Juno and Avos

In 1978, composer Alexei Rybnikov showed director Mark Zakharov his musical improvisations on themes of Orthodox chants . Zakharov liked the music, and at the same time the idea arose to create on its basis a musical performance on the plot of “ Words about Igor's Regiment ”. He made this proposal to the poet Andrei Voznesensky (this was their first meeting), but he did not support this idea:

Then I was an arrogant young poet, it seemed to me incomprehensible why it was necessary to write something Slavophil in the "Word on Igor's Regiment", while its author is unknown and it is not even known whether or not the author of the "Word" was. I say: “I have my own poem, it’s called“ Avos! ”About the love of the forty-two-year-old Count Rezanov for the sixteen-year-old Konchita, let's make an opera based on this poem.” Mark was a little confused and said: "Let me read." The next day, he told me that he agreed and that we would do an opera, and the choice of composer would be his, Mark. He chose Alexei Rybnikov. It was a happy choice. ^[5]

The libretto was really based on the poem Avos (1970), although for the theatrical production it was naturally necessary to add many arias and scenes. The authors replaced the word “ rock opera ” with “modern opera ”, because at that time rock music was under strict control by the authorities. The dance numbers were staged by choreographer Vladimir Vasiliev , who also initially felt that the upcoming production had no analogues on the Soviet stage.

In parallel with work on the play at the Moscow Lenin Komsomol Theater in 1980, an audio version of the opera was recorded with other performers. The first public listening of the recorded work took place on December 9, 1980 in the Church of the Intercession at Fili (Moscow). However, due to censored obstacles, an album of two stereo records was not released by Melody in 1982 (C60 number 18627-30 (2LP)).

At the same time, in contrast to Rybnikov’s previous rock opera “ Lenka ” staged the star and death of Joaquin Murieta , which the commission rejected 11 times, the new performance was allowed immediately. Moreover, according to the memoirs of Voznesensky, before passing the commission, Zakharov took a taxi with him to the Elokhov Cathedral , where they put candles at the icon of the Kazan Mother of God (which is mentioned in the opera). ^[5] They brought three consecrated icons to the theater and put them in the dressing room on the table with Nikolai Karachentsov , Elena Shanina and Lyudmila Porgina , the performer of the role of the Mother of God ("Women with a Baby", as it was written in the program ^[6] ).

The premiere of the opera took place on July 9, 1981 on the stage of the Lenin Komsomol Moscow Theater , starring Nikolai Karachentsov (Count Rezanov), Elena Shanina (Konchita), Alexander Abdulov (Fernando). A few days later, according to Rybnikov’s recollections, scandalous articles about the play were published in the West, which rated it as anti-Soviet, which complicated the life of its authors:

The Western press reacted as if we were doing the premiere on Broadway, and not in Soviet Moscow. After that I was pushed into the shadows for a very long time. They played the performance, but did not release it abroad, the record did not go out for a very long time (after all, 800 people go to the performance 2-3 times a month, and the record is mass fame). They didn’t even recognize me as an author, they didn’t sign a contract with me, and I sued the USSR Ministry of Culture, foreign correspondents came to the court ... Having won a court, I fell into the category of people whom it’s better not to get involved at all. ^[7]

However, after some time, thanks to Pierre Cardin , the Lenkom Theater toured in Paris and Broadway in New York , then in Germany, the Netherlands and other countries.

For thirty-odd years, the performance at Lenkom has withstood more than a thousand performances and is still going on with an unchanged full house. The main actors changed several times, although Nikolai Karachentsov invariably, until the accident, played the role of Nikolai Rezanov. Currently, the role of Rezanov is performed by Dmitry Pevtsov . The role of Fernando after A. Abdulov was “inherited” by Victor Rakov . The role of Conchita was played by Anna Bolshova , then Alla Yuganova .

December 31, 1985 on the stage of the Palace of Culture. Kapranova in Leningrad, the premiere of a rock opera performed by VIA "Singing Guitars" (later became the St. Petersburg Rock Opera Theater ). This stage version was different from the production of Lenkom. In particular, the director Vladimir Podgorodinsky introduced into the play a new character - the Ringer, actually the "materialized" soul of Nikolai Rezanov. The ringer is practically devoid of words and only the most complex plastic and emotional mood conveys the throwing of the soul of the protagonist. According to the memoirs, Alexei Rybnikov , who attended the premiere, admitted that “Singing Guitars” more accurately embodied the idea of ​​the creators of the opera, preserving the author's genre of opera-mystery and the original drama of Voznesensky. In the summer of 2010, in St. Petersburg, the two thousandth performance of Juno and Avos performed by the Rock Opera Theater took place .

The opera was also staged in Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Germany, South Korea, Ukraine and other countries.

In the summer of 2009, in France, the State Theater, led by People's Artist of Russia composer Alexei Rybnikov, presented a new production of the rock opera Juno and Avos. The main emphasis in it is placed on the musical component of the performance. Vocal numbers were staged by Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Zhanna Rozhdestvenskaya , choreographic numbers by Zhanna Shmakova. The main director of the play is Alexander Rykhlov. On the website of A. Rybnikov it is noted:

The full author’s version ... is a serious innovation in the genre of world musical theater and is designed to return the original idea of ​​the authors. The new version of the opera combines the traditions of Russian sacred music, folklore, and genres of mass “urban” music, with the composer's imaginative, ideological, and aesthetic priorities. ^[8]

The plot of the poem “Juno and Avos” (1970) and rock opera is based on real events and is dedicated to the journey of Russian statesman Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov to California in 1806 and his meeting with young Conchita Arguello , daughter of the Spanish commandant of San Francisco .

According to the memoirs of Andrei Voznesensky, he began to write the poem Avos in Vancouver when he "swallowed ... flattering pages about Rezanov’s thick volume by J. Lensen, following the fate of our brave compatriot." ^[9] In addition, Rezanov’s travel diary, which was also used by Voznesensky, was preserved and partially published.

Nikolai Rezanov, one of the leaders of the first Russian round-the-world expedition, arrived in California in 1807 in order to replenish food supplies for the Russian colony in Alaska . He was loved by the 16-year-old Conchita Arguello, with whom they became engaged. Rezanov was forced to return to Alaska, and then go to the imperial court in St. Petersburg in order to procure permission to marry a Catholic. However, on the way he became seriously ill and died in Krasnoyarsk at the age of 43 years (Rezanov's life years 1764-1807). Conchita did not believe the information about the death of the groom that reached her. Only in 1842 did the English traveler George Simpson, arriving in San Francisco, tell her the exact details of his death. Believing his death only thirty-five years later, she vowed silence , and a few years later she received tonsure at the Dominican monastery in Monterey , where she spent almost two decades and died in 1857 .

And after another one and a half centuries, a symbolic act of reunion of lovers occurred. In the fall of 2000, the sheriff of the Californian city of Monterey brought to Krasnoyarsk a handful of earth from her grave and a rose to lay on a white cross with the words “I will never forget you” and “I will never see you” on the other side.

Neither poem nor opera are documentary chronicles. So Ascension himself says about this:

The author is not so consumed by self-conceit and frivolity to depict real people on meager information about them and insult them with approximation. Their images, like names, are only a whimsical echo of the fates of famous ... ^[5]

In 1810-1812, the notes of G. Davydov “A double trip to America ...” were published, which set out the story of the captains of the legendary ships “Juno” and “Avos” ^[10] .

A similar story occurred with the future Decembrist D.I. Zavalishin during his participation in a round-the-world expedition under the command of M. Lazarev (1822-24) (See Questions of History, 1998, No. 8)

Rock opera "Juno and Avos" is based on real events. Initially, it was the poem Avos, which Andrey Voznesensky created, impressed by the love story of traveler Nikolai Rezanov and Conchita Arguello.

After meeting with the composer Alexei Rybnikov, the poet writes the libretto. After the processing of which appears the rock opera "Juno and Avos." This was a new trend in art - prayer songs sounded on stage with modern musical accompaniment. And for almost 37 years, the rock opera, directed by director Mark Zakharov, has been successfully performed on the stage of the Lenin Komsomol theater.

The plot of the poem is about great love, for which there are no barriers and distances, no age restrictions, the theme of faith and service to the Fatherland, the theme of sacrifice in the name of Russia are also very convex.

Ascension shows us the protagonist of the libretto with a high sense of patriotism, devotion to the motherland, a man seeking meaning, the truth of life. Rezanov considers himself to be a restless generation, who find it difficult both at home and on the wrong side.

Nikolai Rezanov does not find joy in everyday life, his soul is in the eternal search for pipe dreams. In his youth, he dreamed of the Virgin and since then she has taken possession of his thoughts. Over the years, the image of the Holy Virgin became more familiar. A young man thinks of her as his lover with cherry eyes. His heart is in constant turmoil.

And now he is 40 years old, and he rushes about like a lost one in search of ghostly freedom, a new life path. Finding no joy in anything, Nikolai Petrovich decides to devote his life to serving the Fatherland, to realize his plan - to find new lands.

He writes numerous petitions, believing only in Russian "maybe", to Tsar Alexei Nikolayevich with a request to support his venture and send ships to the shores of California for the implementation of the Russian-American trading company, to strengthen the glory and power of Russia.

1. Prologue
2. Funeral service
3. Romance "I Will Never Forget You!"
4. Aria Rezanova "My soul is madly tired"
5. Church scene and prayer
6. Aria of the Blessed Virgin
7. Song of sailors Avos
8. Swimming
9. Arriving in America
10. Ball scene
11. White Rosehip
12. Night. Bedroom Conchita
13. Aria Rezanova "Angel, become a man"
14. Duel with Fernando (Federico)
15. Engagement
16. Rezanov’s monologue “Bring me Discovery Cards”
17. Chorus and Scene “Give to the Lord”
18. The scene in the cell. Waiting for Conchita
19. The final
20. Epilogue. "Hallelujah"

The record with music from the play, released in 1982, contains a recording of 1980, that is, even before the premiere of the rock opera in the theater ^[7] . In 1996, the company "Melody" reissued on CD (MEL CD 60 00327) with a modified cover design.

Subsequently, a CD was released for the twentieth anniversary of the performance performed by the actors of the Lenkom Theater (the 1982 LP was recorded without their participation), with slightly different content:

1. Prologue
2. Officers Romance
3. My soul is madly tired
4. First prayer
5. Second prayer
6. Aria of the Virgin
7. Maybe
8. White Rosehip
9. Angel, become a man
10. I will never forget you
11. Chorus Give to the Lord
12. I'm dying from a simple twig
13. 35 years of waiting
14. Replica of the Man from the theater
15. Hallelujah
16. In honor of the fifteenth anniversary

Rezanov

• 1979 - 1981 - Gennady Trofimov
• 1981 - 2005 - Nikolai Karachentsov
• 2005 - n. at. - Dmitry Pevtsov
• 2006 - 2016 - Victor Rakov
• 2017 - n. at. - Semyon Shkalikov

Conchita

• 1981-1988 - Elena Shanina
• 1988-1990 - Inna Pivars
• 1990-1994 - Alena Khmelnitskaya
• 1994-2001 - Inna Pivars
• 2001-2007 - Anna Bolshova
• 2006—2011 - Alla Yuganova
• 2010 - n. at. - Alexandra Volkova
• 2012 - n. at. - Anna Zaykova

Fernando

• 1981 - 1990 - Alexander Abdulov
• 1990 - 2004 - Victor Rakov
• 2005 - n. at. - Stanislav Ryadinsky
• 2010 - n. at. - Kirill Petrov

Record VSG “Melody” C60 18627-30 (2LP) ^{[11] [12]}

• Rezanov - Gennady Trofimov
• Conchita - A. Rybnikova
• Federico - P. Tils
• Rumyantsev, Tails, Father Juvenal - F. Ivanov
• Voice of Our Lady - Jeanne Christmas
• Prologue Soloist - R. Filippov
• Davydov, second soloist - K. Kuzhaliev
• Jose Dario Arguello - A. Samoilov
• Praying woman, soloist in the epilogue - R. Dmitrenko
• Praying Girl - Olga Rozhdestvenskaya
• Sailor - V. Rotar
• A group of worshipers - A. Sado, O. Rozhdestvensky, A. Paranin
• Holy fool - A. Rybnikov

In 2009, especially for the Pierre Cardin festival in Lacoste, composer Alexei Rybnikov and the Alexei Rybnikov Theater created a stage version of Juno and Avos in the author’s version, which differs significantly from the Lenkom performance. The director of the production was Alexander Rykhlov.

В мае 2011 года монетный двор Польши по заказу правительства острова Ниуэ выпустил серебряную монету достоинством 1 новозеландский доллар , посвящённую рок-опере и спектаклю театра Ленком . На оборотной стороне монеты изображены Николай Караченцов и Елена Шанина , сыгравшие главные роли в спектакле, а также надпись «Юнона и Авось» на русском языке. ^{[13] [14]} .

• Андрей Вознесенский. Поэма «Авось» (неопр.) . Архивировано 1 декабря 2012 года.
• Андрей Вознесенский. Поэма «Авось» (неопр.) . Архивировано 1 декабря 2012 года.
• Андрей Вознесенский. Либретто рок-оперы (неопр.) . Архивировано 1 декабря 2012 года.
• История любви Резанова и Кончиты в литературе (неопр.) . Архивировано 1 декабря 2012 года.
• Рецензия на портале Муз-просвет (неопр.) (недоступная ссылка) . Архивировано 29 января 2013 года.
• Страница спектакля на официальном сайте театра Ленком (неопр.) . Архивировано 1 декабря 2012 года.
• “Rezanov and Conchita - a love story in the memory of generations” by O. Nikolaev (neopr.) . Archived December 1, 2012.
• Libretto in the version of the Lenkom Theater