Abstract: The article is devoted to the history of the failed collaboration between the librettist of the ballet Laurencia, Evgeniy Mandelberg, and the composer Dmitry Shostakovich. The article provides documentary evidence of Shostakovich’s participation in the creation of the music for the ballet (for the first time, the text of an unknown letter from Shostakovich to Mandelberg, dated February 5, 1937, is published). The Author concludes that in spite of the unsuccessful performance of the ballet «Limpid Stream» on the Bolshoi Theatre Dmitry Shostakovich did not refuse to create new scores of ballet genre.
Keywords: «Laurencia», «Limpid Stream», ballet, the Bolshoi Theatre, the Mariinsky Theatre, Dmitry Shostakovich, Evgeniy Mandelberg, Asaf Messerer
For citation: Porshnev I. D. «I will be happy to work at your ballet»: the scenario «Laurencia» by Evgeniy Mandelberg and Dmitry Shostakovich. Scholarly papers of Gnesin Russian Academy of Music. 2026;(2):89-100. (In Russ.). DOI: 10.56620/2227-9997-2026-2-89-100
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