Ru
EnE. Okuneva
“The Handmaid’s Tale” by Poul Ruders: Opera dystopia in the context of pluralistic musical theatre
The article focuses on the opera “The Handmaid’s Tale” (1998) by the Danish composer Poul Ruders, based on the eponymous dystopian novel by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. The research interest is focused on the peculiarities of the opera’s compositional structure and dramaturgy. The novel’s unique artistic chronotope, which unfolds across the different time planes, as well as the monological narrative, characterized by the duality of the heroine’s consciousness – split between the past and the present – led to a partial symmetry in the architectural structure of the composition. The part of Offred is divided by the composer between two singers, and various events, both current and those related to her life before Gilead, are often portrayed simultaneously on stage.
The article also pays special attention to the intertextual aspects of the composition. Drawing from the literary source, Ruders incorporates numerous quotations and allusions into the opera. Some of these are placed in dissonant contexts, while others are distorted, giving the borrowed material new semantic interpretations. The opera’s musical language synthesizes various stylistic layers, including sacred hymns, jazz, and the expressionist style of Berg.
In conclusion, the author interprets “The Handmaid’s Tale” in the context of trends in the development of opera theater at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, considering Ruders’ work as an heir to the pluralistic musical theater ideas of Bernd Alois Zimmermann.
Key words
20th century opera, pluralistic musical theatre, P. Ruders, P. Bentli, “The Handmaid’s Tale”, dystopia, intertextuality.
For citation
Okuneva E. “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Poul Ruders: Opera dystopia in the context of pluralistic musical theatre. In: South-Russian Musical Anthology. 2024. No. 4. Pp. 98–110.
