E. Kiseeva, L. Yeprikyan

The Interpretation of the Opera Genre in the Creativity of F. Glass (On the Example of Opera «Satyagrakh»)

In the article questions of updating the opera genre in the “Satyagraha” by F. Glass are considered, an essay revealing the history of modern American opera. In the domestic musicology there developed the tradition of defining the historically earlier production of the composer ”Einstein on the shore“ as a work that changed the understanding of the opera genre. However, radical in its innovation, “Einstein” goes far beyond any particular musical and theatrical genre, while the more definite genre “Satyagraha” is simultaneously connected with the tradition of the European opera performance and with a strong tendency to rethink it, who clearly expressed herself at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. In the center of attention of the authors are both the internal laws of the work connected with its compositional-dramaturgic decision, and the principles of interaction between the author and the viewer that lie outside the artistic events. In the article the specifics of the embodiment of the performance in “Satyagraha” of the performance as an actual form of representation that came to replace the traditional musical and theatrical performance is considered. In particular, the techniques characteristic for performance are analyzed, connected with the study of the bodily experience in the process of performance and perception of the composition; the principle of influence on the viewer is defined – provoking to participate in the mental construction of the content of the work; the regularities of the space-time solution of the formulation are established. The authors come to the conclusion that “Satyagraha” is a work that radically renewed the tradition of perception of the academic opera. The innovative principles embodied by F. Glass in the “Satyagraha” and developed by him and other composers at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries in the opera genre make it possible to define such works by the term “post-opera”.

Key words

contemporary musical theatre, Philip Glass’s early operas, renovation of the opera genre.

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