Ученые записки РАМ имени Гнесиных

«A Life for the Tsar» vs «Les Huguenots»: European opera in search of new forms (on the 220th anniversary of M. I. Glinka)

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Original article
DOI: 10.56620/2227-9997-2024-3-42-64

Alla G. Korobova

M. P. Mussorgsky Ural State Conservatory, Yekaterinburg, Russia,
2011korobova@mail.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3115-4099
Abstract: Glinka’s «A Life for the Tsar» and Meyerbeer’s «Les Huguenots» are two outstanding examples of world opera that appeared in the same year, 1836. At the same time, each of these works became an «icon» for the culture that gave rise to it: «A Life for the Tsar» was the first Russian classical opera, «Les Huguenots» was the French «grand opera». The article focuses on Glinka’s work, which is considered in the context of the opera art of his time and his search for new ways of development.

To solve this problem, the method of comparative analysis of Glinka’s opera with Meyerbeer’s contemporary work similar in genre and focusing on the main achievements of European opera composition at that time on that stage, as well as certain problems, is used. The main parameters of comparison include the interpretation of the genre of heroical-historic opera itself, the author’s version of intonation-musical dramaturgy and the means of its embodiment, as well as the interpretation of the opera forms and innovations in this area.

The study substantiates the general conclusion: Glinka’s first opera, which is not inferior to Western works in terms of professional mastery, historically became an achievement not only of Russian, but also of European opera theatre as a whole offering fruitful solutions to the problems of the opera genre (Wagner, Mussorgsky, Verdi, Debussy and others later gave their solutions). The article also touches on the main trends in the study of selected operas, their scope, including at the present stage.

Keywords: M. I. Glinka, «A Life for the Tsar», G. Meyerbeer, «Les Huguenots», opera, musical dramaturgy, opera forms

For citation: Korobova A. G. «A Life for the Tsar» vs «Les Huguenots»: European opera in search of new forms (on the 220th anniversary of the birth of M. I. Glinka). Scholarly papers of Gnesin Russian Academy of Music. 2024;(3):42-64. (In Russ.) DOI: 10.56620/2227-9997-2024-3-42-64

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