Opera for children-performers in the work of contemporary choir conductors
Authors: Kuzmina O.A. 
Published: August 2020

Background. Operas for children-performers emerged almost two centuries ago. The first authors who began creative experiments in this field were amateur composers. In the second half of the 19th century opera for childrenperformers attracted the attention of music teachers who by education were often choir conductors. These authors created their works considering capabilities and needs of their students. The 20th century operas intended for children performance mainly were composed by professional composers, whose works have finally crystallized and sustained characteristic features of this genre. In the 21st century, professional composers are turning to the opera genre for children-performers as actively as their predecessors. At the same time, this area again attracts the attention of authors who are practitioners in choir conducting and are not composers by education but work closely with children groups and write operas based on practical experience with such choirs. The objective of this study is to introduce little-known operas by Ye. Karpenko and P. Stetsenko (both are choir conductors) for children-performers into the scientific discourse and to define their genre features. The methodological ground of the article is a complex approach that involves the following analytical methods: systemic, structural, comparative, historical. Research results. In 2006, Yevhen Karpenko created the opera “Sribna Divchynka” (“Silver Girl”; the libretto by Serhiy Diachenko after the fairy tale by Tamara Khvostenko). The work has the author’s genre designation “opera-fairy tale for children”, which specifies both, the target audience and the team of performers. There are four characters that have solo sayings. The opera features a personalized choir divided into groups, and the mimic character. The composition consists of two acts divided into completed separated numbers (8 in the first act and 7 in the second one). Between them are spoken scenes of varying length, which in this context perform a function similar to recitative in the traditional operatic model. The main form of solo, ensemble and choral expression in “Sribna Divchynka” is a song. The vocal parts do not fall outside of children voices diapason, except for the solo of Zirnytsa (the adult personage, the mother of Silver Girl) and completely correspond to their possibilities. The melody in the solo and in the ensemble-choral numbers is performed in unison allowing to absorb the material of the opera faster even for children without prior musical preparation. The piano part at “Silver Girl” is multi-functional; its level of complexity makes it possible to involve as accompanists even middle and high school students in music schools or studios. Yevhen Karpenko created the opera for children-performers, which organically combines established genre traits with modern genre and style techniques. “Sribna Divchynka” is the work of universal nature, because it can be performed by children without prior musical training, as well as by those who already have some musical and stage experience. “The Three Hermits” (2016; libretto by Tandy Martin based on the story by L. Tolstoy) by Paul Stetsenko reflects contemporary processes in the field of opera with moral and ethical coloring for children-performers. The author attributes the work to the genre of church opera. That affects both the nature of the drama collisions and the location of the action. The central part of the work retains all the main characters of the story. In Prologue, P. Stetsenko added the new personages: Teacher and the Children. The composer does not prescribe the timbre specialization of the protagonists giving freedom to choose within the available voices. The opera consists of six scenes, framed by Prologue and Finale (Stetsenko chooses a scene as a compositional and dramaturgical unit). The scenes are separated from each other in key and completed musically. Representing the heroes of the opera, the composer gravitates more to the dialogic scenes, where the plot develops, than to the solo statements. In “The Three Hermits”, the choir plays an important role. It is personified and participates in the action representing the Children in the Prologue, the Pilgrim in the main part and the Finale, and also functions as a commentator. The opera contains three leitmotifs: “motive of prayer”, “theme of the Bishop”, “motive of the waters”. The composition of the work has an arched construction that connects two spaces of action – the “real” one and the “parable” one. Stetsenko’s “The Three Hermits” proves that with the simplicity of the typological features of the opera genre for children-performers (relatively small length, piano accompaniment, the range of vocal parts that corresponds to the age of the performers) it is capable of embodying deep ideas, wisdom of a parable, stable characters, to involve children to the spiritual and religious experience of the past and eternal moral truths. Conclusions. Thanks to the practical experience of Ye. Karpenko and P. Stetsenko, their collaboration with real children’s groups (in particular, the Children Music Theater “Dzvinochok” in Sumy, Ukraine, and the choir of Westminster Presbyterian Church, Alexandria, Virginia, USA) operas created by them meet the capabilities and needs of young performers: parts have the appropriate for children’s voice range; the tunes are simple and easy to remember; the action develops dynamically, there are no stretched conversation scenes; there are a sufficient number of actors; the duration of the works is approximately 30–35 minutes. Thus, these two operas for children-performers are a clear result of the fruitful collaboration between children’s groups and choir conductors who have the composer vocation.