ARTS IN CULTURAL DIALOGUE

Abstract. Nikolai Sidelnikov’s opera “The Flight” based on Mikhail Bulgakov’s play with the same title was created during the course of four years (1981–1985). In 2011 its premiere took place at the Boris Pokrovsky Chamber Theater, the production was carried out by producer O.T. Ivanova. The opera was performed in a revised version of Sidelnikov’s student Kirill Umansky, who reorchestrated it for a smaller orchestra.
Analogously with the writer’s play, the opera consists of four acts, each of which is comprised of two scenes. Correspondingly, the structure of the opera includes eight scenes or eight “Dreams”. The action of the opera takes place in the 1920s – specifically, during the years 1920–1921. In Russian history, this particular period was marked by a bloody civil war, which in many ways was the consequence of the October Revolution of 1917. The place of action is: Northern Taurus – Crimea – Constantinople – Paris – Constantinople. The first and second acts of the work are devoted to Russia, while the third and fourth act unfold in Turkey, France and then, once again, Turkey.
The aim of the present article is to disclose the peculiarities of the genre and the opera “The Flight”, in which the main qualities of the composer’s artistic manner are reflected quite concisely. Another important goal is also to present to the readers the authors’ discovery of numerous stylistic allusions forming a parallel semantic background and unfathomably deepening and expanding the composition’s musical-scenic dimension. The quotations and allusions not only create a broad associative polystylistic field, – the play of various “types of music” as a certain analogy of “a section of the culture of various epochs”, the sounding sonosphere, – but also possess a symbolic meaning. There appears a deep “basin” of meanings, which stimulates an intellectual comprehension of the musical text.
Keywords: Nikolai Sidelnikov, Mikhail Bulgakov, the opera “The Run”, genre, dramaturgy, stylistic allusions, quotations.

Komarnitskaya O. V.: Doctor of Art History, Professor, Department of Interdisciplinary Musicological Studies, Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Moscow, Russia, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2730-7534, e-mail: mkomarnickij@yandex.ru
Goverdovskaya M. A.: PhD student, Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Moscow, Russia, e-mail: dnwnp@mail.ru

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