Title: Not Russian enough? : nationalism and cosmopolitanism in nineteenth-century Russian opera /
Authors: Helmers, Rutger, 1980-
Year: 2014
Subjects: Opera Russia; Nationalism in music.; Oper; Nationalbewusstsein.; Nationalismus.; Nationalism in music.; Opera; Russland; Russia
Abstract: In the nineteenth century, Russian composers and critics were encouraged to cultivate a national style to distinguish their music from the dominant Italian, French, and German traditions. Not Russian Enough? explores this aspiration for a nationalist musical tradition as it was carried out in the cosmopolitan world of opera. Rutger Helmers analyzes the cultural context, music, and reception of four important operas: Glinka's A Life for the Tsar (1836), Serov's Judith (1863), Tchaikovsky's The Maid of Orléans (1881), and Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tsar's Bride (1899). He discusses such issues as the influence of Italian and French opera, the use of foreign subjects, the application of local color, and the adherence to thesics, and considers how these related to a sense of "Russianness." Besides yielding new insights for each of these works, this study offers a fresh perspective on the function of nationalist thought in the nineteenth-century Russian opera world [Publisher description]
Contents: A life for the Tsar and bel canto opera -- Subject matter, local color, and national style in Judith -- French theatricality and inadvertent Russianisms in the Maid of Orléans -- The Tsar's bride and the dilemma of history.