Zemlinsky’s opera “Tsar Kandavl” was performed in the Tchaikovsky Hall

In the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, for the first time in Russia, the Austrian composer Alexander von Zemlinsky’s opera Tsar Kandavl was performed in concert. The initiator of the Russian premiere of this outstanding work was conductor Dmitry Yurovsky, who created a special adaptation of the score, which under his direction was superbly performed by the Svetlanov State Orchestra and soloists – Mikhail Agafonov (tenor), Lyubov Stuchevskaya (soprano), Alexander Sukhanov (baritone), Klim Kudashkin (artistic word ).

It would seem that there should be no “blank spots” in the musical culture of the 20th century. But, as it turns out, even today we can discover a masterpiece that was previously unknown, not performed, not heard. The score of the opera “Tsar Kandavl”, written by the Austrian composer Alexander von Zemlinsky in 1936, belongs to these.

By itself, the figure of Zemlinsky is very interesting. An older comrade, mentor, and later a relative of Arnold Schoenberg (Zemlinsky’s sister married the creator of serial technology), Zemlinsky was not only in the shadow of the avant-garde composers of the Novovensk school – Schoenberg, Webern and Berg, but also the last German romantic Richard Strauss.

Zemlinsky’s composing style is perhaps the closest thing to Strauss’s expressionism – and in terms of years of life they are close to each other. However, there is an important difference: the German Strauss fit perfectly into the political system of National Socialism, balancing between conformism and pacifism, and died in his ninth decade in his homeland, treated with honors. The Jew Zemlinsky emigrated to America in 1938. His career was cut short, his work overseas did not arouse interest. He died in New York, having given up writing music, forgotten by everyone.

Zemlinsky began writing the opera Tsar Kandavl back in Vienna – he completed work on the clavier in 1936. Perfectly aware of the essence of the historical situation, anticipating his own fate, the composer put into the score the strongest tragic emotion, an incredible intensity of passion, a “cinematic” horror worthy of Alfred Hitchcock. Having begun work on the orchestration, Zemlinsky was unable to complete it. The composer’s widow tried in vain to find someone who could complete the work. It was not until the 1990s that orchestration by the British conductor and musicologist Anthony Beaumond appeared. The first production of Kandavla was released in Hamburg in 1996, 54 years after the death of the author.

The plot is based on an ancient myth, repeatedly interpreted in the European tradition. The literary source for Zemlinsky’s opera was the drama of the French writer André Gide, written in 1901. The era of modernism painted the myth in expressive erotic colors, Zemlinsky further exacerbated the sensuality of the plot, reaching the point of perversion, saturating it with Freudian motifs.

The jaded, narcissistic narcissist Candaules arranges another meaningless holiday for his close friends, who are pretty fed up with all the king’s undertakings. Kandavl thinks out how to revive the party: he presents his wife Nissia to the company, whose face no one has seen until then. Nissia stuns the guests with her beauty. But this is not enough for Kandavlu. Having discovered a magic ring in the fish served on the table, which makes its owner invisible, Kandavl involves the fisherman Gyges in a crazy undertaking. Giges is a real man. In front of an honest company, to the delight of those present, he kills his wife who cheated on him, and besides, as it turns out, he is a childhood friend of Kandavl. Putting a ring on Gyges’s finger, Candaules leads the fisherman into the bedroom, where he shows him Nissia in full. The continuation is easy to imagine: left alone with the queen, Gyges does as gender tells him, and then confesses everything to Nissia, confident that death awaits him. But the offended queen makes a different decision: she orders Gyges to kill Kandavl. What he does, getting the queen and the throne. Moreover, Nissia herself declares that she no longer intends to hide her face under the veil.

The story could well become the basis of a cool thriller with reference to today: everything is relevant in it – from the lifestyle of bored rich people who do not know what other perversions to entertain themselves with, to bloody murders and a feminist action of a woman of the East.

Zemlinsky’s music, which we heard thanks to the efforts of Dmitry Yurovsky and the State Orchestra, can safely be called a masterpiece. Having saturated the score with expression and ecstatic drama, complex harmonies, chromaticisms, sumptuous non-chords, neat interspersing of dissonances, the composer does not go beyond the beautiful. Complicating the tonality, enriching it, expanding it, sometimes to the limit, he nowhere destroys the tonal system. The same is true of the melody – it is largely recitative, which is typical of the music of the 20th century, but, saturated with expressive intonations, it remains an operatic vocal melody. Tsar Kandavl is one of the few operas of the 20th century that can be attributed precisely to the genre of opera, and not to musical drama, which confidently supplanted the opera genre in the works of Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Britten and other geniuses of the last century.

Three vocal and artistic works of the soloists deserve applause. The beautiful Lyubov Stuchevskaya is good, like her heroine, both in singing and in appearance. Her oriental femininity, turning into a merciless order: kill him! – impressive. Alexander Sukhanov as Gyges is courageous, noble, restrained. And absolutely outstanding work by Mikhail Agafonov in the title role. The artist did not need any directorial tricks, mise-en-scenes, costume elements or props to create the image of a person who destroys the very concept of the norm. Only a great voice, acting motivation and fantastic energy.

The narrator, performed by Klim Kudashkin, not only deciphered the plot, but gave originality to the dramaturgy, recalling a similar technique in Stravinsky’s opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex. Rejecting minor characters and shortening the score, Yurovsky presented the Moscow audience with an excellent presentation of the work, which, of course, should be presented on stage in full.