Alexey Rybnikov wrote a patriotic opera

The premiere of a new opera-drama by composer Alexei Rybnikov took place at the Gradsky Hall Theater. The author called it Le Prince Andrè – like this in French, specifying in the subtitle: “Prince Andrei Bolkonsky based on the novel by L.N. Tolstoy “War and Peace”. And it would not be an exaggeration to say that the work was created by Alexei Rybnikov in collaboration with the great classic: practically all the texts that sound from the stage are prosaic and are exact quotes from Tolstoy’s novel.

“Prince Andrei” was expected. It flashed some time ago on the stage of the Et Cetera theater and was supposed to immediately become an event, but for a number of reasons, for a while, it seemed to “suspend” in oblivion. Now it reads like a supreme idea: the degree of today’s relevance of the performance is so high that it had to appear right now.

After an impressive overture performed by a large string orchestra that filled the stage, and complemented by a video installation on a giant back-screen by virtual musicians, the Emperor of France Napoleon Bonaparte (Alexander Pozdnyakov) appeared on the stage – slender, handsome, quite tall, nothing but a proud profile, not resembling the usual idea of ​​one of the greatest, but undersized commanders of world history. But such an image fit well into that picture of universal admiration for the French emperor, which is described in Tolstoy’s novel. The high society of St. Petersburg, and even more mundane Moscow, who spoke exclusively French, admired the future invader of the country.

The coronation of Napoleon, the social events of Anna Pavlovna Scherer (Ekaterina Kulchitskaya), the appearance of numerous heroes of Tolstoy’s novel, the first meeting of Prince Andrei (Nikita Pozdnyakov) and Natasha (Valery Vorobyov), Andrei’s dialogue with Pierre Bezukhov (Roman Orlov) … The scenes are strung on a certain musical the dramatic core, which is correctly called the German terms sprechshtimme (colloquial speech turning into singing) and sprechgesang (singing into speech). The effect is grandiose. Moreover, the poetic text is not used in the opera. And when an artist pronounces a phrase against the background of a sounding orchestra and within this phrase quite organically intones some sharply dissonant interval like a tritone, then the expressiveness of such a statement is extremely accurate.

It is completely understandable why Rybnikov himself worked on the libretto, choosing from Tolstoy’s huge polyphonic novel only what worked for the two lines he had chosen – one from the “War” category – the heroism of the Russian military and victory over the enemy, the second from the “Peace” category – Andrey Bolkonsky and his unfulfilled love for Natasha. The composer did not need co-authors other than Tolstoy himself. The term “opera-drama” is also understandable: the work was written in strict accordance with operatic norms – the traditional distribution of voices according to tessitura, through development, leitmotifs. But this Rybnikov’s know-how – the borderline vocal-speech structure of recitative – brings the genre to a zone where the laws of drama peacefully coexist with music. And to choose who enriches whom here – music drama or vice versa – will not work: they both feel good.

But the characters of the performance are not kept in the peace zone. The conflict between the vulgarity and depravity of the Kuragins (Ivan Lavrukhin and Natalya Kulikova are actually very beautiful and seductive) and the naivety of Rostova and Pierre, the internal conflict of Bolkonsky, the military conflict between the French and Russian armies saturate the plot and receive adequate expression in the musical solution. As always, Rybnikov integrates various musical styles and techniques from rock to baroque, from Mahler’s anguish to Shostakovich’s drama, from lyrical melodies based on simple sequences to atonal climaxes. At the same time, all this richness of the language is not only not eclectic and not secondary, but is absolutely recognizable as the unique, bright, individual style of the composer Alexei Rybnikov.

The choice of actors for the roles is 100%. In such a complex genre, voices, appearance, and the individual qualities of an actor are equally important. Natasha’s childishness, performed by Valeria Vorobyova, brings to mind Conchita from “Juno” and “Avos”, and the choir of Russian soldiers – the choir of sailors from the same place. Rybnikov is true to his style and the type of drama that he discovered for the Russian theater 40 years ago – the principle of an art-rock album. As in The Wall Pink Floyd, A Trick Of The Tail Genesis or King Crimson albums, Rybnikov’s stage compositions are subject to a very thoughtful and well-perceived musical dramaturgy, which is driven primarily by emotion.

In “Prince Andrei” Rybnikov is not only a composer and librettist, he is also a director. And this is also know-how associated with the peculiarities of dramaturgy: to build a visual range in a performance where everything is dictated by music, combined with Tolstoy’s brilliant text – of course, no one can do this better than a composer. There are excellent finds in the play – Natasha’s hysteria under the cynical lorned views of secular society, the scene of Natasha and Anatole’s acquaintance in the theater against the backdrop of the performance of the opera diva (Evgenia Blagov), the battle scene to the song that the soldier Matvey (Nikolai Drozdovsky) conceives.

A very important semantic motif of the performance is the feat performed by Prince Andrei twice: in the battle of Austerlitz and in the battle of Borodino. This performance looks like a real patriotic statement – and the enthusiastic reaction of the audience, who gave a real ovation, suggests that society is now sharpened on a similar topic and expects just such a message from the creators.

Well, those who are close to lyrical states in any historical context will leave the theater with the leitmotif of the love of Andrei and Natasha – Rybnikov’s masterpiece in the best traditions of his “White Rosehip” and the theme of the star from “Joaquin Murietta”.