The burden of Prokofiev – Newspaper Kommersant No. 204 (7405) dated 02.11.2022

The Slovo publishing house published a fundamental book by Marina Raku about Sergei Prokofiev. This is an impressive look not only at his musical theater, but at the era as a whole, believes Alexey Mokrousov.

Recently, the composer has attracted special attention, it is enough to recall the vivid biography of the work of Igor Vishnevetsky in ZhZL. Marina Raku’s book contains her own view of time and Prokofiev’s work through the prism of his relationship with the drama theater. These relationships are considered throughout life, from youthful passion for the stage to music for “Hamlet” staged by Sergei Radlov. Prokofiev’s love affair with the theater took place in the 1930s, it crystallized from ballet and opera experience; only two of the four productions had a premiere. The brightest projects like “Eugene Onegin” with Alexander Tairov or “Boris Godunov” with Vsevolod Meyerhold were never implemented.

The book uses many sources, including archival ones. Letters and telegrams from Prokofiev are cited for the first time, in particular from the Serge Prokofiev Archive (SPA) at Columbia University in New York (until 2013, the archive was kept at Goldsmiths College in London). Among the addressees are Ida Rubinstein and the same Tairov, but the most mentioned contemporary in the book is Meyerhold. Only Shakespeare and Pushkin compete with him in the index. Meyerhold’s relationship with Prokofiev did not develop easily, the composer refused the proposal to make Mayakovsky’s Bedbug together, a year later he watched the performance, but did not mention Shostakovich in his diary.

During the years of the revolution, both the right and the left in art counted on Prokofiev, proposals “fell down from the opposite barricades”, both from the futurist leftists and from the restorers of the old theatrical aesthetics. But Prokofiev did not make hasty decisions, which did not mean, of course, that he made exclusively correct ones. In 1924, Merezhkovsky discussed with Prokofiev an opera based on his novel The Birth of the Gods. Tutankamun in Crete”, fortunately, things did not go beyond talk. But the hopes for political dividends were not always justified. The history of the ballet “Steel lope”, staged for the “Russian Seasons” together with the artist Georgy Yakulov, is proof of this. For Diaghilev and Prokofiev, at the time of its creation, the ballet was conceived as a possible pass to the Soviet stage for both, but the premiere in Moscow in 1930 did not take place, although it was discussed, it was supported by Meyerhold, who was involved in the composer’s arrival in the capital. The attempts of collaboration between Prokofiev and Alexander Afinogenov also look pragmatic; they discussed the never-ending joint work in the drama theater and opera. Raku writes about the possible creator of this creative union – the then head of the NKVD, Heinrich Yagoda, he could push Afinogenov.

But at first, too many, primarily the so-called proletarian composers, opposed Prokofiev’s establishment in the USSR, after one of the reports he was even purged. As a result, Prokofiev’s ballets, unlike operas, did not begin to be staged at the Bolshoi Theater soon, although he nevertheless became the main composer of the USSR, his concept of “new simplicity” in music, voiced in an interview in 1934, came to court, as well as reproaches colleagues that it is difficult for them to compose melodies, and the danger of “provincialization” looks real. Prokofiev was not hindered even by his friendship with Meyerhold, whose close, mutually sympathetic relationship with Trotsky was never forgotten by the authorities, which eventually led to a tragic end.

New times, new habits. Reading a book about Prokofiev is best with a smartphone or tablet and headphones nearby. There are almost a hundred QR codes here, allowing you to listen to musical fragments of compositions, which are described on those pages where the codes are printed. The performers are also listed on the publisher’s website, where the codes lead and where the music is stored, and in the final list – recordings of different years, different soloists, conductors and orchestras, from Emil Gilels and Sergey Koussevitzky to Claudio Abbado and Gennady Rozhdestvensky, were used. The works are given in fragments, usually from one to several minutes, other recordings for the play “Eugene Onegin”, made in 2005 by the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mikhail Yurovsky, last from 13 seconds. There are also recordings by Prokofiev the pianist, including those from 1920 (!) , and Alisa Koonen performs the melody recitation for Egyptian Nights, Sigismund Krzhizhanovsky did the staging itself, materials from RGALI related to it are also given in the book.

For this wealth, you forgive design liberties. First, too much text is typed in blue. These are quotations, often from Prokofiev’s diaries, they are given generously, sometimes whole pages are typed in blue. Secondly, photographs. The fact that there are many of them is a tribute to the era of the Internet, but literally all the characters are portrayed, even those mentioned in passing. But important pictures are not signed in detail – like a modern reconstruction of the Steel Lope. This appears to be Yakulov’s set, recreated by Leslie-Ann Sayers for Millicent Hodson and Simon Morrison’s 2005 production at Princeton University.

The biography of the biographer also matters. Marina Raku is a well-known historian of music and theater, Doctor of Arts, leading researcher at the State Institute of Art Studies, teacher and lecturer, educator, musical director of the Pyotr Fomenko Workshop Theater. The last two circumstances are important for understanding how her book is made: it is built according to the laws of good drama, the many intertwining plots and the abundance of characters do not merge into a common chorus, but remain part of a giant kaleidoscope, in the center of which is Sergei Prokofiev.

Marina Raku. Time of Sergei Prokofiev. Music. People. Ideas. Theatre of Drama. M.: Slovo, 2022