A Critical Re-Evaluation of Taneyev's Oresteia
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A Critical Re-Evaluation of Taneyev's Oresteia Anastasia Belina Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds School of Music May 2009 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is hislher own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. -11- Acknowledgements This thesis would not have been written had it not been for two people-Professor Heath Lees and Martin Anderson. Heath Lees, a now retired professor at the University of Auckland, supervised my Honours dissertation on Vasily Kalinnikov with a gentle, almost unnoticeable guidance and unending support. His extreme professionalism and ability to convey a genuine passion for music inspired my decision to become a musicologist, and he also instilled in me a passion and love for Wagner's music. To him I am thankful for reading my final drafts and giving me useful advice and constructive criticism. To Martin Anderson I am grateful for suggesting in 2003 that I should write a thesis about Taneyev, an idea I liked immediately. Without him, this thesis most certainly would have been about a different composer. I would like to thank Professor David Fanning, who selflessly gave his time and invaluable practical advice along with moral support whenever it was most needed. Every paper given by him inspired and encouraged me to continue my research in the hope that one day I might know even a small part of what he knows about music. Professor Michael Ewans provided invaluable insight into Greek drama, Aeschylus, and read my drafts, offering helpful and constructive criticism. I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Stephen Muir for reading my preliminary drafts, scrutinising the final version of my thesis, and providing helpful comments and encouragement, and my second supervisor Professor Clive Brown for his comments on my writing. Dr. Clive McClelland kindly offered his help and expert advice when it was needed. I am extremely grateful to George Kennaway, who literally saved me from making a great mistake at the very end of my writing-up period by offering one piece of advice that proved to be indispensable, and for proof-reading a draft of one of the chapters of this thesis. Dr. George Rodosthenous offered practical advice and encouragement in the two months leading up to my submission date. Without the help of the people in the Russian archives in Moscow- GDMTch, RGALI, GTsMMK-I would not have been able to conduct my research with the same results. I would like to express my utmost gratitude to Polina Yefimovna and Ada Vaidman who made any materials I wanted to see at the Tchaikovsky archive in Klin available immediately, and for subsequently sending me sources that I did not see at the time. Yelena Fetisova kindly showed me a number of interesting documents in the Glinka Museum, and the staff of the Taneyev Library in the Moscow Conservatory facilitated a day of fruitful research there. In the UK, the staff at the British Library and Leeds University Brotherton Library were always helpful, friendly, and reliable. I must thank Nektarios Rodosthenous, who gave much of his time to create musical examples for my dissertation, and for always making sure that I had a plan to follow, and achieved all my deadlines. Martin Pickard graciously helped with German translations, played through the vocal score of Oresteia with me, giving a multitude of valuable insights and suggestions, and commented on my writing. Yelena and Valery Kiselyov translated German articles and book chapters for me whenever the need arose. Grigory Moiseyev, Lidia Ader, Sergey Sokurenko, Lyudmila Kovnatskaya, and Leonid Tumarinson all provided enormous help with finding and sending Russian books, articles, and other sources that I needed in order to continue my research. I must also thank Mani Malag6n for reading the entire draft - III - of the thesis and helping me shape its various parts and sharpen my critical viewpoints. I would like to express my gratitude to my "second family"-Professor Paul Gamer and Louise Gibbs, for taking me into their home and providing me with a comfortable place to live and work in while I was writing my PhD. My friend Dr. Nir Arielli always made sure that I knew where I was with my research and writing up, and read and commented on various parts of my thesis. His support was invaluable in the final stages of my writing-up. Vania Celebicic was a constant support during the times when my work was not going well, and shared all my difficulties by always being there when I needed someone to talk to. I am also grateful to Kerry-Anne Kubisa and Sue Miller for always being supportive of my work and for offering wonderful respite from my writing-up by playing piano and flute duets with me. My mother Lyudmila and sister Marianna waited patiently for the completion of this thesis, which would allow me to finally return to New Zealand and see them after a parting of more than six years. I am also indebted to David Braithwaite for his help during my research and for his guidance in all things surrounding it. I am grateful to the Leeds University School of Music for giving me a number of conference grants and a grant towards my research trip to Moscow. The following awarding bodies also offered financial support: Edmissions UK and the Royal Music Association for archival research in Russia; BfWG Main Foundation Grant for the academic year 2007-08; and the Brotherton Foundation Scholarship for research in the British Library and the Brotherton Library Special Collections. In my writing-up year I was given my own private study room, which proved to be truly the best gift offered by the University of Leeds Brotherton Library. It has become my academic abode, where I have spent almost every day of the past year, and where I wrote almost every word of this dissertation. Finally, I would like to thank posthumously my father Aleksandr Belin, who told me shortly before he died that I must not fear anything in this life. To him I am eternally grateful for giving me the gift of believing in myself, and to him I dedicate this thesis. - lV- Abstract The musical trilogy Oresteia (1894, revised 1900), written by Sergey Ivanovich Taneyev (1856-1915) after the eponymous drama by Aeschylus, is a unique work, one of the masterpieces of Russian opera, which continues to stand alone in the Russian operatic repertoire of the nineteenth century, and even the entire Russian operatic output. No other composer in Russia completed an opera of this kind based on a Greek drama, and in Europe, only Berlioz's Les Troyens could be compared to Oresteia in scope. At a time when Russian composers based their operas predominantly on Russian sources-literary, folk, or historical-Taneyev's choice of an antique tragedy immediately placed him outside the 'nationalist' genre explored by his colleagues. Oresteia is an opera very rarely performed, and this thesis sheds light on the possible reasons why it did not becomes more successful on the stage. These include the classical subject, lack of local colour in the music, absence of love element, and unsympathetic first revival. But while in 1895 Oresteia was criticised for not bowing to nationalist demands, in 1917 such an approach was considered to be one of the opera's strongest points. This thesis is based on examination of primary and secondary sources such as letters, diaries, manuscripts, the score, and the 1976 recording of Oresteia by the Belorussian State Theatre of Opera and Ballet. A number of archival materials relating to Taneyev's opera are here published for the first time, such as the correspondence between Taneyev and his librettist Aleksey Venkstern, which has been neglected for over a century. The study of these materials addresses several issues pertaining to the opera's composition, production, stage history and reception that have not been investigated before, such as Taneyev's interest in Wagner, and Taneyev's collaboration with the Russian Imperial Theatres. Taneyev's diaries show that, although he has often been viewed as a staunch anti-Wagnerian, his interest in that composer was extensive and serious, as demonstrated by the presence of Wagnerian influences in Oresteia. The link between Taneyev and Wagner contributes to a greater understanding of Wagner's reception in nineteenth-century Russia. Finally, this thesis contributes to a deeper understanding of the workings of Russian Imperial Theatres and their treatment of Russian composers. It also offers new insights into the critical reception of operas that did not fit into the desirable and popular 'nationalistic' category. The history of the reception of Oresteia reveals the changing tastes of both public and critics from the end of the nineteenth to the middle of the twentieth centuries. -v- Contents Acknowledgements iii Abstract iv Contents v Figures vvi Tables vii Music Examples viii Notes on the Text x Preface xiii Chapter 1 Taneyev in Musicology 1 Chapter 2 Oresteia: Genesis 18 Chapter 3 From Tragedy to Opera 65 Chapter 4 Representation and Motif.. 124 Chapter 5 Stage History 158 Chapter 6 Critical Reception 20 1 Conclusion 243 Appendix A Libretto of Oresteia 251 Appendix B Letters from A. Venkstem to S. Taneyev 289 Appendix C Entr 'acte to Scene 23 298 Bibliography 315 - VI - Figures 2.1. A Page From Venkstem's Letter Dated 25 October [1887-89] .48 2.2.