ON THE “CATECHISATION” OF THE THEATRE GENRE IN M. GLINKA’S WORKS. THE OPERA A LIFE FOR THE TSAR. Dedicated to the 220th Anniversary of the Composer. Essay I

The essay continues the discussion about the specifics of Russian musical theatre, which was started about two hundred years ago by V. Odoevsky and in which several generations of art historians have already participated. We are talking about the content of the “new direction in art”, according to Vladimir Odoevsky, which appeared and headed the world musical culture in connection with the name of the Russian genius, M. Glinka, the author of three theatrical works: the operas A Life for the Tsar (1836) and Ruslan and Lyudmila (1842) as well as music for the tragedy Prince Kholmsky (1840). Let us say in advance that the last of the named works, despite its enduring artistic value, has not yet been included in the university curriculum for training musicians. The performance of this work in concerts is also a great rarity, given that the music to the tragedy Prince Kholmsky is, in essence, the first Russian program symphony, a “symphonic miracle”, as P. Tchaikovsky called it. In several essays, we will consider the three named works in detail: the dramaturgy of the libretto and the features of musical expression, the formation of the images of the characters. All these special issues will be studied in their relation to the Christian world-view, which has been, in our opinion, the main “marker” of Russian art at all times of its existence. This idea, although it is more and more pronounced these days, is still not assessed seriously enough in the scientific humanitarian sphere; it is considered most of all from the aesthetic side, only abstractly touching on the dramaturgy and the musical language of the works, in our case — ​operas and music for theatre. In fact, it is precisely the laws of the spiritual life of man, which underlie the world-view and behaviour of a Christian, that directly determine the logic of the theatrical action structure. Moreover, they explain the content of the libretto and music, constituting that very “novelty” designated by V. Odoevsky in connection with M. Glinka’s theatrical creative work.