Е. Andruschenko

Contemporary opera «under the badge of musical»: prerequisites, sources, tendencies (article 2)

The article characterizes the synthesizing processes in contemporary opera theatre caused by productive interactions between opera and musical. The mentioned interactions mount to a great scale and take some purposefulness. It allows the researcher to describe the influence of the concrete «epochal» musical on newly created operas by means of the term «begetting model». The specificity of this influence is examined in the article with the aid of such example as the famous musical «The Phantom of the Opera» (1986) by A. Lloyd-Webber. The author draws a number of parallels between the named musical and the opera «The Ghosts of Versailles» (1987, staged in 1991) by J. Corigliano. In particular the propinquity of this two works on the levels with a general idea (realized in historical and philosophical aspects), genre-style and dramaturgical intentions is revealed. Further some most significant parameters of «The Phantom of the Opera» and the opera project in Russia at the beginning of 2000s – «Maestro Massimo» («The Opera House») by A. Rybnikov – are compared analogously. In the opinion of the researcher this project is virtually directed toward the mentioned musical by Lloyd-Webber as «begetting model». The noted interactions are favourable to the final conclusion about the conception role of the dealt «model» and the appropriate nature of the «dialogues» between opera and musical on the boundary of the XX–XXIst centuries.

Key words

opera, musical, synthesizing processes, «begetting model», artistic conception, A. Lloyd-Webber, J. Corigliano, A. Rybnikov.

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