in the musical text of the opera, repeatedly playing the score in order to unravel the meaning embedded in it by the composer.

Keywords

Samara Opera and Ballet Theatre named after D. D. Shostakovich, S. M. Slonimsky, opera “The Master and Margarita”