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EnE. Smagina
Yuliy Bleichman: touches to the portrait of the Silver Age composer
This article touches upon the creative figure of Yuliy Bleichman, a little-known Russian composer who lived and worked at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. Music by Yu. Bleichman, represented among others almost forgotten composers of the late 19th – early 20th centuries (A. Koreshchenko, G. Kazachenko, I. Trubetskoy, P. Blaramberg), is considered as a “gap” in the study of musical culture of the Silver Age. The main directions of his activity – composing and directing – are briefly elucidated. Bleichman’s heritage includes operatic works and romances that reflected the main facets of his lyrical talent. The facets of the artistic concept of the lyrical opera “The Princess of Dreams” and the legendary opera “The Light of Christianity” are analyzed in the context of composers’ searches in the sphere of opera genre in the Russian musical theatre on the turn of the 19th–20th centuries and it’s connections with the aesthetic and religiousphilosophical trends of the Silver Age. The features of the proximity of the opera “Princess of Dreams” to the poetics of Russian symbolism are noted: the change of the name of its original source – E. Rostan’s drama “The Princess Far-Away” – by T. Shchepkina-Kupernik, the author of the Russian translation of the play; the implementation of the orphic idea, the interpretation of the symbols of Roses and Lilies. In the analysis of musical drama and the stylistics of the opera, the author notes connections with the traditions of Russian lyric opera, the two-dimensional nature of dramaturgy, the leading role of through-composed music principles, a number of leitmotifs in themes and orchestration (the leitmotif of love by Melissande and Bertrand, the leit-timbre of the harp), the significance of romance-like declamatory melodics. The ideological and philosophical idea of the opera “The Light of Christianity” in based on a theme of the hero’s martyrdom in the name of the God and the true faith, consonant with the issue of Russian search of God. The article also gives a brief overview of Bleichman’s romances (the predominance of lyrical themes, monologues of various types; the circle of authors is indicated, the special significance of the texts of K. R. and D. Ratgauz is noted).
Key words
Yuliy Bleichman, Silver Age, Russian opera, “The Princess of Dreams”, “The Light of Christianity”, E. Rostan, K. R. (Konstantin Romanov), romances-monologues.
For citation
Smagina E. Yuliy Bleichman: touches to the portrait of the Silver Age composer // South-Russian Musical Anthology. 2023. No. 3. Pp. 114-122.
