focyAapcTBeHHbiM aKafleMnnecKUM Bo/ibwoi/i TeaTp Poccmm B iscript iMecre c o6lu,mm KynbTypHbiM pocroM b Ha-|LueM CTpaHe Bbipocna v\ noTpeÖHoerb b xo-'poweü My3biopMa.nncn/iHecK[/iM noTyraM, npe-TeH3MnM co3AaTb opMrMHanbHOCTb npneMaMi/i p,e-LueBoro opwruHa/ibHMHaHUM. 3to urpa b 3ayMHbie BeiAM, KOTOpafl MOXeT KOHHUTbCfl OHeHb nfioxo. OnacHocTb TaKoro HanpaBneHna b coßeTCKOi/i My3biKe flCHa. JleBauKoe ypoACTBO b onepe pacreT M3 Tora xe McroHHUKa, hto i/i neBau,Koe ypoACTBO b xMBonncM, b no33nn, b neAarornKe, b HayKe. MenKo6ypxya3Hoe «HOBaTopcrBO» BeAeT k oTpbi-By ot noAJTHHHoro MCKyccTBa, ot noA-TiUHHOi/i Hay-km, OT nOA/lUHHOM riMTepaTypbi. AßTopy «JleAU MaKÖeT MueHCKoro ye3Aa» npi/i-LUJiocb 3aMMCTBOBaTb y a>Ka3a ero HepB03Hyio, cy-AopoxHyKD, npunaAOHHyio My3biKy, HToöbi npn-AaTb «apacTb» cbohm reponM. B To Bpewfl, KaK Haina KpuTMKa — b tom nucne w My3biKanbHan - k/iHHeTCH MMeHeM counanncTMHe-CKoro peanM3Ma, cu,eHa npenoAHOC^t hbm b tbo- Along with a general growth in its culture, the demand for good music has also grown in our country. At no time or place have composers ever had such an appreciative audience. The masses expect good popular songs, but they also expect good instrumental music and good operas. Certain theatres are now parading Shostakovich's new opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk before the new, culturally mature Soviet audience as though it were a genuinely new, a real achievement. Obsequious musical critics are praising the opera to the skies, according it great fame. Rather than focused, serious criticism which might help him in his further work, its young composer hears only rapturous compliments. Right from the very first minute the listener is assaulted by a deliberately discordant and muddled stream of sounds. Snatches of a melody and rudiments of musical phrases sink, then rise to the surface, before disappearing again amid rumbles, grinding noises and squeals. Following this kind of 'music' is difficult; finding anything memorable in it quite impossible. And so it continues throughout most of the opera. On the stage singing has been replaced with shouting. Whenever the composer chances upon a plain and intelligible melody then immediately, as if afraid of misfortune, he leaps headlong into chaotic musical debris that at times spills over into cacophony. The expressiveness which any normal listener requires is replaced by wild rhythm. Mere noise is supposed to express passion. This is not because the composer is untalented or unable to express simple, powerful feeling in his music. This music was deliberately written in a topsy-turvy fashion, so that there would be nothing in it to remind one of classical opera, so that nothing in it should sound like symphonic music with a simple, accessible musical language. This is music built on the concept of negating opera, just as leftist theatrical art entirely negates plainness, realism, intelligibility of images, and the natural sound of words. It carries over into opera and music the most negative traits of Meyerholdism, only magnified. This is leftist chaos instead of natural, human music. The ability of good music to enthrall the masses is sacrificed to attempts at petty bourgeois formalism, to pretentions at creating originality through cheap novelties passed off at something clever. This play at being deliberately abstruse can only end very badly. The dangers of this tendency for Soviet music are clear. The leftist disfigurement of opera stems from the same source as the leftist disfigurement of painting, poetry, teaching and science. Petty bourgeois innovation leads to alienation from genuine art, genuine science, and genuine literature. The creator of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk has to borrow nervous, convulsive and epileptic music from jazz in order to give his characters 'passion.' At a time when our critics, music critics included, swear by Socialist Realism, the stage is presenting us with the most brutal naturalism in this work by Shostakovich. Everyone, be it merchants or ordinary people, is represented in a uniformly bestial guise. A vampish merchant's wife, who through Äst The State Academic Bolshoi Theatre of Russia 35 mm peHMM LUocTaKOBUHa rpy6eMujHM HaTypa/in3M. Oahotohho, b 3BepnHOM 06/inHMM npeflcraBneHbi Bee - 1/1 Kynubi v\ Hapofl. XnLUHMU,a-KynHnxa, flop-BaBLuaflCH nyTeM yöuMCTB k 6oraTCTBy v\ Bnacm, npeAcraB/ieHa b bi/iaö iokoi/i-to «xepTBbi» 6ypxy-a3Horo o6u4ecTBa. 5biTOBOi/i noBec™ JlecKOBa Ha-Bfl3aH cMbicn, KaKoro b Hei?i HeT. m Bee 3to rpyöo, npwvii/iTHBHO, BynbrapHO. My-3biKa KpaKaeT, yxaeT, nbixTMT, 3aAbixaeTca, HTo6bi KaK moxho HaTypa/ibHee n3o6pa3i/iTb nio6oBHbie cu,eHbi. 14 «jiioöoBb» pa3ivia3aHa bo Bcei/i onepe b caMOM By/ibrapHoi/i ctpopMe. KynenecKafl ABycna/ib-Haa KpoBaTb 3aHHMa9T u,eHTpa/ibHoe Mecra b octpopMneHMM. Ha Hei4 pa3peiuaKyrcfl Bee «npo6-neMbi». B TaKOM xe rpy6o-HaTypa.ni/icn/iHecKOM CTune noKa3aHa CMepTb ot oTpaB/ieHna, ceneHi/te noMTM Ha caMOM cueHe. KoMno3MTop, BMflMMO, He noCTaBUJi nepeA C0601/1 3aAann npucnywaTbCfl k to My, nero xast, nero nmeT b My3biKe coBeTCKaa ayAHTopua, Oh ctiobho HapoHHO 3aujMcf)poBaji CBoto My3biKy, nepenyran Bce3BynaHMfl b Hei/i TaK, MTo6bi Aowna ero My3biKa TO/ibKO AO noTe-pqBLUMX 3AopoBbiki BKyc acreTOB-c+popManncTOB. Oh npoLuen mhmo Tpe6oBaHi/ii/i coBeTCKOü KyribTypbi 1/13-rHaTb rpy6ocTb v\ AUKOCTb 1/13 Bcex yrnoB coBeTCKoro murder has clawed her way to wealth and power, is represented as some sort of 'victim' of bourgeois society. A meaning is imposed on Leskov's tale of everyday life which is completely absent in the original. And it is all brutal, primitive and vulgar. The music rasps, hoots, pants, and gasps in order to make the love scenes as naturalistic as possible, love' in its most vulgar form is spread liberally throughout the entire opera. The centerpiece of the set is a double bed from a merchant household. On it all the 'problems' are solved. Death from poisoning is depicted in the same coarsely naturalistic style; the flogging takes place almost onstage. Evidently the composer did not set himself the task of heeding what the Soviet audience expects and looks for in music. It is as though he deliberately encrypted his music and mixed up all the sounds in it so that it should get through only to formalist aesthetes who have long lost any healthy sense of taste. He ignored demands from Soviet culture to banish all that is rude and uncivilised from every corner of the Soviet way of life. Some critics call this hymn to libidinous merchants a satire. There is no question of satire here. The 6biTa. Bio BocnesaHi/ie KynenecKoi/i noxoxnuBOCTn HeKOTopbie KpnTMKn Ha3biBaKyrca™poi?i. Hn o KaKoi/i caTupe 3Aecb v\ penn He MoxeT 6biTb. BceMM cpeAcr- BaMU M My3blKaj1bHOM l/l APaMaTMHeCKOM Bbipa3H- TejibHOCTH aBTop crapaeTCfl npi/iB/ienb CMMnaTni/i nyö/inKM k rpyöbiM 1/1 By/ibrapHbiM crpeM/ieHi/mM m nocrynKaM Kynnnxi/i KaTepi/iHbi H3Mai/uioBoi/i. «JleAH MaKÖeT» wvieeT ycnex y 6ypxya3H0i/i ny6.ni/iKi/i 3a rpaHi/iu,ei/i. He noTOMy nv\ noxBani/iBa-eT ee 6ypxya3Haa ny6ni/iKa, hto onepa 3Ta cyM-6ypna n a6conioTHO anonnTUHHa? He noTOMy jih, hto OHa LAeKoneT M3Bpauj,eHHbie BKycbi 6ypxya3-hoi/i ayAHTopni/1 CBoei/i AepraioLU,ei/icfl, kpi/ikjimboi/i, HeBpacreHMHecKOM My3biK0i/i? Hawi/i TeaTpbi npunoxunn HeMa/10 TpyAa, hto-6bi TLuaTeribHo nocraBi/iTb onepy LUocraKOBUHa. AKTepbi o6HapyxMjin 3HaHMTenbHbii/i Ta/iaHT b npeoAOTteHnn wyivia, Kpno w CKpexeTa opKecrpa. flpaMaTunecKOM nrpoi/i ohm crapanncb B03Mec-TMTb MenoAHMHoe yöoxecTBo onepbi. K coxa/ie-hi/iio, ot 3Toro eme apne BbicrynnnM ee rpy6o-Ha-TypannanHecKne Hep™. TanaHTnwBafl Hrpa 3a-cnyxuBaeT npi/i3HaTenbHOc™, 3aTpaneHHbie yci/i-jii/ih — coxaneHUfl. («FIpaBßa», 28 aHBapa 1936) author uses all the means of musical and dramatic expression to win the audience's sympathy for the rude and vulgar yearnings and behaviour of the merchant's wife Katerina Izmailova. Lady Macbeth enjoys popularity with the bourgeois public abroad. Is it not precisely because it is chaotic and utterly apolitical that the bourgeois public praises it? Because it teases the depraved tastes of the bourgeois audience with its jolting, strident, neurasthenic music? Our theatres took considerable pains over their careful staging of Shostakovich's opera. The actors displayed considerable talent in overcoming the noise, shrieks and grinding of the orchestra. They tried to make up for the opera's musical poverty with their acting. Unfortunately this made its coarsely naturalistic traits stand out even more clearly. Their talented acting deserves gratitude; their wasted efforts pity. (Pravda, 28 January 1936) 26