OPERA MUSIC OF A. S. ARENSKY IN THE ASPECT OF PERFORMING CULTURE

OPERA MUSIC OF A. S. ARENSKY IN THE ASPECT OF PERFORMING CULTURE

Denis Polyakov

Artist of the State Academic Musical Theater of the Republic of Crimea,

Russia, Simferopol

Olga Elkan

Doctor of Arts, Associate Professor, Professor of the Department of Social Disciplines and Art History St. Petersburg Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design,

Russia, St. Petersburg

Particular attention and interest in the creative heritage of A. Arensky in the 20th century began to revive and necessitated a detailed study of the life and work of the composer, analysis of his works and reassessment of his masterpieces from the point of view of modern scientific positions. We tried to characterize the main features of Russian music in the cultural and historical context at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, determined the specifics of the creative style of A. Arensky and his stylistic guidelines, examined the main problems of performing interpretation of opera music at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries.

Analyzing Arensky’s operas “Dream on the Volga”, “Raphael”, “Nal and Damayanti”, we can conclude that they clearly show the stylistic diversity that is inherent in many composers at the turn of the centuries. On the one hand, the composer continues following the established traditions of his predecessors, the Russian classical music school, on the other hand, there are features of innovation in his works that determined his aesthetic and stylistic guidelines.

Among the innovative solutions of A. Arensky, it is worth mentioning the use of stylistic models of previous eras with an updated genre and stylistic content, as well as an appeal to fairy-tale and historical plots, which is largely specific to modern composer thinking. Decorativeness, careful detailing and chambering of creativity, the use of modern modes and harmonies, the brightness of thematics, harmony and clarity of form - all these qualities are intrinsic to Arensky’s opera music, which is marked by clarity and depth of content, colorfulness and sophistication of the sound palette.

Speaking about the peculiarities of the composer’s style, I. Skvortsova writes: “The main emphasis is shifted from the inner essence of phenomena to their purely external manifestations, the “empathy theater” is replaced by the “show theater” [3, p. 90]. Using traditional methods of composer's writing, A. Arensky gives a new meaning to the key features of the modern era.

A. Gorshkova highlights several characteristics intrinsic to the composer, which speak of innovation: “among the stylistic features of modernity in the musical language of A. Arensky there are: - a melodic line marked by special sophistication, an arabesque structure; - ornamentality; – attention to decoration, external details of the musical fabric; – multilayer polymelodic texture; – interpenetration of melodic relief and figurative background; - special attention to rhythm, playing with rhythms as one of the media of expression” [1, p. 253].

The transformation of the leading ideas of the past, their development at a new level has always been one of the main elements in the evolutionary process in art. Many researchers claim that “signs that are generated by the relationship of continuity and innovation actively influence the progress of any artistic movement” [2].

In the second half of the 19th century and closer to the turn of the centuries, Russian opera art was in line with the romantic trend that dominated that period of time. New genres are being established in concert practice: waltz, mazurka, nocturne, barcarolle, rhapsody, fantasy, ballad, program suite, originating from a romantic worldview. The implementation of the national principle in music deepens through a generalized reflection of the characteristic signs of national genres.

A mark of a new stage in the development of Russian musical culture, as well as an innovative feature of Arensky’s style, was the use of folklore and fairy-tale-epic themes in the basis of plots in opera and stage works of composers.

Among the distinctive features of the composer’s writing, we would like to highlight the following ones:

• changing the simple modal-harmonic variation of folk motives with the help of textural, modal and tonal, intonation and thematic development;
• variation and enrichment of melody through polyphonization, alternation, chromatization, the use of techniques for comparing chords of unrelated keys, alternation of variable modes, complex and variable times, tempos;
• combination of various methods of shaping - through, variational, suite;
• the figurative sphere of opera works has significantly expanded, new means of expression have appeared that had never been used before;
• chamberiness and decorative sound.

In the operas of A.S. Arensky we can trace the most important trends in the development of Russian musical culture at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, which influenced the plot-dramatic and stylistic specifics of his operas. His earliest opera, “Dream on the Volga”, to a greater extent continues the traditions of the “The Five”: the dramatic canvas unfolds slowly, gradually, revealing itself in the course of four acts. The plot and development are interspersed with vivid genre scenes, culminating in a picturesque and stunningly powerful dream scene, imbued with chromaticisms, modern harmonies, and original timbre colors. The composer masterfully uses folklore sources and quotations in the opera, endowing the sound with a genuine national flavor. With regard to the vocal component, let’s note that in the opera “Dream on the Volga” the ariose-declamatory style prevails, the parts of the main characters are full of the speech traditions of M.P. Mussorgsky, and only the image of Marya is distinguished by expressive cantilena and deep psychologism.

The second opera by Arensky “Raphael” was created in line with the trend towards the chambering of opera popular for the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. This one-act opera combines conciseness and dramatic richness with the consistent patterns of lyrical opera and symphonic presentation based on the development of a system of leitmotifs. In terms of conception, the opera “Raphael” is the most innovative work of A. Arensky, which reflects not only genre searches in the field of one-act chamber opera, but also aesthetic and philosophical ideas related to understanding the role of art and the artist in cultural processes. In his last opera “Nal and Damayanti”, the composer came to a synthesis of lyrical and epic dramaturgy, interpreting the number structure in a peculiar way, relying on the “concentric” principle in building the whole, and at the same time refusing to use Eastern folklore, striving for a more “general” universal music  language and a somewhat Europeanized embodiment of the plot. In this work, the features of the opera style of A. Arensky are finally affirmed, with its tension to lyrical plots, to the symphonization of drama and the presence of a leitmotif system, to the differentiation of the types of the vocal part into two opposite spheres: heroes are characterized mainly through ariose-melodious intonations, and parts of anti-heroes are based on a recitative-declamatory vocal style.

So, summing up, let’s note that, in general, the opera creativity of A. Arensky has been developed in the synthesis of several trends specific to that period of time. He absorbed the writing techniques intrinsic to the music of various previous eras - baroque, classicism, romanticism. At the same time, the desire for the author's individualization, identity, and originality of creative solutions has increased. New color harmonies, timbre characteristics and new orchestral solutions are boldly introduced into the artistic arsenal, the connection with folklore is brought to the level of composer's thinking.

Opera works by A. Arensky are characterized by “a bright originality, manifested in the sophistication of decoration, processing of the material and, most importantly, in the originality of the melody, which consists of the synthesis of romance chant with the whimsical sinuosity of the melodic line peculiar to modernity” [1, p. 253].

In the opera genre, as in many others in which A. Arensky composed his works, we observe a gradual evolution of composer thinking, which moved towards the development of an independent individual style, which experienced a kind of transformation, having been influenced by the Russian musical composer school, “The Five” in their early works, and refracting absolutely original innovative stylistic features in the later period of creativity.

In his three operas, A. Arensky continues the best traditions of the Russian composer school, paying attention to the most relevant trends of his time and enriching the achievements of Russian opera music.

Performing opera music of the turn of the 19th-20th centuries today, modern vocalists need to take into account its style and performance features. During that outstanding period in the development of Russian vocal music, a whole generation of excellent performers was formed and combined highly professional technique with deep immersion in the role, with dramatic skill and a sensitive attitude to the author's intonation. Today, there is such a view in the performing arts that the main task of a vocalist is to reveal the composer's intention, in accordance with the era and style of the work, and to implement it with the help of individual performing means. On the one hand, liberties that distort the author's intention are unacceptable, on the other hand, each performance must be something special, unique, otherwise performance could not be considered a creative activity. For opera music by A. Arensky, an important stylistic factor is the composer's belonging to the difficult period at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, which is expressed both in following domestic traditions and in a certain freedom of late romanticism. This means that significant freedom and contrast of performing means (dynamics, timbre, tempo deviations) are acceptable in his works.

On the example of the “Song of the Singer Behind the Scenes” from the opera “Raphael”, it was found that the domestic tradition of adding grace notes to the main melody became the aesthetic norm for interpreting this number. Analysis and comparison of five different interpretations of the “Song of the Singer behind the Scenes”, created by famous domestic tenors of different generations, allows us to notice that the ratio of the composer's and the performer's intention in Arensky’s music can be of three types:

1) when the performer adheres to the musical text as much as possible, but at the same time he lacks some moments in understanding the author's intention or in the creative approach, which results in an accurate, but slightly monotonous performing version (S. Khromchenko, V. Sukhodolets);

2) when the performer introduces a lot of his own, deviates from the tempo, varies the melody and the rhythm - we have a bright and original version, but it is far from the composer's intention and often seems too free and even mannered (L. Sobinov, K. Ognevoy);

3) when a balance is struck between the composer's idea and the performer's freedom - the “golden mean”, which A. Solovyanenko keeps to: although allowing certain liberties, he does it carefully and combines it with preserving the character of the image, which, as a result, gives the most accurate embodiment of the composer's intent.

References:

1. Горшкова А. А. С. Аренский: личность, творчество, стиль. [Текст]: дис. ... канд. искусствоведения / А. Горшкова /17.00.02 – Москва, 2022. – 176 с.
2. Григорьева, Г. Стилевые проблемы русской советской музыки второй половины ХХ века [Текст] / Г. Григорьева. – М. : Cов. композитор, 1989. – 206 с.
3. Скворцова, И. А. Стиль модерн в русском музыкальном искусстве рубежа XIX-XX веков [Текст] / И. А.  Скворцова. – М. : Композитор, изд. 3-е, 2015. – 355 с.