Rosenthal's children

The opera was staged by the first order in almost 30 years by the Bolshoi Theater for a new original opera ^{[12] [17]} . Eduard Boyakov and Peter Pospelov initiated and lobbied the project in the administration of the Bolshoi Theater ^[18] . In 2002, a contract was signed with composer Leonid Desyatnikov and writer Vladimir Sorokin ^[19] . It was originally intended to rework Sorokin’s cabbage soup, but to avoid using profanity, it was decided to create an original libretto. At the meeting of L. Desyatnikov and V. Sorokin in the village of Kratovo in the Moscow region, Sorokin suggested: “And let's write an opera about the clones of classical composers” ^[20] .

Wagner, Verdi, Mozart, Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky were chosen as the most representative composers for opera. The ratio of two Russian composers to three foreign was deliberately chosen ^[20] . In preparation for work on the libretto, Vladimir Sorokin reviewed Wagner’s libretto, “The Rings of the Nibelung ”, translated from the beginning of the 20th century, translations of Verdi’s operas, from the libretto of Khovanshchina and Boris Godunov by Mussorgsky and others. Desyatnikov developed music for the opera based on the works of composers of the 19th century, not limited to the “originals” of the doubles presented in the opera. In an interview, he also noted that he cannot ignore contemporary pop music as potential material ^[20] .

The world premiere of the opera took place on the New Stage of the Bolshoi Theater on March 23, 2005. Altogether, during the 229 season, “Children of Rosenthal” were shown 6 times ^[17] .

The production was attended by: Alexander Vedernikov - musical director and conductor; Eimuntas Nyakroshyus - stage director; Marius Nyakroshus - stage designer; Nadezhda Gultyaeva - costume designer; Damir Ismagilov - a lighting artist; Valery Borisov - chief choirmaster; Igor Dronov - conductor ^[16] .

The rights to staging were with the Bolshoi Theater until 2009 ^[35] .

Two opera shows took place during the Bolshoi tour at the Mariinsky on October 16 and 17, 2005 ^[36] . On July 25 and 27, 2007, during the Bolshoi Theater tour in Finland ( Savonlinna ), the production of Rosenthal’s Children was performed by: Alex Rosenthal - Vadim Lynkovsky, Wagner - Evgenia Segenyuk, Tchaikovsky - Maxim Pasteur, Mozart - Roman Muravitsky, Verdi - Andrey Grigoriev, Mussorgsky - Valery Gilmanov, Tanya - Elena Voznesenskaya, Nanny - Irina Udalova, Kela - Nikolai Kazansky, First associate of Rosenthal - Alexander Zakharov, Second associate of Rosenthal - Alexander Korotky, Refugee - Oksana Gorchakovskaya, Homeless - Vladimir Krasov, Torgo ka - Elena Nowak, conductor - Alexander Arkhipov ^{[37] [38]} .

A concert performance of fragments of the opera (together with fragments of "Eugene Onegin" by Tchaikovsky) took place in 2008 during a tour of the Bolshoi Theater in Riga ^[14] . In 2009, the recording of the opera was broadcast on the radio by the European Broadcasting Union ^[39] . In 2015, the opera was recorded at Mosfilm. The release by Melodia of two disks with the opera Children of Rosenthal was planned in the spring of 2016 ^{[15] [40]} , but then the release was delayed due to registration of rights and took place at the beginning of the new opera season 2016-2017 ^{[41] [42]} .

At the beginning of the first action , a black-and-white “silent” film is shown, which tells about the German scientist Alex Rosenthal, who moved to the USSR and makes experiments on duplication of living beings and people .

The first scene of the ^1st picture takes place in the laboratory of Rosenthal. Mozart is being dubbed. Rosenthal and the choir of scientists sing a song praising the "resurrection" of geniuses: "I believe: genius and death are incompatible!" A voice from the reproducer explains the stages of duplication of the organism according to Rosenthal. It follows the singing of Rosenthal, Companions and Genetics, from which we can conclude that the duplication was successful. Scene two. Night. Doubles sleep in hammocks near the scientific center: Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Verdi and Mussorgsky. Rosenthal appears with a cradle. Alarmed Wagner wakes up and tells the contents of his nightmare: a beautiful swan turns rain from grave worms. The rest of the doubles wake up, Rosenthal informs them of the successful duplication of Mozart.

2 ^{I'm a} picture. Location: Rosenthal Cottage Veranda. Duet of the Nanny and Tchaikovsky: they complain that Mozart was born after the war and she can no longer breastfeed him, like the rest of the takes. Tchaikovsky worries: “How complicated the world is! / How scary in him / And strange! ”Rosenthal brings in Mozart's newborn. The rest of Dublin and the Nanny recall how they were brought into the house after birth. At the mention of children's toys donated by Stalin , Toys come on stage and dance. Rosenthal admits that he duplicated the composers secretly, since the duplication program should reproduce the workers: Stakhanovites , etc. Then a series of images of the country's leaders follows, demonstrating a gradual decrease in funding for the duplication program until it ceases under Yeltsin . At the end, a large mourning portrait of Rosenthal appears with dates: 1910 - 1992 . The voice says that the state does not have funds to keep takes.

The second action begins with the ^3rd picture, the events of which unfold on the Square of the three stations in Moscow in 1993 . Departing, Taxi drivers, Refugee, Thimbles, Homeless people, Prostitutes, Traders sing each about their own. Dublings give a musical performance. The prostitute Tanya is moved. All doubles except Mozart go to the tavern, he stays with Tanya. There is a transition to the first scene of the ^4th picture: Mozart and Tanya sing about their love. Kela's pimp intervenes. Verdi pays for Tanya with her father’s golden watch, buying her from Kela. Mozart and Tanya call everyone to their wedding: “Everything conquers love!” Kela is annoyed that he was taken away from a prostitute: “The wedding will not last long!” / Blame, tear off, yourself! ”In the second scene, all the characters of the station again run out onto the stage. Wedding, everyone is having fun. Tanya calls all takes to go with her and Mozart to live in Crimea with her mother. Arrives their train. Mussorgsky offers to drink vodka "for the road." Soon, the doubles and Tanya begin to feel bad and fall to the ground.

5th picture shows Mozart lying in a hospital bed in the Sklifosovsky hospital . A dialogue between Mozart and the Voice follows, explaining where he is and that all doubles and Tanya died from rat poison, sprinkled with Kela. Mozart survived, since its original was poisoned by mercury and the body developed immunity to its compounds. Mozart's singing is interspersed with quotes from the takes of Doubles and Tanya, until they all fade away; Mozart is left alone ^[11] .

Desyatnikov’s opera is postmodern in music : each of the composers takes a motive in the creative manner of their “originals” ^[8] . The references in the music are not limited to the doubles of the composers, in particular, one can also notice the stylistic influence of Shostakovich ^[12] .

The libretto is a conceptual framework supporting the musical structure of the opera through the division into paintings stylized as appropriate composers. In the first picture, Wagner describes a nightmare that he dreamed about, echoing the image of a divine swan. In the second picture, the Tchaikovsky duet with the Nanny parodies Eugene Onegin . In the third picture, the characters and mass scenes send the viewer to Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov”. The fourth picture is dedicated to Verdi, which is achieved through the duet of Mozart and Tanya, as well as inserts of the Italian text. However, it is difficult to find references to the work of Mozart, possibly due to the difficulty of parodying his music ^[12] .

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  “ Lohengrin ” - Wagner’s opera based on the legend of the swan knight (illustration by A. von Hekkel)

• Duet of the nanny and Tatyana “What is it, Tanya” from the opera “Eugene Onegin” by P. Tchaikovsky ^[43]

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  Scene of the royal coronation from the opera Boris Godunov by M. Musorgsky (design by A. Golovin for staging S. Diaghilev in Paris)

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  An example of Verdi’s love duet is Un dì, felice, eterea from the first act of La Traviata , the most performed opera by the composer ^[44] (the contemporary production of R. Wilson is illustrated)

The production of the opera at the Bolshoi Theater caused controversy and even scandals ^[12] both in the theater society and beyond.

In the opinion of I. V. Smirnov , the problem was already the very fact of the Bolshoi’s collaboration with the “writer”, who became famous for his “ banter ” on the topic of the Dachau concentration camp, as well as the fact that he insulted A. Akhmatova with such words that she would be ashamed to scratch on the wall of a drunk teenager. " Professionals, writes Smirnov, who were involved, for purely material reasons, to spread "abusive", "are successfully freed from their creative personality"; fans of Eymuntas Nyakroshyus “could not squeeze out any kind of convincing kind words about his participation in“ Children of Rosenthal “” ^[45] .

A group of deputies of the Russian Duma protested against the use of foul language and images of marginalized characters on the stage of the Bolshoi ^[13] . On March 4, 2005, 293 deputies immediately made a request to the Duma Committee on Culture to “check the information about the production of the opera“ Children of Rosenthal “on the New Stage of the Bolshoi Theater.” As E. Lyubarskaya noted, profanity in the opera is moderate (“loot”, “bitch”, “lousy”, “ sucker ” and “tear”), and characters who earn a living by prostitution are already found in “ La Traviata ” ^[46] . K. Kokshenyova objects to this, that in fact, “a new criterion for productions on the“ state stage ”is proposed - the press should applaud the note provocateur only because there is no obscene language in his libretto ... for the Bolshoi Theater” ^[18] .

At the same time, an eyewitness of the premiere production Igor Kamirov noted that there were only four protesters of the Duma instead of the promised forty, and they did not show much activity ^[8] .

K. Kokshenyova notes that postmodern operas, consisting of fragments of the great opera works of the past, have been presented in Europe since the 1980s. She severely criticizes “ modernism ” both in art as a whole and on the example of Desyatnikov’s opera. She believes that postmodern techniques in general and in “Children of Rosenthal” in particular do not develop art, but only copy, primitively duplicate the previously created ^[18] .

Gulara Sadykh-zadeh gave a positive assessment to the opera, noting that "modern authors are quite capable of writing viable, interesting and deep theater music." She believes that the opera is inscribed in the mainstream of the tradition of classical Russian opera; the music is energetic, the composer through contrasts communicates with the public and draws her into the dialogue. She points out that music is not explicitly stylized as composers of the past, rather, it mimics their work and generally expresses the collective musical consciousness of contemporaries ^[9] .

Staged by E. Nyakroshyus

In general, the performance received conflicting reviews ^[12] . I. Kamirov notes that the production of E. Nyakroshyus is in many respects similar to his earlier production of Macbeth , without introducing any innovations. The production is disappointing: the repetition of receptions (the coffin in the proscenium , which is transformed into different rooms, long poles and ropes in the hands of mysterious characters, red rags to indicate blood), which successfully modernized Verdi's old work, looks too straightforward compared to the meaning game laid down in the plot and music ^[8] . The composer himself was not completely satisfied with the stage production ^[47] . G. Sadykh-zade praised the careful and responsible attitude of the orchestra and conductor Alexander Vedernikov to the performed material ^[9] .

In 2006, the Bolshoi Theater received the Golden Mask Award (Special Jury Award) for the production of Rosenthal’s opera with the wording “for the initiative in the development of modern Russian opera”. The opera was also nominated for the Golden Mask in the nominations: “The best performance in the opera”, “The best work of the conductor”, “The best work of the director”, “The best female role” (Elena Voznesenskaya as Tanya) ^[16] .

• Kubasov, Alexander Vasilievich. The game world in the modern opera libretto (“Children of Rosenthal” by Vladimir Sorokin) // Ural Philological Bulletin. Series: Language. System. Personality: creative linguistics. - 2014-01-01. - Vol. 1 .
• Gulara Sadikh-zade. "CHILDREN OF ROSENTHAL." OPERA AND PERFORMANCE | Petersburg Theater Journal (Official Site) (neopr.) . ptj.spb.ru. Date of treatment July 17, 2016.
• Gustyakova, Daria Yuryevna. Russian Opera Theater in the context of mass culture (Russian) // Bulletin of the University of Pomerania. Humanitarian and Social Sciences Series: PDF. - 2006. - No. 6 . - S. 123-126 .
• Sorokin, Vladimir, 1955-, Sorokin, Vladimir, 1955-. The Triumph of Time and Feeling: A Collection of Libretto . - Moskva. - 246 pages p. - ISBN 9785171085209 , 517108520X.

• Children of Rosenthal (neopr.) . www.srkn.ru. Date of treatment August 7, 2016. - The libretto of the opera on the site of Vladimir Sorokin
• “Children of Rosenthal” at the Bolshoi Theater | Belcanto.ru (neopr.) . www.belcanto.ru. Date of treatment August 6, 2016.
• Rosenthal’s Children were born and died to applause (neopr.) . Date of treatment August 6, 2016.
• The premiere of "Children of Rosenthal" (neopr.) . Russian newspaper. Date of treatment August 6, 2016.
• “Without a doubt, this performance deserves several views” (neopr.) . www.bolshoi.ru. Date of treatment August 7, 2016. - Finnish journalists about staging an opera during the Bolshoi tour in Savonlinna.