MUSIC AND IMPERIAL IDEOLOGY (GLINCA'S CASE)

Authors

• Yuri CHEKAN In 1836, seventeen Europe's new operas have premiered: seven in Paris, three in Naples, two in, London and one in each: Venice, Leipzig, Vienna, Magdeburg and St. Petersburg. Only two of them -, "Huguenots" by Giacomo Meyerbeer and "A Life for the Tsar" by Mikhail Glinka remained in the standard, repertoire of opera houses to this day [6, 1326]. Others - including works by famous artists (Gaetano, Donizetti and Richard Wagner) and composers of the "second plan" (Daniel-Franзois Auber, Saverio, Mercadante, Heinrich Marschner) and the authors only known today to narrow specialists (Michael Balfe,, John Hull, Hippolytus Monpas) - have sunk into oblivion., A happy theatrical fate of Glinka's opera is easily explained by an undoubted artistic perfection of the, work. Sophisticated and verified musical drama, beautiful arias and choruses, spectacular dancing scenes,, an organic combination of the traditional Italian bel canto singing and Russian motives — everything in, Glinka's masterpiece distinguishes with its artistic perfection, the supreme skill. However, unlike other operas, - predecessors and immediate contemporaries that are also part of the standard repertoire of opera houses, (the same "Huguenots" by Meyerbeer or created a year earlier Bellini's "Puritans" and Donizetti's "Lucia di, Lammermoor"), this case is not limited only by the outstanding artistic properties of the text. What is also, significant, is the fact that astonishing Glinka's opera is astonishingly compliant to the requirements of, Russian imperial ideology with its three well-known “Uvarov” principles - orthodoxy, autocracy and nationality, [5, 514-519]. Glinka, by precisely "hitting the tone of the age, was officially recognized. "A Life for the Tsar", was for almost a century an officially patriotic opera, a banner and a symbol of the autocratic Russian, nationalism, "- Leonid Sabaneev rightly considered [16, 36]. Obviously it was no accident that Nicholas І,, who was present at the premiere, agreed to have the opera dedicated to him. "A Life for the Tsar" didn't just, illustrate certain ideologemes that were important to the empire, but also actively shaped and emotionally, tinted them1. Hence, the empire that was interested in continuing the reproduction and transmission of, particular thinking viruses - strongly contributed to their proliferation, and thus ensured the functioning of, opera in society, especially — of its stage life., Let's review some of the facts., 1 The subject of the heroism of the countryman Ivan Susanin, and the opera librettist (Baron Yegor Rosen), are known to have, been recommended by the composer Vasily Zhukovsky - author of the words of the official anthem of Russia, mentor of the future, Emperor Alexander II - in agreement with Nicholas І. Author