Ru
EnN. Verba, M. Ulianova
“Eternal” themes as the semantic core of G. Gladkov's opera “The Elder Son”
The article focuses on Gennady Gladkov's opera "The Elder Son" (1983), considered from the perspective of the implementation of so-called eternal themes, including Christian narrative. Attention is paid to the corresponding semantic accents present in A. Vampilov’s play, in the poetic libretto by Y. Kim based on it, and in the music of G. Gladkov. A distinctive feature of the opera lies in the concealed nature of its deeper semantic layers, which appear to be deliberately “veiled” by the work’s pronounced lyrical-comic tone. At the same time, Gladkov’s oeuvre as a whole testifies to a non-random, worldview-driven choice of subject matter across all his creative projects. The imprint of "eternal plots" can also be traced in the music for animated films and television productions, as well as in compositions for variety shows and theater.
In the opera, profound Christian meanings are realized through a variety of expressive means characteristic both of traditional operatic dramaturgy and of techniques drawn by Gladkov from the spheres of popular music, cinema, musical theatre, and operetta, subsequently adapted to a serious genre. These include leitsymbols (leitmotifs, leitintonations, leitgenres), contrasts (images and genres), the use of established operatic forms – arioso, ensembles, as well as general "finales" that close each act.
At the same time, Kim and Gladkov employ means that may be described, without exaggeration, as unique, found exclusively in their collaborative work and referring to universal meanings of human existence reflected in Gospel parables, such as those of the Prodigal Son, the Talents, etc. Among these means is a masterful command of the antithesis between the serious and the comic, the elevated and the low. The opera is full of contrasts between serious text and “light” music (and vice versa), simultaneous contrasts of various intonational “vocabularies”, and methods of deliberate reduction of pathos. Such kind of “veil” seems to conceal the true “sacred core” beneath the surface – the opera’s underlying semantic framework.
Key words
eternal plots in art, opera dramaturgy, the work of Gennady Gladkov, the opera “The Elder Son”.
For citation
Verba N., Ulianova M. “Eternal” themes as the semantic core of G. Gladkov's opera “The Elder Son”. In: South-Russian Musical Anthology. 2025. No. 4. Pp. 84–100.
