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Sergei Prokofiev's Semyon Kotko as a representative example of Socialist Realism

by Simon Morrison

Faculty of Music McGill University, Montreal August, 1992

A Thesis submitted ta the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fu1fillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts

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"Sergei Prokofiev's Semyon Kotko as an example of Socialist Realism" 1 • TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract p. 2 Acknowledgements . p. 4 Introduction: The origins of the opera . p. 5 Part One: Socialist Realism . p. 14 Part Two: The text and the text setting . p. 32 Part Three: The dramatic conception . p. 51 Bibliography . p. 76

• 2 ~ ABSTRACT Shortly after returning to Moscow in 1936, Prokofiev composed his first Soviet opera, Semyon Kotko (Opus 81). The libretto was taken from Valentin Kataev's novel l am a Son of the Working People, a tale of revolution and war in a small Ukrainian village and one that adheres to the tenets of Socialist Realism. Kataev encouraged Prokofiev to set this text in a highly conservative song style. Prokofiev was also influenced i:t the project by Vsevo10d Meyerhold, an innovative a~tist who advocate~ using continuous declamation as a means of achievin9 "dramatic truth" in music. This essay examines the extent to which Semyon Kotko can be considered a conformist opera. Part One is a survey of Socialist Realism and its manifestation in Soviet literature and music during the 1930'5; Parts Two and Three examine the text and music of Semyon Kotko as representative of the doctrine. Consideration is given throughout the study to the opposing influences of Kataev and Meyerhold on Prokofiev, and to the political events surrounding the opera's composition .

• 3

RÉSUMÉ • Peu après son retour à Moscou en 1936, Prokofiev compose son premier opéra soviétique, Semyon Kotko (opus 81). Le livret est issu du roman de Valentin Kataev la, syn trudovogo naroda (Moi, fils de la classe ouvrière). Ce récit de guerre et de révolution dans un petit village ukrainien adhère au dogme du réalisme socialiste. Kataev encourage Prokofiev à mettre le texte en musique dans un style nettement conservateur. Cependant Prokofiev est aussi influencé par Vsevolod Meyerhold, un artiste avant-gardiste qui préconise l'emploi d'une déclamation continue visant la réalisation en musique de la «vérité dramatique». Dans ces pages nous examinons jusqu'à quel point Semyon Kotko peut être qualifié d'opéra conformiste. La première partie explore le réalisme socialiste et ses manifestations dans la musique et la littérature soviétiques des années 1930 alors que les deuxi~me et troisième parties analysent le texte et sa mise en musique en tant que prototypes de la doctrine. La portée et l'essence différente des influe~,~es de Kataev et Meyerhold sur Prokofiev de même que la nature des événements politiques entourant la composition de l'opéra sont pris en considération .

• 4 ~ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS l would like to thank Professor Brian Cherney for advice and encouragement throughout the writing of this paper, particularly in the late stages. l am also indebted to Professor Marina Swob~da for her generous help in translating and interpreting many of the sources. Without their assistance the project would not have been realized. My research time in Russia was made possible by a fellowship from the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at McGill University. The staffs of the Central State Archives of Literature and Art and the State Library in Moscow were of immense help in locating materials. l am also grateful to Professors Harlow Robinson and Marina Sabinina, who answered my questions with patience and insight, and to Lena Olkhovskaya and Melanie Feilotter for their support and friendship .

• 5 ~ INTRODUCTION: THE ORIGINS OF THE OPERA There can be no music without ideology. - Dmitri Shostakovich, The New York Times, December, 1931. In a society where language was for so long tainted by lies, music can have a c1ear conscience. - Peter Conrad, London Times Magazine, April, 1992 The Ukrainian-born composer Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) spent the early part of his career in Europe and the United States, where he composed four operas.! Although these works were both critica11y and commercially unsuccessfu12 (his orchestral and chamber music, in contrast, received modest acclaim), Prokofiev remained committed to opera composition. This commitment reveals itself in his numerous writings on operatic dramaturgy. With respect to the dramaturgical conception of The Gambler, for example, he wrote: l paid special attention in my new work to the stage flexibility of opera, for of late we can see in Russian operas the decline of the composer's interest in the stage aspect, as a result of which an immobility and a mass of borin~ conventionalities appeared in opera. This gave sorne of the leading musi,ians, for example Stravinsky and Diaghilev, grounds for predicting the degeneration of the operatic form. J Hoping for greater success with this and other genres, in the early 1930's Prokofiev began aligning himself with musical life in the Soviet Union, where opera was enjoying a revival under the

1 Maddalena (Opus 13, 1911-13); The Gambler (Opus 24, 1915-17; revised in 1928); The Love for Three Oranges (Opus 33, 1919); The Fiery Angel (Opus 37, 1919-27).

2 The Love for Three Oranges, ~o be sure, is something of an exception. Yet for aIl its nominal present-day popularity (and it survives main1y as a Suite), its premiere in Chicago was plagued by administrative and technical problems, being produced only in 1921, two years after the date of its composition.

J "On The Gambler," translated by Andrew Markow, Materials, • Articles, Interviews (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1978), p. 27 . 6 auspices of the Communist Party. As a result of discussions with Soviet officials in 1936 the composer was persuaded to sett1e permanent1y in Moscow.' • Prokofiev .eturned to the Soviet Union just prior to the Sta1inist purges, despite reports of censorship from his 10ng­ time friend Nikolai Miaskovsky and memories of the propaganda campaign conducted against him by the Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians in 1928. Since his decision was made for business rather than artistic reasons, many scho1ars have contended that Prokofiev was political1y naive, or had what Richard Taruskin calls an apo1itical façade that "camouflaged indifference."s Kenneth Furie has recently challenged this assertion, but in doing 50 omits the difficult questions about the relationship between politics and music that arise in Prokofiev's case: Is it only talented artists who shou1d have shunned Stalinist Russia? Where would that leave the rest of the people? [ ... ) The 1055 of his homeland informs all of Stravinsky's music, whether it has a Russian connection or not. The music of Shostakovich speaks with the secretive voice of one who stayed home, and contrary to Mr. Taruskin's suggestion, the content of the music is there: it doesn't depend on "exculpating revisionism" or "de-Stalinizing memoirs." Prokofiev straddles the two worlds, viewing the one to which he had returned with the uncertainty of one who had been away and came back.·

, Stanley Krebs (Soviet Composers and the Devolopment of Soviet Music (London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1970), p. 151) notes that "these [the 1930'5) were years when seductive nets were spread from Moscow to recapture sorne of the Russian talent, brains, and creativity that had scattered in 1917." Prokofiev, discouraged by his experiences in the West, succumbed. The date of Prokofiev' 5 return, Krebs adds (p. 152), is cited incorrectly as 1932 by sorne Soviet scholars, the year in which the Union of Soviet Composers was formed.

S "Prokofiev, Hail. .. and Farewell?" The New York Times (April 21, 1991), p. 32.

6 "'Nevsky,' Alive and Well," The New York Times (Ocr.ober 20, • 1991), p. 44. ? 4It Prokofiev's Soviet years were clesrly marked by personal suffering and ~rtistic censure,' yet the degree to which he conceded to political pressure - the point at which 'careerism' became conformity - remains unclear. While he attempted to write along official lines, seeking patriotic subjects and abandoning the compositional practices that had earned him notoriety abroad, his music nonetheles~ angered government officials. And despite a conscious simplification of harmony and melody, Soviet scholars objected to Prokofiev's [so-called] "expressionist" musical language. This stylistic 'defect' was in some cases equated with a lack of commitment to the evolution of socialism. Prokofiev considered w~iting an opera on a socialist text four years before he returned to Moscow. In a 1932 article in "he newspaper Vechernaiia Moskva (Evening Moscow) Prokofiev described his search for 'appropriate' subject matter: What kind of subject am l looking for? l will be attracted by a plot that confirms the positive reality. Heroic construction. New Man. The struggle in surmounting obstacles. 8 He wrote again on this topic prior to the premiere production (June 23, 1940) of his first Soviet opera, Semyon Kotko (Opus 81, 1939), at the Stanislavsky Opera Theatre: l had long wanted to write a Soviet opera, but l hesitated to undertake the job until l had a clear idea of how to approach the task. Besides, it was not easy to find a plot. l did not want a

, Taruskin writes ("Hail ...and Farewell?", p. 32) that Prokofiev in these years endured "denunciations, bans, even the political incarceration of his first and only legal wife." At a Party Central Committee meeting in 1948, Prokofiev, along with Dmitri Shostakovich and Aram Khachaturian, was charged with 'formalism and anti-democratic tendencies' - in the view of the government, his music failed to express the common goals of the Soviet people.

8 Quoted by Marind Sabinina in "Semyon Kotko" i problemy opernoi dr~maturgii Prokof'eva (Moscow: Sovetskii kompositor, 1963), p.?? Sabinina's study, the only extensive examination of the opera, is cited throughout this essay, particularly in Part • 'l'hree. 8 ~ stilted, ~tatic, or trivial plot, or, on the cuntrary, a plot that posited too obvious a moral. l wanted live flesh-and-blood heroes with human passions, love, hatred, joy and sorrow arising naturally from the new conditions.' The plot Prokofiev chose was that of the 1938 novel la, syn trudovogo naroda (1 am a Son of the Working People) by Vûlentin Kataev. Recommended to Prokofiev by his acquaintance Alexei Tolstoi,lO the novel describes the German invasion and subsequent liberation of a Ukrainian village in 1918. The hero, Semyon Kotko, is a veteran of the first World War, freed from service by the Bolshevik Revolution; the villain is the father of Semyon's fiancé. In constructing th~ narrative Kataev drew on his experiences during the Spanish Civil War and took historical details from documents he discovered while serving as a correspondent for Pravda. In most respects the novel is a model example of Socialist Realism, the official literary style under Stalin. Its highly didactic prose, simple metaphors and reliance on description are typical features of the genre."

, From "Semyon Kotko," translated by Rose Prokofieva, in Materials, Articles, Interviews (op. cit.), p. 36.

la Like Prokofiev, Tolstoi, a member of the (former) Russian aristocracy, spent part of his career in Paris. He returned to the Soviet Union in 1923 to become an active supporter of the Stalinist Regime. Edward Brown (Russian Literature since the Revolution (Cambridge: Harvard University Press), p. 205) writes that "Tolstoi secured a place for himself with Stalin through conforming to the dictator's literary tastes and prejudices, and he made no effort to defend himself or other writers against the insane persecutions of the thirties." His 1937 novel Khleb (Bread) falsifies history, presenting Stalin as a hero during the War Communism period.

11 l hesitate to label Kataev a conformist because his later works (particularly Svyatoi kolodets (1966) and Kubik (1972») denounce the conventionality of most Soviet prose. In "The Problem of Self-Expression in the Later Works of Valentin Kataev" (Studies in Twentieth-Century Literature, ed. Christopher Barnes (London: Scottish Academie Press, 1976), pp. 78-85), Robert Russell describes the use of mauvisme or consciously 'bad' writing in Svyatoi kolodets, a technique that essentially parodies Socia1ist • Realism. 9 Prokofiev wrote the libretto of Semyon Kotko in collaboration with Kataev. For advice in setting the text, • however, he turned to Vsevolod Meyerhold, the experimental theatre director who had worked with the composer on his previous operas The Gambier (1915-16, revised in 1928) and The Love for Three Oranges (1921) .'2 lt is clear that Kataev and Meyerhold he1d opposing views about the project. Harlow Robinson explains Kataev's position as follows: Meyerhold was competing with Kataev for the composer's ear. The author envisioned something "in the style of Carmen, or Verdi, something that could play everywhere," with lots of arias, folk songs and choruses. He was dismayed when Prokofiev informed him that there "won't be any arias, there won't be any verses - your prose text as it stands will be entirely satisfactory. ,,13 Meyerhold, in contrast, favored the continuous declamation style that characterizes The Gambier. This technique has its origins in the 19th-century 'realism' of the operas of Modest Mussorgsky and Alexander Dargomyzhsky. Meyerhold argued that these composers were able to capture emotional subtleties in their operas by allowing speech patterns (the actual intonation of the words) to dictate the melodic lines. For this reason Kataev's use of Ukrainian dialect in l am a Son of the Working People appealed to Prokofiev and informed his choice of the text: lt is not accidental that Prokofiev places high value on Kataev's use of local dialect. He maintains in Semyon Kotko a typical mixture of

12 Though highly innovative, sorne of Meyerhold's productions were intended as Soviet propaganda. Meyerhold described the 1931 staging of Final and Decisive as follows: "The play and the production...are imbued with one idea: the readiness of Soviet citizens to defend the genuine frontiers of socialism - to make any sacrifice in the name of victory for the proletariat... " (Cited by James Symons in Meyerhold's Theatre of the Grotesque (Coral Gables: University of Miami Press, 1971), p. 241.).

13 "Love for Three Operas: The collaboration of Vsevolod Meyerhold and Sergei Prokofiev," The Russian Review (Volume 45, • 1986), p. 302 . 10 Ukrainian words and co110quia1 expressions with more "cu1tured" urban Russian speech. It creates • the distinct atmosphere of a Ukrainian village, the patriarcha1 atmosphere of which is alarmed by war and revo1ution. 14 Meyerhold had 1itt1e sayon the actua1 staging of Semyon Kotko, since po1itica1 events "of the most unavoidab1e sort" came to bear on both the production and the lives of those invo1ved in it. IS Meyerhold was arrested after a speech to the first A11­ Union Congress of Directors in mid-June 1939. He had come under f~re for failing to adhere to official doctrine on a number of occasions, and government officia1s expected an apo10gy for the esoteric nature of his past productions. The director instead ca1led on the members of the Union to assert their artistic integr~ty and [reported1y] denounced Socia1ist Rea1ism. 16 For this, Meyerhold was imprisoned without trial and died six months later. His role in the production was fi1led by the actress and novice stage director Serafima Birman. 17 In light of Meyerhold's arrest, Birman was particu1ar1y conscious of adhering to Party doctrine (that of Socialist Realism) on music, contending that operatic recitative shou1d be minimized in favor of song. Stanley Krebs suggests, however, that Prokofiev on1y pretended to agree with her:

14 Sabinina, p. 81.

IS Krebs, 157.

16 Symons (op. cit., p. 192) notes that Juri Jega1in's stenographie record of the speech, in which Meyerhold ca11ed the theatre of Socialist Rea1ism "a pitifu1 and wretched thing" may not be wholly accurate, though "Meyerhold' s subsequent fate would certainly seem to give credence to the general tone of the account, even though the precise wording may be questionable."

17 Concerning Birman, Harlow Robinson (Sergei Prokofiev: A Biography (New York: Paragon House Publishers, 1988), p. 369. ) writes: "Wh",n she began meeting with the composer to plan the production of Semyon [Kotko], she found him arrogant and distant [ ... ] It must also have been difficult for Prokofiev to entrust to a young and unknown director the opera he had dreamed of staging • with Meyerhold." 11 Prokofiev said before the opera's production, "1 have avoided dry recitative (recitativo secco?) as the least interesting element in opera," yet, he • 18 had not. The production was also affected by the signing of the non­ aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. With fears of a German attack reduced (albeit temporarily) and supplanted by diplomacy, staging an anti-German opera was an impossibility - those involved in the project realized that both the libretto and casting ~f Semyon Kotko had to be changed. As Kataev remarked: There was a pause. The opera's trappings had to be subdued. The Germans were even redressed (or disguised) as Austrians. And even then there were diplomatie unpleasantries... 19 The alterations were made in near panic and on 23 June 1940 a now politically neutral opera was premiered. It lasted one season in the repertory of the Stanislavsky Theatre, 'disappearing from sight' shortly after Hit1er's forces invaded the Soviet Union in June of 1941. 20 The present essay seeks to clarify the role of politics in the composition of Semyon Kotko through an examination of its music and text. 1 will attempt to show that Prokofiev based the opera on a conformist text but did not fully compromise his musical style in setting it. The influences of Kataev and Meyerhold on Prokofiev are particularly important in this respect, as is an exploration of the political context within which Soviet musicians worked in the late 1930's. The study is expository in character: employing a more sophisticated narrative strategy to explore a generally accessible score would, 1 believe, only serve to misrepresent it.

18 Soviet Composers, p. 157.

19 As cited in Krebs, p. 157. • 20 Ibid. 12 ~ The three sections of the essay are devoted respectiv~ly to an examination of Soviet thought on music in the 1930's, the libretto of the opera and the musical style. Part One is a description of Socialist Realism, its or~g~n as a theory under Vladimir Lenin and its codification as a practice under Stalin. The historical account is based largely on C. Vaughan James's Soviet Socialist Realism: Origins and Theory (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1971);2\ the evaluation of Semyon Kotko as an example of Socialist Realism is taken from reviews in the Soviet press. Part Two is a comparison of the libretto and Kataev's novel, whose surface features typify Socialist Realist writing and which reflects what Thomas Hobbes calls a "political institution whose laws require [ ... ] unequivocal definitions of words."22 1 loosely employ in this section Julia Kristeva's definitions of textual 'boundedness' and realist writing: Realist description, definition of "personality," "character" creation, and "subject" development ­ all are descriptive narrative elements belongin~ to the 0-1 interval and are thus 'monological'. 3 Part Three is an examination of three features of the musical score: the use of folk material; the dramatic function of the choral set pieces; and, more specifically, Prokofiev's penchant for motivic and syntactical variation. Although most passages in the opera are tonally centered, the vertical sonorities are neither functional (in the traditional sense) nor wholly chromatic. Sorne sections - the scene in which the village burns, for example - are characterized by chromatic displacement;

2\ As 1 argue in Part l, Semyon Kotko reveals the "impossibility" of Socialist Realism. See Régine Robin, Le Réalisme Socialiste: une esthétique impossible (Paris: Payot, 1986) . 22 Cited in Michael Ryan's Marxism and Deconstruction (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1982), p. 70. 23 Julia Kristeva, Desire and Language, ed. Leon S. Roudiez • (New York: Columbia University Press, 1980), p. 70. 13 ~ the harmony in others is comparatively static. In many passages the repetition of musical motives and 'monological' signification advances the ideological message of the text; in others, however, it can be argued that the music and text are mutually exclusive or opposite. In the latter instances the interplay of motives proves incompatible with the straightfcrward musical description required of the Realist composer. (Aesthetically, the exclusion and opposition of music and text recalls Vladimir Mayakovsky's comments about bringing poetry 'to the highest pitch of expressiveness.'24) The score thus expresses the distinctly uneasy alliance of political doctrine and personal expression, a quality that makes James Symons's remark about Meyerhold equally applicable to Prokofiev: ... to attempt to integrate his own idea of the theatre with the concept of the theatre as a propaganda tool was not to practice deception - except in the sense that he may have been deceiving himself by thinking the two could be compatible. 25

24 Cited in Kristeva, p.33 . • 25 Meyerhold's Theatre of the Grotesque, p. 85. 14 4It PART ONE: SOCIALIST REALISM In the introduction to his study of the subject,26 C. Vaughan James states that there are two theories concerning the origin of Socialist Realism. Many scholars attribute it to the formation of arts unions under a common policy in the 1930'5; others, including James, see it as an advancement of Marxist ideology. James contends that theoretical writing about the function of art in socialist society followed the appearance of Vladimir Lenin's 1905 article "Party Organization and Party Literature." During the period that Lenin led the Soviet Union (1917-24) cultural activity tendèd to exhibit Marxist concepts of social change. From a Marxist-Leninist perspective Sta1in's indoctrination of art in the 1930'5 under the heading 'Socialist Realism' was a historical anomaly: The theory - as opposed to the tendency in art - was not elaborated or given a name until 1932-4, but it was then simply a summary and codification of what had already been evolving for several decades, strengthened by the Marxist-Leninist understanding of social developments and consequent ability to shape and foretell the future. From such a viewpoint it is in origin Leninist, and what happened in the US SR was not a logical stage but a temporary aberration." Lenin was greatly influenced by the works of three 19th century authors: V. G. Belinsky, Nikolai Chernyshevsky and Nikolai Dobrolyubov. The idea of the 'typical' in Socialist Realism - a model of the future comprised of the "best features of the present" - was taken from Chernyshevsky's 1855 article "The Aesthetic Relations of Art and Reality. ,,2. Even though he came to undermine Chernyshevsky's views on capitalism and on the

26 Soviet Socialist Realism, pp. ix-xiii.

21 Ibid, p. xi.

28 Ibid, p. 22. Chernyshevsky wrote that: "Art must provide a true reflection of reality, interpreting that reality and judging • it, so that reality itself may be reshaped." 15 ~ proletariat, Lenin saw the populist nature of the article in a positive light. As Lenin's views on cultural matters were comparatively tolerant, government policies had little impact on the arts in the first years of the Soviet Union's existence. Lenin selected Anatole Lunacharsky, a liberal thinker who promoted diversity in the arts, to serve as Cultural Commissar. While the government encouraged artists to portray the rise of an industrial proletariat and the building of a new society in their works, few controls were placed on the creative process. As Edward Brown writes: "A conscious effort was made to preserve the independence and individualism of the writer and artist - to maintain, in other words, the literary profession as an activity independent of state control."29 Party resolutions on culture in the early 1920's reflected Lenin's conservatism; however they also anticipated later challenges to modernist trends. Lenin was concerned with the preservation of past culture and had limited tolerance for experimentation. He accused Vladimir Mayakovsky of "vulgarizing sociology," for example, upon recognizing that the poet's concept of revolutionary change was incompatible with Party doctrine. 30 (When Lunacharsky approved the publication of Mayakovsky's poem "150 Million", Lenin commented that "[the Commissar] should be flogged for his Futurism."31) As Julia Kristeva explains, Futurist and Formalist theory annulled the principles underlying Central State Communism: Futurism...heard and understood the Revolution only because its present was dependent on a future. Mayakovsky and Khlebnikov's pro-Soviet

29 Russian Literature Since the Revolution (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982), p. 7. 30 Cited in James, p. 10.

31 Cited by Boris Schwarz in Music and Musical LiEe in Soviet Russia, 1917-1981 (B1oomington: Indiana University Press, 1983), p . • 42. 16 proposals and leaps into mythology came from a non-existent place in the future. J2 • The Communist Party took greater interest in cultural matters after Lenin's death in 1924. The 1925 Party Resolution entitled "On the Policy of the Party in the Field of Belles Lettres" marked the first significant change. (Its initial clause reads: "The time has come when the Party has entered the field of cultural revolution."JJ) While Marxism (in the theoretical abstract) allowed for changes in 'social mode', the Soviet proponents of Marxist-Leninism clearly did not. (With respect to the former Michael Ryan notes that "critical Marxist movements tend to be characterized by a rejection of the model of authoritarian central state communism. "3') The Communist Party began promoting art as a propaganda tool - as opposed to merely envisaging it as such - capable of supporting the New Economie Policy and, under Stalin, the Five Year Plan. The liberal, 'Western' platforms of the early Proletkult organizations became unacceptable. The Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians (founded in 1923) took a vehemently anti-West stance: Harlow Robinson notes that the Association's denouncement of Prokofiev's music caused the cancellation of a staging of The Gambler.J~ When Josef Stalin consolidated control over the Soviet government in 1927 he quickly initiated a process of standardization in all areas of social activity. In 1929 Lunacharsky was removed from his post as Education Commissar and replaced by Andrei Bubnov, a Party apparatchik with little knowledge of the arts. The Soviet Writers' Union was formed under Maxim Gorky, who had returned to Russia supposedly to "lend

J2 Desire and Language, p. 33. JJ James, p. 64.

34 Marxism and Deconstruction, p. xiii. • 3S "Love for Three Operas", p. 298. 17 • authority to the Soviet regime."" (Gorky' s first publishing projects inc1uded a history of the Civil War and, with the participation of various workers, a history of factories.) In May 1932, during a meeting of writers in Gorky's Moscow apartment attended by Stalin, the term 'Socialist Realism' was invented. The fo110wing day the doctrine was launched officially in an article in Literaturnaia Gazeta. By 1934 cultural activity in the Soviet Union had been centralized for the purpose of ideological control. Following the April 1932 Party Central Committee resolution "On the Reformation of Literary-Artistic Organizations," the Russian Association of Proletarian Publishers (RAPP) and many smal1er arts organizations were abolished. The event signalled the end of an era of flexibility for artists. Boris Schwarz comments: In place of these dissolved groups, single unions were to be established, each containing a Communist faction. Membership was open to ail artists "upholding the platform of the Soviet regime and striving to participate in Socialist construction." Despite the voluntary aspect" of the membership, the political climate was such that no artist could afford not to join. 37 In an address to the 1934 Writers' Congress, the Minister of Culture, Andrei Zhdanov, stated that the Communist Party was seeking to "eradicate the vestiges of capita1ism in people's minds" and called for literary works that affirmed the new socialist order. JO A year later Sergei Kirov, the leader of the Communist Party in Leningrad and a proponent of a liberal arts policy, was assassinated. James writes that the 1930's saw the abolition of creativity

J6 Max Hayward (Writers in Russia 1917-1978, ed. Patricia Blake (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983), p. 60), notes that Gorky's stated ideal was to "push Russia to a future to end the schism between the intelligentsia and the lower class."

37 Schwarz, p. 110. • JO Hayward, p. 99 . lB • in art; the Soviet artist "ceased to be an intellectua1" and instead became "a retel1er of the ideas of others."'· Defenders of Socialist Realism in the 1920'5 nonetheless continued to describe it in terms of Marxist dialectics, as an "affirmative view of the progress of mankind towards socialism",a that had grown out of 19th-century 'critical' realism: Far from being a new system foisted on the cowed and unwilling artist (though uncomprehending, he most certainly may have been), it was in fact an interpretation within the context of Marxist-Leninist ideology of artistic deve10pments throughout the proletarian period of the revolutionary movement. It was an attempt to codify those developments and project them into the future ... '1 Early treatises on socialist art emphasized the importance of further theoretical deve10pment corresponding to changes in social mode. In the 1930'5, however, such iriterpretations of Marxism were ~onsidered 'leftist'. Under Stalin Socialist Rea1ist doctrine thus came to subvert its own tenets: the version of the 1930'5 proved incompatible with that of the 1920'5. Alexander Ivashkin explains: [Its) hallmarks were supposed to be "revolutionary" political themes and an ability to reach the broad masses. Instead, socialist rea1ism was degraded into a crude, primitive style..." (The incompatibility of the two versions of the doctrine a1so reveals the logical fallacy of labelling Prokofiev a c~nformist, since many of his stylistic trademarks - motivic variation, chromatic displacement, and 50 on - typify the styles of the [50­ calledl Futurist composers.) Theoretically lat leastl, both the Leninist and Sta1inist

3. Soviet Socialist Realism, p. 101.

40 Hayward, p. 63.

41 Ibid, p. B4.

42 "Post October Soviet Art: Canon and Symbo1, " Musical • Quarterly (Volume 74:2), p. 303. 19 ... versions of Socialist Realism shared four aesthetic principles: narodnost', klassnost', partiinost', and ideinost'. Narodnost', described as the use of folk material or 'popular' themes in works of art, expressed the artist's close ties to the masses. Artists w~re a1lowed to vary their treatment of folk material in their compositions: as stated in the 1960 publication Osnovy marksiscko-leninskoi estetiki (Fundamentals of Marxist-Leninist Aesthetics), the variation and overlay of folk images serves to "carry narodnost' to a highl'!r plane. ,,'3 Since Prokofi.ev quotes from a variety of Ukrainian folk tunes in 5emyon Kotko his narodnost' was never questioned by Soviet critics. Marina Sabinina is therefore able to explain (or explain away) Prokofiev' s varied use of the folk tune "Rano-ranen'ko" (" Early, 50 Early") as being ideologically 'correct': ... from the structure of an "objective" ritualistic genre, "Rano-ranen'ko" transforms to a lyric-dramatic structure. It becomes an active element of the action from an everyday background." The second feature of Socialist Realism, klassnost', is the "objective" recognition of the class nature of art. Theorists were quick to distinguish this concept from "tendentiousness", which was defined as the promotion of a political viewpoint. Yet the two terms arc almost impossible to differentiate: since class recognition was made from a socialist perspecti~e, its "objectivity" in fact proves to be highly subjective. Social awareness in 19th-century Russian music (as exhibited in the operas of Mussorgsky, for example) was reinterpreted as 'socialist' awareness by sorne Soviets. Note the double meaning of this excerpt from Osnovy marksistsko-leninskoi estetiki: The content of a work of art is not entirely determined by the ideology of the artist himself, since every genuine artist is a ~eflection to sorne extent of the reality

.43 Quoted by James, p. 6 ... •• "5emyon Kotko, " pg. 172. 20 of his epoch...the major importance of his work lies in its objective content, even though this may be obscured or even contradicted • by his own subjective views, dictated by the form of the society in which he works." The contradiction is illuminated by the experiences of Meyerhold. The director staged a number of plays about social conditions after the October Revolution; because they were un suitable as propaganda they were deemed tendentious. The other two principles of Socialist Realism, partiinost' and ideinost', ware similarly based on false concepts of objectivity. Partiinost' is artistic identity with the Communist Party; ideinost', a term invented by Lenin, is the explanation and presentation of Party policy. The Party Central Committee issued additional guidelines concerning the creation of Socialist Realist art in the 1930'5. These were designed to mobilize Soviet artists "around the problems of building socialism. ,,'6 Max Hayward adds that the orthodoxy required a contrast between positive and negative characters - which destroyed the sense of tragedy. Defeat and death in the services of the cause... was robbed of its dramatic pathos by the sententious way in which the moral was drawn. Socialist Realism degenerated into the final absurdity of the "lack of conflict" theory and the "varnishing of reality" (defensive responses to Zhdanov's decrees)." Common themes in literature included construction and, in the somewhat ironic words of A. Ovcharenko, "the evolution of the man of the old world, which turns out to be more involved and lengthy than might have been inaugured." The most ideologically successful novel in the constructivist genre was Nikolai Ostrovsky's Kak zakalilas' stal' (How the Steel was Tempered

'5 Quoted by James, p. 8.

46 From the 1932 Party Central Committee resolution on arts organizations, as cited by James, p. 120. • 47 Writers in Russia, p. 158 . 21 ... (1932-4), whose hero (Pavel Korchagin) was used as a role model for Soviet children. Simple metaphors and symbols from the natural world are common in such works, with socialist evolution seen as an organic, Fredestined process. Valentin Kataev, for instance, often ties dramatic developments to natural occurrences in his novels. In l am a Son of the Working People the German invasion of the village is followed by a severe thunderstorm.'· The role of music in promoting socialist ideology was actively investigated after 1932. When Lunacharsky was removed from his post his belief that "formalism" and "rea1ism" were concepts that could not be applied to music was discredited:" many musicians came to a creative impasse. The Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians (RAPM) and the Association for Contemporary Music (ACM) were disbanded and replaced by the state-controlled Union of Soviet Composers. The Party felt that ACM and RAPM had been "a detriment to Soviet music, responsible for its failure to achieve ear1y ideological significance."so This remark was directed more towa~ds the 'forma1ist' practices of ACM than RAPM, which had championed the mass-song as the basis of composition. 51 To help redefine the role of musicians in Soviet society, the Union of Soviet Composers issued the following guidelines: The main attention of the Soviet composer must be directed towards the victorious progressive principles of reality, towards all that is heroic, bright, and beautiful. This distinguishes

'0 The storm scene is replaced in the opera by the burning of the village. See Part Two. ,. Schwarz (Music and Musical Life, p. 55) quotes Lunacharsky as follows; "What are "class tendencies" in music? An imperialist march can just as well serve the revolutionaries, whi1e the Marseillaise, with a changed text, could become a monarchist hymn. This proves to what extent mu~~c is less explicit than literature."

50 Ibid, p. 49.

51 There are three examples of mass song in Semyon Kotko. See • Part Three. 22 the spiritual world of Soviet man and must be embodied in musical images full of beauty and • strength. Socialist Realism demands an implacahle struggle against folk-negating modernist directions that are typical of the decay of contemporary bourgeois art... 52 Upon Prokofiev's I~turn to Moscow in 1936 the Union had full control of musical affairs, publishing the journal Sovetsk~ia muzyka, reviewing works for publication, approving libretti, and so on. The editors of Sovetskaia muzyka wrote that its purpose was to combat musical "formalism", a term loosely defined as the "ideology of modernism." While Prokofiev was not obliged to take part in Union activities (a condition of his return to Russia), the Union nonetheless had the power to cancel or delay performances of his works. He was especially vulnerable in light of his time in the West,53 since reaction against such expatriate composers as Stravinsky had become part of Zhdanov's rhetoric. The Soviet musical world changed dramatically in 1935 when Stalin attended performances of two new operas (seemingly incidental events). He praised Ivan Dzerzhinsky's Tikhii Don (The Quiet Don), a conservative number opera on a Socialist Realist text." A few days later Stalin heard a performance of Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtzensk District, a work which had been critically acclaimed at home and abroad. The music and subject matter of this work proved distasteful to Stalin and he ordered it withdrawn from the repertory. Shostakovich, Harlow Robinson writes, thereafter "went from being

~ Cited in Schwarz, p. 114. 53 The bureaucrats, for example, "could not countenance the mysticism or the neurosis of The Fiery Angel, composed during Prokofiev's absence from what he called Bolshevizia; r.e never saw it on stage." [Conrad, "A Light at the Opera," p. 36.)

5< Schwarz (pp. 142-143) notes that the work in its original version was harshly criticized. A contest jury at the Leningrad Conservatory in 1932 described the libretto as "ragged", the music • "monotonous" and the orchestration "primitive". 23 the most famous Soviet composer to a non-person.,,55 Lady Macbeth was condemned in an unsigned article entitled • "Sumbur vmesto muzyki" ("Confusion instead of Music") which appeared in Pravda. One passage reads: Fragments of melody, embryonic phrases appear ­ only to disappear again in the din, the grinding, the screaming... This music is built on the basis of rejecting opera ...which carries into the theatre and the music the most negative features of 'Meyerholdism' [Il infinitely multiplied...Lady Macbeth enjoys great success with audiences abroad. Is it not because the opera is absolutely unpolitical and confusing that they praise it?56 The boundaries between correct and incorrect compositional practice had been drawn; many composers - like man y writers before them - fell silent. Others, what Krebs calls an "opportunistic group", were able to advance their careers through political conformity, composing operas on the aforementioned themes. Among these works was Tikhon Khrennikov's number opera V Bur'iu. Its premiere in 1939 nearly coincided with that of Prokofiev's Semyon Kotka. Given the traumatic political events that preceded the staging of Semyon Kotko, it is no surprise that this work was panned in the official press. Instead of attacking the subject of the oper. ~owever, critics maligned its musical style and formal orgar,__ ation. It was compared most often to V Sur'iu, whose cantilena style differs markedly from Prokofiev's declamatory style. Schwarz notes that there were many "petty minds" who resented Prokofiev for his statements concerning the 'provincialism' of some Soviet composers; they in turn sought to disparage his music. But, in general, most reviews of Semyon Kotko reflect Communist Party policy on music and enable the reader to gage it as a work of Socialist Realism. l have summarized three of these reviews below.

55 "Born That Way," Opera News (January 19, 1991), p. 24. • 56 Cited in Schwarz, pp. 123-4 . 24 ~ Given his controversial position in Soviet musical scholarship, Boris Asaf'ev's comments about Semyon Kotko ("Opera", op. cit.) are among the most informative published. Asaf'ev had shown "signs of disenchantment with modernism"n well before the period of regimentation, so his critique of the opera cannot be interpreted solely as political conformity. In tone it resembles the analysis of Lady Macbeth he published after its official condemnation, an 'apology' for an earlier, positive review which balanced personal convictions with official policy. Asaf'ev opens "Opera" with a general historical statement that extricates him from an obvious ideological stance: Opera is the stylistic laboratory of the human condition. Musical and spoken intonation are found in permanent confrontation and rivalry, and in mutual "distrust" with respect to emotional and expressive quality, as if two competing schools of oratory. (pp.54-5l Asaf'ev favors operas that emphasize the melodic, or cantilena style. He writes that "opera without vocal melody is inconceivable" and that it cannot replace the "immediate charm of the human voice," regardless of how expressively an orchestra plays. (p. 56) He proceeds to examine the dramatic and emot ional effectiveness of several 19th-century works, including Mussorgsky's Khovanshcnina and Rimsky-Korsakov's Tale of a Golden Cockerel. Asaf'ev does not assail Prokofiev simply on the basis of his declamatory style, but attributes the 'defects' of his music to inconsistencies in structure and line. Rather than creating music in a purely lyrical vein, Prokofiev in Semyon Kotko attempted to blend classicism with [so-called] "expressionism". Asaf'ev offers a sociological explanation for this facet of the composer's style: To blend this dynamic which emerges from contemporary being with the very best • 57 Ibid, p. 125 . 25 tradition of melodic [classical] opera is, of course, not easy [ ... ] The listener has the • right not to wish to supplant the sensation of musical motion with garish [broskii] expressionism [ ... ] but may also not wish to submerge his psyche in the schemes of the voice of the epoch. [ ... ] Sergei Prokofiev has especially stumbled in this situation - his expressionist operatic language cannot find for itself up til now suitably convincing stage forms. (p. 62) Notable is the use of such words as "contemporary" and "modern­ day" rather than specifically political terminology. Even though Asaf'ev was labelled a "formalist" for his modernist work in the 1920's, here he appears to assert that music should be 'for the people.' In the face of political pressure Asaf'ev abandoned his modernist views and restructured his critical writing about music's social function around the latter view. For this reason it would be erroneous to regard the above statement as a capitulation - though it shows narodnost' it does not show partiinost' . It is only when the writer turns to Khrennikov that he engages in the discourse of Party ideology. For Asaf'ev, Khrennikov's music depicts the contemporary dynamic in clear, straightforward terms; the composer avoids over-refinement and obscurity: Tikhon Khrennikov's opera "V Bur'iu" is the most talented expression of that direction in Soviet opera which, through the spontaneous and direct expression of human feeling to the masses, justly opposes the style of music where intellectualism for the sake of intellectualism concedes too much to logical reason. [It also opposes a style] which without limitation complicates and refines. (p.63) Semyon Kotko, in contrast, is unnecessarily complex. Aside from its harmonie and melodic language, Asaf'ev finds the dramatic action hard to follow. The scenes seem "assembled from messengers' correspondences or the observations of the participants." (p.69) Asaf'ev justifies such criticism - however vague - with 4It respect to the creative problem facing Soviet composers. He 26 contends that a new aesthetic form is required, one "shaped by the October Revolution" and the "renaissance of the heroic • style." (p.5B) The operas of Khrennikov and Dzerzhinsky are thus useful models. They typify the "patriotic art" of mass song and the "rebirth of lyricism." Even though Asaf'ev does not use the term, later commentators saw these words from the perspective of Socialist Realism. Elena Orlova and Andrei Kriukov assert lhat Asaf'ev was attempting to define for young composers the ideological role of Soviet opera: The main goal of [the study]: to find out how Soviet operatic art can be a vital form that is near to the people, an artform underscored by contemporary Soviet reality, an artform of Socialist Realism.'· This point is reiterated by Ivan Sollertinsky, a scholar strongly influenced by Asaf'ev's work. Sollertinsky was pressured to change his views about 'modernist' music following the censure of Lady Macbeth in 1936. (He and his colleagues Mikhail Druskin and Ivan Rabinovich had been charged with "militant formalism" for their positive reviews of the opera.) Sollertinsky's long-delayed apology for the critique recalls Asaf'ev's own hesitancy to react. Schwarz explains: At first, he had a defeatist reaction and wanted to abandon temporarily the field of music in order to re-think his position. He explained it later as an "unwillingness to lie, since l could not yet envisage the path of my reorientation." On second thoughts [sic], however, he decided to recant. In a lengthy statement, he admitted that this decision was prompted by the position of Asaf'ev." The article "Dramaturgiia opernogo libretto"60 ("Dramaturgy of the Opera Libretto") shows Sollertinsky's departure from

'8 Academik Boris Vladimirovich Asaf'ev (Leningrad: Sovetskii kompozitor, 19B4), p.256. The authors add that they "are not able to agree with sorne parts of Asaf'ev's study, but the general tone is relevant today." ,. Music and Musical Life, p.127 • 60 Sovetskaia muzyka (No. 3, 1941), pp. 21-31 . 27 • musical analysis te interdisciplinary work. Its writing was prompted by a meeting of the repertoire selection committee of the Kirov theatre. Dissatisfied by the quality and types of libretti submitted for review, he sought to define the role of the librettist in the compositional process. Many of Sollertinsky's thoughts mirror party ideology, and the end of the article pays direct homage to Stalin. [ ... )intellectual labor, a knowledge of aesthetics and Marxist-Leninist philosophy, most detailed study of world literature and systematic work on one's own ideology, is of course an absolutely necessary prerequisite for the composer taking up a large operatic theme. (p. 24) Without being specific, Sollertinsky refers to the "decadence" and "nihilistic tendencies" in Western-European music of the early 20th-century, evidenced in the works of Claude Debussy and Richard Strauss. He also notes that the "ruinous consequences" of this music sometimes has an impact on Soviet opera. The blame lies not so much in the musical language of sorne Soviet composers as in their choice of libretto. Many texts feature a "new type of hero - the 'unheroic', or ordinary." (p. 21) From the perspective of Socialist Realism, this trend violates the tenet that an operatic hero should be an idealized individual, a depiction of one's heroic capacity. The libretto should show the psychological transformation of the protagonist to this (possible) state.·' Sollertinsky stresses the importance of close contact between librettist and composer, and of the composer having the last word in ail artistic matters. The worst types of libretti are those conceived as separate literary entities: The emotional blood must flow from the music. It follows that the task of the poet should not entail the introduction of a large number of colorful similes, types of metaphors, complex poetic strophes, and so on. (p. 25) • ., See Parts Two and Three. 28 Like the non-heroic or "naturalistic" libretto, overly literary texts present large problems for the Socialist Realist composer. • In language there are "only relations":" by coding the libretto through the addition of secondary layers of meaning, the straightforward depiction of the hero is made impossible; the [ideological) message of the work gets distorted or lost. Sollertinsky uses this principle to argue that libretti should be dramatically compact, without passages that interrupt the flow of action. The dramatic effect of Wagner's Das Rheingold, for example, is lessened by static, overly-detailed scenes. For this reason he is critical of attempts to "intellectualize" drama: philosophers or "figures of reason" are ineffective in opera. He also believes that composers should avoid using five-act formats, for the dramatic climax of such works is often weakened. Here he mentions Semyon Kotko: In Semyon Kotko...the dramaturgical culmination is supplanted by a nervous-physiological [sic) culmination. [ ... ) 1 feel that the tendency of a whole series of our composers to increase the number of acts in an opera is a mistake. The dramaturgy of Semyon Kotko is an example of such a dragged-out construction. Of course the episode of the salvation [the partisan liberation of the village) would find room in the fourth act, on account of the dramaturgically unnecessary role of the artillery lesson. (p.27) The aria sung by Semyon after the execution of two Bolsheviks is also mentioned: [ ... ) when the hero's life is in danger he without end sings in front of the villain's house, who may hand him to his enemies? The dramatically unjustified song or romance, as with the artificial inclusion of a self-contained aria, is a very bad operatic convention. (p.27) Since the dramatic circumstances in the previous scene called for the protagonist's reaction Sollertinsky's complaint here seems unjustified. He may instead be objecting to Prokofiev's reading of this section of the libretto, which (as explained in Parts Two • .2 Ryan, p. 12 . 29 and Three) inadvertently subverts Leninist concepts of 'just' and , un just' wars. • Sollertinsky's concluding remarks concern the operatic finale. He contends that the endings of Soviet operas should be optimistic, reflecting high moral principles and the valor of the heroes. However authentic tragedy is "often substituted by melodramatic noise." (p. 29) If an opera ends in the death of the protagonists, their sacrifice should represent positive ideals. He (predictably) finds this quality absent in Semyon Kotko: Up to the middle of the third act one feels in Semyon Kotko large epic pathos, but in the middle of the third act pathology [read "an aberration") appears. Further, when the partisans rush in and save the heroes who were for sorne reason [sic] hidden under a church, it all begins to resemble the film The Red Devils. (p.29) Once again, the author inadvertently questions Prokofiev's dramatic intent and, perhaps more importantly, suggests that Prokofiev satirized the rescue sequence. It is worth noting here that Sollertinsky's choice of such cumbersome words as "pathology" ("patologiia") and, earlier, "physiological" ("fiziologicheskii") to describe negative aspects of the opera typifies the pedantic character of Soviet scholarship in the Stalin era. By employing such terms the author is able to categorize aesthetic phenomena and incorporate it into an ideological framework that would otherwise have lacked context. Krebs elaborates: The development of music at and towards the center has been remarkable not so much for its growth from small beginnings, but for the striking phenomenon of organization and classification leading, at times, to a dogmatic semantic situation, wherein the vocabulary of limitations and organization defines and restricts the activity as much as the musical activity affects the vocabulary and organizing. 63 • 63 Krebs, p. 29 . 30 The terminology used by M. Grinberg in his August, 1940, • article "Spor s kompozitorom" ("A Dispute with the Composer") typifies this phenomenon. It was one of a series of discussions about Prokofiev's style that appeared in Literaturnaia Gazeta after the premiere of Semyon Kotko. Grinberg refers to these articles and without hesitation disparages other critics for their 'liberal' views. He begins: In the last few years it has becorne fashionable to speak about the 'perestroika' of Sergei Prokofiev. As soon as he writes a new type of composition (and by this time he has written a lot), the critics begin reporting: "Look, Prokofiev is changing - he has taken a step forward!" [ ... ] All of the articles about the composer are based on measurements, calculations, and descriptions of these "steps". Following this [rather bizarre] introduction, Grinberg asserts that Prokofiev's embrace of Socialist Realism has been excessively delayed, and that his new opera, Semyon Kotko, retains features of his past (read 'modernist') style. Grinberg's main criticism concerns the depiction of the protagonists: Semyon, Sonya, and Tkachenko. He contends that Prokofiev is more preoccupied with the drama of the situation than the drama of the characters - the "survival of the heroes." Rereading the statement, one realizes that 'concern for dramatic situation' really means 'preoccupation with formal principles.' The composer has erred in letting form dictate content, rather than the reverse. Grinberg elaborates: The construction of the libretto and the whole opera reveal contradictory tendencies in Prokofiev's present style. [ ... ] When Prokofiev is interested in the internal essence of the drama, when the soulful suffering of the hero really occupies him, the music finds strength, concreteness, psychological expressiveness. But in many other cases, the music remains outwardly illustrative, formal, neutral. Like Asaf'ev, Grinberg believes that Prokofiev is caught in a stylistic quandary and that Semyon Kotko seems to have been • written by two composers. Prokofiev was in a period of 31 ~ transition at the outset of its composition, but as shown in Part Three, the sty1istic discrepancy lies in the match of a conformist text with a non-conformist approach to composition. Neither Grinberg nor Asaf'ev prove that Prokofiev's aim was to create a work of Socialist Realism. In fact evidence points to the contrary: his collaboration with Meyerhold (a "formalist") and his disagreements with Kataev indicate that the new style was not a "step" towards conformity. Though Prokofiev was pressured to reorientate his compositional style, his artistic integrity ­ the creative impulse - was not necessarily compromised. In Grinberg's opinion, Semyon Kotko failed because it transgressed a major tenet of Socialist Realism: the portraya1 of the individual as a realization of personal potential. Other critics of the opera (notably Israil Nest'ev and V. 64 Tsukkerman ) considered Prokofiev's characterization unfocussed or even ambivalent, the result of what of what one semiotician would term substituting "substance, causality and distinctness" by "analogy, relation, and opposition. "65 Prokofiev' s musical language and his concept of dramaturgy are the main points of contention in all of the reviews cited. As a means of defining the doctrine, however, their critical assessment is problematized by the "dogmatic semantic situation" of scholarship of the period.

64 I. Nest'ev, ""Semyon Kotko" S. Prokof'eva," Sovetskaia muzyka (No. 9, 1940), pp. 7-30. Tsukkerman's article ("Neskol' ko myslei o sovetskoi opere," Sovetskaia muzyka (No. 12, 1940), pp. 66-78) is discussed in Part Three . • 65 Desire and Language, p. 70 32 PART TWO: THE TEXT AND THE TEXT SETTING Kataev's 1938 nove1 l am a Son of the Working People is • loosely based on historical facto A. Ehrlich, at the time an editorial secretary with Pravda, showed the writer archival documents concerning the German occupation of southern Russia after the First World War along with dispatches from partisan regiments stationed in the area. Kataev considered the material the ideal subject for a 'patriotic' story: Information about the intervention of the first years of the revo1ution fell into my hands. l realized that 1918 was the Patriotic War of the Ukrainian people. [ ... ] The story came into being based on feelings of fear about a new war with Germany .•, As noted in my introduction, the main character of the novel (Semyon Kotko) is a veteran of World War l, released from dutY following the Bolshevik overthrow of Russia's (and Ukraine's) provisional government. Semyon receives a warm we1come in his native Ukrainian village, with relatives and neighbors eager to hear about the four years he spent at the Front. He surveys the farmland awarded to him by the village Soviet (part of nationwide dispersal of Tsarist estates) and plans the future, which includes marrying Sophia, daughter of the kulak" Tkachenko. Frosya, Semyon's mischievous younger sister, arranges the matchmaking ceremony. In five chapters of background material the reader learns that Tkachenko opposed the Bolshevik Revolution and became a prisoner of war - Semyon was (coincidentally) assigned to guard him. His life was spared when he consented to Semyon's marriage to Sophia. The matchmakers later remind Tkachenko of this promise, and though he abhors the thought of his daughter marrying a poor peasant, he reluctantly plays host to their

" Quoted by Liudmila Skorino, Picatel' i ego vremya (Moscow: Sovetskii Picatel', 1965), pp. 290-291. • 67 A wealthy peasant . 33 engagement party. Village life is disrupted by the arrivaI of Klembovsky, a • former landowner supposedly hired by Tkachenko to help with chores. Hoping te win back their land, Tkachenko and Klembovsky conspire with German forces to raid the village. The invasion is swift and ruthless, and two of Semyon's close friends (Ivasenko and Tsarev) are executed. Compelled to act, Semyon leaves his fiancé and family to help organize a peasant uprising against the Germans. His sister (Frosya) arrives to report that Tkachenko has forced Sophia into marrying a Tsarist sympathizer. Semyon decides to leave the partisans and attempt a rescue: he succeeds (by throwing a grenade into the village church during the wedding ceremony) but is subsequently captured by the Germans, who on Tkachenko's counsel sentence him to death. The story ends 'happily' whçn the partisans storm the village and free Semyon, who participates in the final defeat of the Germans.'8 Like most novels of Socialist Realism, l am a Son of the Working People validates the political views of Lenin and the principles of the October Revolution. The author actively participates in the narrative by instructing and leading the ideological discourse. The 'hero' of the story (Semyon), a Soviet patriot and a revolutionary, embodies Socialist Realist ideinost', klassnost', and partiinost'. Tkachenko is the novel's other: his actions compel the villagers to defend the revolutionary cause and force Semyon to realize that the old, Tsarist world has still not been reconciled to the needs of the people. rtis initial consent to the wedding of Semyon and Sophia - a moment of thematic ambiguity - puts the plot on a trajectory

'8 The epilogue is set twenty five years later. Semyon and Sophia, now collective farmers, proudly watch their son marching in the May Day parade on Moscow' s Red Square. The crowd echoes • Stalin's chant, "I am a son of the work:ng people!" 34

• towards conflict and resolution. 6. The first half of the novel describes preparations for the m,..·riage. Kataev pays close attentlon to the heritage and traditions of the Ukrainian people (an expression of narodnost') : the matchmaking ceremony, engagement party, and house 'showing' (rozgliady) are all recounted in lavish detail. 'o Many passayes in fact seem overwritten: He [Semyon] embraced Sophia around the waist. As though wishing to take his hand, she grappled for his fingers, carefully curled them and pressed them tightly to her side. They sat upright beside each other at the table, motionless, enveloped in blissful shame. (p. 71) Throughout these scenes, Kataev uses natural imagery to create an atmosphere of optimism and hope. Semyon's return from the war and betrothal of Sophia coincides with the beginning o~ spring. The metaphors employed are simple and direct, since any ambiguity in the signifying process would "run the risk of going astray" in the reader's interpret~tion and possibly subvert the ideological

message: 71 Here, next to the door, should be lying the millstone, familiar to him since childhood. [ ... 1 Immediately Semyon remembered how interesting it had been in the summer, having made the great effort to lift ~he millstone from the grass, to see what was happening underneath. [ ... ) But now, though spring had already begun, the stone was still icebound in the earth. (p. 18)

6. Tkachenko and Semyon represent the ideological boundaries of the story. The depiction of these characters is opposite on both narrative and syntactical levels. Kristeva (Desi r.e and Language, p. 45.) writes that the "irreducibility of opposite terms is admitted only to the extent that the empty space of rupture separating them is provided with ambiguous semic combinations ." In this way Tkachenko's decision to allow the wedding can be considered the catalyst for subsequent events.

70 Skorino writes: "The hero's heart is filled with tenderness upon seeing the ' familiar' simple habits of the peasant household." (Ibid, 293.) • 71 Ryan, p. 80. 35 ~ Although a Western reader might miss the reference in the passage to the Revolution 'lifting the weight from the people,' for the soviet reader it was perhaps aIl too clear. Images associated with fear and death presage the appearance of the Germans in the second half of the novel. Here, Skorino writes, Kataev contra~ts the "poetry of folk life" with the cruelty of the German occupation." The later scenes of Semyon's capture and the execution of Tsarev and Ivasenko are represented by a thunderstorm; the textual interplay of such words as "dust" and "cloud" replaces that of "ice" and "sun". with almost naïve simplicity Kataev marks the massing of partisan forces on the steppe with a break in the cloud coyer: On the next day, before the sun had risen, a cloud of dust appeared on the back road behind the village. This time not only the German infantry and cavalry were moving. A German howitzer bat~ery got under way from the detachable front a half mile [poluverstel away from the village on the burial mound. [Just thenl above the steppe the first sunbeams burst through as the war horn sounded in the crystalline air. (p. 127) From these brief examples it is clear that the novel conforms to Socialist Realist doctrine. Yet in spite of its conventional plot, 'stock' characterization, and stylistic similarities to such Socialist Realist 'classics' as How the Steel Was Tempered, l am a Son of the Working People received a lukewarm reception in the Soviet media. At issue was Kataev's use of description. E. Brainina writes: Nature, things, events, a pictorial external portrait, diverts the writer from a psychological, internaI portrayaI of the heros. The dynamic of external events pushes aside the dialectic of the soul." Brainina notes the absence of internaI development _0 the novel, which counters Sollertinsky's remark (op. cit.) that operatic

" Skorino, p. 293 . • 7J As quoted by Sabiraina, "Semyon Kotko," p. 80. '% • libretti should develop characters through their actions. The words "external portrait" refer to Kataev's penchant for satire, a common feature of his early novels but one that soviet critics likely considered ideologically subversive." Kataev's portrayal of Remeniuk, the chief of the village Soviet, is noteworthy in this respect: A huge man, missing two fingers on his right hand and with a cicatrized, long ago closed-over eye that made his ghastly face look completely unaware. [ ... ] Trophim Ivanovich [Remeniuk] rose above the tiny table of the bureau. Here, right on the spot, in the name of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic [and] with the stern impartiality of the Revolution the will of the people was carried out. (p. 56) 5ince Kataev also satirizes the class pretensions of Tkachenko and the Germans in the novel, his use of the device cannot accurately be termed subversive.'5 With respect to its syntactical organization, the semantic sameness of many passages" and the comparative absence of action also raises the possibility of subversion, but Kataev may not have consciously cast the novel in this way. Indeed, 'static' writing reflects only the stagnancy (the "process of confining and restriction") of 50cialist Realism under 5talin. Humor was likely Kataev's escape from these constraints, a means of being creative in a situation that obstructed creativity. Kataev and Prokofiev wrote the libretto of Semyon Kotko between March and June of 1939. From Këtaev's account, their working relationship was strained:

74 Robert Russell ("The I?roblE:m of Self-ExpressJ.on," p. 7B) notes that Kataev's "sharp vision and sense of humor enabled him to write successful satirical works, of which the most famous is the short novel Rastratchiki (The Embezzlers) (1926)." '5 Though as Kristeva points out, parody is a function of ambiguity. It introduces "signification opposeJ to that of the other' s word." (Desire and J.,anguage, p. 73.) ,. On page 124, for example, the phrase "very best" • ("nailuchshii") appears four times in the span of five sentences. 37 l worked on the libretto at my dacha in Kliaz'ma. [ ... ] Prokofiev was terribly pedantic at work. He was always hurrying me. If any kind of act or scene • had to be written, he constantly demanded: "What are you doing? Do you want to kill me?" He came by, grabbed it, and ran to Moscow. 77 The problems between them were both artistic and ideological. Prokofiev obviously sensed the enormous political pressure that Meyerhold, the director of the production, was under at the time.'B As the opera was based on a politically 'safe' text (at least prior to the signing of the German-Soviet non-aggression pact), Meyerhold likely believed that its success would rehabilitate him in official circles. Even Kataev remarked that Meyerhold was "in a constant state of alarm" to get the opera finished.'9 The libretto and the novel differ in several important respects. BO To sustain the flow of action Kataev and Prokofiev eliminated the flashback to World War l (chapters seven to twelve) and compressed the engagement and house 'showing' episodes into one scene in Act Two. B1 The storm scene (chapter

77 Quoted by Skorino, Picatel' i ego vremya, p. 301. 7B Iurii Elagin (Temnyi genii (New York: Izdatel'stvo imeni Chekhova, 1955), p. 363.) notes that particular attention was paid to Meyerhold' 5 activities from March, 1936. "In a meeting on March 14, Kerzhentsev now spoke against Meyerhold as the ' leader of formalist trends in Soviet theatre.' But he did so in a gentle tone, urging the noted master to admit his mistakes and to quickly transform." 79 Krebs, p. 156. In Skorino's interview (op. cit.), Kat~ev altogether avoids the subject of Meyerhold's arrest, stating only that the opera was "realized by Serafima Birman."

M My description of these variances is taken largely from Sabinina's study of the opera (op. cit., pp. 77-97). B' Kataev (Picatel' i ego vremya, p. 301.) commented: "Prokofiev himself planned several scenes according to their musical realization. The use of counterpoint [sic] was interesting. In one act the events of two scenes occur simultaneously, right and left. He [Prokofiev] explained: ' l' m • doing what's needed to develop the theme.'" 38

~ twenty-five) was replaced by a fire (Act III, Scene 14), and three new scenes were added: a romantic Nocturne between Semyon and Sophia (Act III, Scene 1); Remeniuk's eulogy for the two slain Bolsheviks (Tsarev and Ivasenko) (Act IV, Scene 2); and a large-scale funeral chorus (Act IV, Scene 3). Prokofiev chose to highlight the tragedy of the German invasion over their ultimat~ defeat and concentrated the bulk of the musical material in the middle acts. This feature of the dramaturgical plan explains Sabinina's description of the Act V Finale as "particularly shallow."82 (The reader will also recall Sollertinsky's comment about Prokofiev substituting a "nervous-physiological" culmination for a "dramaturgical culmination" in the opera (op. cit.». The funeral episodes were developed from a single paragraph in chapter twenty eight of the novel. Their dramaturgical function is desc~~bed as follows: ...having saturated the opera (particularly the third act) with swift dramatic action, the composer feels the necessity of a pause. In this instance the internaI drama of the event is embodied musically by the sound of the choir, without "imposing just any kind of sc'~ne. "8J The singing of the chorus (entitled "Zapovit", or "Testament") is the emotional climax of the opera (the novel, in contrast, culminates with the partisan victory over the Germans) . Its text was written by Taras Shevchenko, a nineteenth century poet whose works contributed to the rise of national consciousness in the Ukraine:~ When l die, then make my grave High on an ancient mound, In my own beloved Ukraine, In steppeland without bound: Whence one may see wide-skirted wheatland, Onipro's steep-cliffed shore, There whence one may hear the blustering

82 "Semyon Kotko, " p. 88. 8J Ibid, p. 87 . • 84 See Hayward, p. 17. 39 River wildly roar. Till from Ukraine to the blue sea • It bears in fierce endeavor The blood of foemen - then 1'11 leave Wheatland and hills forever: Leave all behind, soar up until Before the throne of God 1'11 make my prayer. For, till that hour l shall know naught of God. Make my grave there - and arise, Sundering your chains, Bless your freedom with the blood Of foemen's evil veins! Then in that great family, A family new and free, Do not forget, with good intent Speak quietly of me. B5 (1845) lt is crucial to note that the climax of Semyon Kotko is set to words that lie outside the ideological framework of Kataev's novel. (As Lawrence Kramer writes, "the outside of the tale is a position of escape."BO) Prokofiev's setting of thèse words, a conscious act of 'historicization', subverts Socialist Realist ideology. Through the insertion of an external referent - a text that predates socialism - the composer interrupts the ideological correspondence between Kataev (the Subject) and the reader (Addressee); the speaker in the libretto becomes Shevchenko, whose words have a non-political, disjunctive function. In one other passage, Prokofiev subverts Kataev's original text within its own temporal space (the narrative position it occupies in the novel). He substantially changed the episode

85 From Taras Shevchenko, Poems, translated by Vera Rich (Munich: M010de Zyttia, 1961), p. 64. Shevchenko uses the words "great family" to describe the nations of Europe. Under Stalin, however, they were reinterpreted as a reference to the Soviet republics. • BO "Song and Story," 19th Cent ury Music (Spring, 1992), p. 237 . 40 4It where Semyon leaves the partisans to rescue Sophia."7 In the original version the commander of the partisan regiment (Remeniuk) permits Semyon's departure: [Semyon) "It means, to leave the service, that after military discipline l will lose my share [dolia]?" [Remeniuk) "No, Semyon. You must fight for your share yourself. Fetch any britzka from our reserves, harness a team of horses, and if you want the very best, a machine gun with cartridges... l won't say anything to you against this." (pp. 123-4) In the libretto, however, Semyon defects: Semyon: On the horses! Comrade commander, mount the regiment. Now! Remeniuk: No, Semyon, this regiment is not yours or mine, but the worker-peasant Red Army's. Semyon: It means that l should lose my peasant's share? Remeniuk: No, Semyon. All working people fight for your share. Semyon: This is your last word? Remeniuk: The last. [ ... ) Semyon: Then l will leave the regiment! Remeniuk: As you wish. Leave. We don't need such nervous people in the regiment. Semyon faces the decision of sacrificing the "general revolutionary cause" for Sophia in both versions, but the libretto shows his inability to "leave the people.""" In the novel Semyon receives the support of the military, which underscores Lenin's theory that a war fought for socialist principles is 'just'. For Lenin, World War l was an 'unjust' campaign, and Kataev accordingly portrays events at the RomanjJn Front in a negative light. The libretto, however, subverts the notion of 'just' war by stressing the individuality of Semyon's

B7 Prokofiev may have only suggested this change to Kataev, who then rewrote the passage, or may have rewritten it himself. Details are unclear on this matter . • BB "Semyon Kotko," p. 91. 41 actions over the larger, collective struggle. When Remeniuk refuses hls request for assistance, Semyon simply walks away; he • abandons the Revolutionary caUf.e in favor of more personal interests. In changing Kataev's text Prokofiev was also able to capture subtleties of Semyon's character otherwise lost. The action becomes more intimate and therefore more 'realistic', a dramatic principle shared by both Prokofiev and Meyerhold. Meyerhold contended that emotions in opera are best expressed through recitative, rather than through dramatic arias and ensembles. He opposed the song style envisioned by Kataev and preferred the continuous recitative of such operas as Mussorgsky's Zhenit'ba (The Marriage) on account of its dramatic 'truthfulness': It is a new type of dramatic composition: a text that is not even enclosed in a poetic form, that an actor should deliver. It is prose. [ ... ] This is what Prokofiev does in The Gambier - free recitative, which requires a dramatic actor. [ ... ] You understand that the influence of the recitative in the text overturns operatic convention in the sense that the actor here ceases to be a singer. He shou1d be able to pronounce the words as beautifully as singing. 89 The dramatic conception of Semyon Kotko is similar to that of The Gambier (Opus 24, 1928), an opera based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel of the same name. Prokofiev found the extensive use of dialogue over internal or external description in this novel greatly appealing as it erlsbled him to write the libretto without losing the essence of the Dostoevsky's style. Rhythmic motives are established for each protagonist based on recurring speech patterns in the novel. To maintain the consistency of these formulae Prokofiev occasionally abridged sections of the original text (though some passages are quoted verbatim). M. Aslanian provides the following example from Act

89 "Stat'i, pis'ma, rechi, besedy: Chast' vtoraia" (Moscow: • Iskysstvo, 1968), pp. 70-1. 42 • III of The Gambler:'o Original: U nas, u nas, odnim slovom, u nas, v blagoustroennom gosudarstve, gde est' nachal'stvo, nad takimi starukhami totchas by opeku ustroili. (There is, there is, in one word, in the civilized state, guardianship over just such old women.) Revision: U nas v Rossii (5) est' nachal' stvo. (4) U nas v imperii (6) est' opeka. (4) (In Russia there is authority. In the empire there is guardianship.) In Semyon Kotko Prokofiev also adheres closely to the syntactical structure of the literary source, but relies less on rhythmic motives to distinguish the protagonists. The difEerent 'dialects' employed by Kataev in l am a Son of the Working People greatly simplified setting the text. Sabinina points out that the sailor Tsarev speaks with slang expressions whereas Tkachenko's speech is comparatively cultured. 91 (The Germans, of course, speak broken Russian.) Folk-like simplicity contrasts bourgeois decadence to the detriment of the latter: (p. 56) [Tsarev:] "Ah, the bastard! Now, you know what to say to the bastard! [ ... ] We had the same thing in the Black Sea Fleet. There, you know, we found these whores among the conductors - a rifle butt to the head and into the Black Sea. without a doubt." (pp. 103-4) [Tkachenko:] "Here it is, friends. l won't say "comrades" because we don't have that foolish word any more. l never used it before, thank God: l didn't know it and didn't want to know it."

~ "Ritmicheskaia organizatsiia prozaicheskogo teksta v opere S. Prokof'eva "Igrok" in Muzykal'nyi teatr - Sobytiia, problemy (Moscow: Muzyka, 1990), p. 101 . • '1 "Semyon Kotka," p. 81. 43 Prokofiev allowed Kataev's prose to dictate the rhythmic structure of the sung lines in Semyon Kotko, though he encouraged • the author to abridge the original text for dramatic compactness. While this procedure constitutes an integral part of Prokofiev and Meyerhold's dramaturgical conception of the opera, it also reveals Kataev's influence on the compositional process. Both the syntactical and motivic organization of many passages advances the ideological message of the source novel. 92 To clarify this point (and as a preface to Part Three), in the rest of this section l will briefly discuss the text setting. In Act 1, Scene : of the opera Semyon speaks with neighbors and friends about the Revolution. The original version of the text is shown below: "What did you hear in the fields? Is it finally all reconciled or are they still shooting?" °You were part of the 64th artillery brigade, weren't you? l was in the eighth howitzer. We stood alongside you at Vileika below Smorgon'iu in the winter of 1916. Only you were on the right side of the road, and we were on the left, in the bend just behind Bialy." "Have you heard if Lenin's still running the show? Kerenskii still not caught?" "Greetings, countrymen," answered Semyon. "We don't care as long as our homes are secure. By order of the chief given February 12 peace was signed on aIl fronts for the full demobilization of the German forces. The first battery of the 64th brigade, quite right, in the winter of 1916 stood below Smorgon'iu on the right side of the road near the small birch forest. About Lenin it's heard that he's sitting in his old place running the whole show and isn't interested in resigning." (p. 21) Close attention is paid to the actual intonation of the words in the setting. Prokofiev (and Kataev) condensed the passage to a series of short phrases based on the stress pattern of the line "Chto slykhat' na pozitsiiakh?" ("What did you hear

92 Where the process of direct or "monological" signification breaks down and the music 'opposes' the text, one may argue that meaning has been distorted or in fact subverted. This concept is • explored in Part Three. 44 in the fields?"), which is realized in alternating eighth and quarter notes. Semyon's veneration of Lenin is expressed by • augmenting the rhythmic values and expanding the range of the vocal line, moving it from solemnity to high drama (Example 1)

[Translation: 1 lst Villager: "Is it resolved or are they still shooting?" Semyon: "Sy order of the Soviet commander ...

.... ~ r .... " ... 1...... 1. .. • ••• .. ...peace was signed on all fronts."

lst Villager: 'Are the Germans planning to advance?" semyon: "There is peace with the Germans. Fraternized."

2nd Villager: "Have you heard if Lenin's running the show there?' Semyon: "About Lenin it's heard that he's sitting in the old...

c••.

'·1 CI• • . •.place, doing what's best for the people, .. • t-I Il. 1·1 1".

.•.not planning to resign." r•• _.&7." n.

The emphasis on peace with the Germans in the revised text was clearly prompted by Hitler and Stalin's signing of a non­ aggression pact in 1940 (discussed briefly in the introduction). The parlante texture of Example 1 typifies much of the opera, though Prokofiev also shows a predilection for unpitched recitative, a throwback to Classical opera style. The latter effect is particularly striking in Scene' 6 (Act I), which marks the first appearance of Klembovsky, Tkachenko's 'new worker.' In this scene Sophia ~nd Semyon whisper nervously about the event outside Tkachenko's home (Example 2) .93

[Tr4nsl4tion:) Semyon: 'Who is th4t man sittin; next to you~ father?- Sophia: -It's our new worker.- S~on: -Looks llke he's not one of us.-

93 In the novel Semyon asks his sister, not Sophia, about Tkachenko's new employee. He first sees Klembovsky with Sophia, but hides to avoid being spotted. Prokofiev and Kataev opted to • condense the two episodes into one short scene. 46 Klembovsky represents a dark force in the opera, of course, • later collaborating with Tkachenko to oust the Bolsheviks and 'enslave' the peasants. His arrival is signified in a rudimentary manner by the chromatic orchestral motive that l have highlighted in the example. It has a horizontal and a vertical component: in the lower strings an arpeggiated sonority built on C sharp alternates with one built on C natural; in the violins major and minor seconds alternate with thirds. The arppggiated sonorities recur in variation in the matchmaking scene of Act 2, even though Klembovsky is not present (Example 3).

To. ~~-ê-~~~~~§""'~~ T,...•• ae. le . _.1, ..... Ilft"'_ ft na .

...., .....======

..... Ta. - ..r ... •. • 1 "..•......

[Translation:) Tkachenko: °God willing, you'll find a good man • for yourself.o 47 ~ The motive functions as a narrative [musical] sign in the matchmaking scene by recalling a feature of Klembovsky's pers0nality in his absence, in this case the capacity for destruction. It accompanies Tkachenko as he tries to dissuade Sophia from marrying Semyon. The motive "discloses the meaning" of his words in that Tkachenko later plans to marry Sophia off to a former landowner, thereby thwarting her dreams of happiness with Semyon. 94 A similar effect is achieved in its subsequent appearances. In Act III (Scene 5), for example, Prokofiev uses part of the motive in the folk tune sung by Mikola (Frosya's suitor), which presages the arrivaI of Klembovsky, Tkachenko, and sev~ral [German] soldiers (Example 4, below). Here we see that the melodic contour of the voice and guitar part corresponds to the upper string line in Example 2.

• 94 Sabinina, p. 131. 48 In the following scene [6] Prokofiev casts Tkachenko's • conversation with the soldiers in parlante texture. Their grim disç~ssion about the arrest and execution of Tsarev and Ivasenko occurs over a dissonant sonority (A-F-F#-C-E sounding on alternate beats. Ljke the switch from spring to storm metaphors (light to dark) in the novel, Mikola's simple folk tune is here supplanted by a chromatic motive (Example 5).

011. , 1 1 C.lacl•.

Cl.

cu.

T·no

Ta.

1·1 r.

[Translation:] Tkachenko: "The sailor is here." Ist Commander: "Which one divided up the land?" Tkachenko: "He did." Ist Commander: "Where is he?"

• 49 This sonority recurs in transposed form near the end of the opera (Act v, Scene III), when Tkachenko visits Semyon after his • intim~tes arrest. It once again execution (Example 6).

[Translation:] Tkachenko: "I pitY you, Kotko, in your last • hour.· Kotko: 'I don't want your pity." 50 • The :wsic in these examples conveys the idcological message of Kataev's novel directly to the listener;" meaning is expressed clearly and simply by motives that act out 'phenomenal events' in the libretto.'6 Unlike the changes P~okofiev made to the original text, the cited passages do not subvert Socialist Realist doctrine. However Prokofiev's preference for continuous declamation (over the song style of Socialist Realist composers) is decidedly non-conformist. His conception of the upera prompted the critical attacks summarized in Part One. In keeping with the style of The GambIer Prokofiev also maintained Meyerhold's ideas concerning dramaturgy. These were of course denounced by the Communist Party in the 1930's. In Part Three, I will examine several cases in which Prokofiev's music implies something other than the text and where narrative meaning becomes distorted or subverted. These examples will clarify the extent to which Prokofiev's compositional choices adhered to Soviet political doctrine.

'5 Indeed, the simplicity of many passages caused Svyatoslav Richter to comment: "[Prokofiev) carries his musical design, coming from the intonations of human speech, to the utrnost prominence. Listening to the opera you begin to live a common life with the work, which breathes youthfulness, like in that time, that period of history portrayed in it. This composition is so perfect and easy to understand that its appreciation depends only on the listener's willingness to listen." ("On Prokofiev," translated by Andrew Markow, Materials, Articles, Interviews (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1978), pp. 187-8 . • .6 Kramer, p. 237. 51 • PART THREE: THE DRAMATIC CONCEPTION In Part One l summarized three articles concerning the musical and dramatic erganization of Semyon Kotko, each dating back te the 1940's and, with the partial exemption of Asaf'ev's study, each written according to the tenets of Socialist Realism. The authors criticize the opera on the basis of its musical language, characterization, and dramaturgical conception. These three subjects are taken up in Marina Sabinina's 1963 analysis of Semyon Kotko [cited in both Parts One and Two], a defense of the work from the standpoint of its formal and motivic organization. For its place and time the book is uncommonly 'objective' :91 Sabinina's understanding of Prokofiev's compositional intent is based solely on the musical and textual evidence presented by the score. Absent (perhaps for obvious reasons) is a consideration of Semyon Kotko as a conformist work. The following discussior. provides such an analysis by focussing on Prokofiev's conception of the 'hero' and the use of mass song in the opera.

A. The Hero as Non-Hero Ivan Sollertinsky describes the protagonists of certain Soviet operas as "naturalistic," or devoid of heroic attributes. The composers of these works, he writes, "negate the very problem of the operatic hero."9B Sollertinsky does not fault Prokofiev in this respect, but his contemporary, V. Tsukkerman, considers such "naturalism" to be a major flaw in the composer's aesthetic.

9' Sabinina uses the words "Soc~~list Realism" to describe the opera only at the end of the book, . ;len she writes: "In spite of its numerous (and as said before, historically ir.evitable) inadequacies, it is possible to assert that Semyon Kotko signifies a decisive turn by the composer in the opera genre to the path of Socialist Realism." (p. 290) In an interview (Moscow, June 4, 1992), Sabinina told me that she was 'obliged' to include the term in order to have the book published. • 9B "Dramaturgiia opernogo libretto," op. cit., p. 22. 52 • In a December 1940 article in Sovetskaia muzyka,"' 1'sukkerman writes that "heroism - not in the nature of Prokofiev's music ­ is absent in Semyon Kotko." Sabinina dismisses this statement on the grounds that the most important 'leitmotifs' of the opera are grouped around the main character. 100 These signify the central theme of peasant life and the ''age-01d folk dream of a peaceful, free

existence. ,,101 She finds the musical portrayal of Semyon "absolutely free" from abstraction; his path "to the reality of revolution - his interna1 hesitation - is disclosed and analyzed." She adds: It is also possible to agree with those critics of the opera who have noticed in his character the predominance of lyric [!] and rea1istic features over the heroic, though this judgement omits tota1ly the specificity of the genre and its central hero. But the assertion that the character is "schematic and insufficiently rich" appears entirely groundless. ,,102 The statement is less a concession than a justification for Prokofiev's style: the words "specificity of the genre" refer to the representation of Semyon with arioso and recitative racher than song. As Prokofiev wrote in 1940: "New life, new subject matter call for new forms of expression, and the listener must not complain if he [sic] has to exert a little effort to grasp these fcrms."l~ His is not the position of a Socialist Realist composer: the words "new life" and "new forms" instead recall statements made by the Futurists, whose aesthetic theories were

•• "Neskol'ko myslei 0 sovetskoi opere," pp. 66-78.

100 Though as noted in Part Two, Tsukkerman's comment can be partly explained by comparing the libretto and the source novel. The emphasis on personal events over collective struggle in the libretto detracts from a "heroic" portrayal of Semyon.

101 "Semyon Kotko," p. 197.

102 Ibid, p. 207 . • 103 Materials, Articles, Interviews, p. 38. 53 ... familiar to PC0kofiev from his student years. The principal theme assigned to the protagonist of the opera is "Rano-ranen' ko" (" Early, So Early") , a Ukrainian folk song cited by Kataev in I am a Son of the Working People. 104 The theme represents Semyon's love for Sophia, appearing during their Act Two Nocturne and in Semyon's vocal part during their Act Three duet.lO~ Elsewhere in the opera, however, Prokofiev uses "Rano-ranen'ko" to illustrate the villagers' nationalistic pride.106 In the overture, for example, it sounds as part of a background texture depicting peasant life on the Ukrainian steppe (Example 7 (piano reduction), below). In this way Prokofiev ascribes Semyon and Sophia's romance to a love for the homeland.

104 Sophia' s girlfriends sing "Rano-ranen'ko" during the engagement party. Kataev writes that "each word of [the] old song resounded tenderly in Semyon's heart." (p. 71.)

10~ As noted by Sabinina, p. 197. 106 The reader will recall Example 5 of Part Two, in which Mikola sings the tune prior to the arrival of the Germans. It is • also incorporated into the choral finale (Act V, Scene 5) . 54 Notable is the modal (Phrygian) contour of the first two • measures of Example 7, which contrast the diatonic theme of the first section of the overture. The passage is cast in simple two-part counterpoint, in which the intervallic content of the

lower line mirrors that of the upper line. l01 The absence of a fully-harmonized accompaniment serves to destabilize temporarily the home key of C major, with the resulting tonal ambiguity giving the passage its 'stark' quality. The closure is nonetheless clearly diatonic. At the beginning of Act l the orchestra plays a second tune, labelled the "theme of return" ("tema vozvrashcheniia") by Sabinina. 108 It symbolizes Semyon' s long journey as a tiemobilized soldier from the Romanian front to his native village (Example B (piano reduction»:

00 .Md0 erat 0 .- .& :&-=- --- - ~ 1 1 l' ..",....100 - • -

_... _v ~_. - -.- - -- '-y YJ

• l'

.'"

107 Functional analysis proves inadequate in describing the horizontal and vertical sonorities found in the passage, since th~ listener is here confronted with a set of relations whose elements are in 'play'. Analytical methods based on established harmonic patterns are often unable to explain instinctive compositional practices. While Prokofiev makes use of a traditional harmonie vocabulary, his methodology contradicts and undermines it . • 108 "Semyon Kotko," p. 197. 55 • As noted, "Rano-ranen'ko" and the "theme of return" represent different facets of Semyon's character. The themes are distinguished by their background tonality and phrase structure: "Rano-ranen'ko" (in C major) is comprised of two five-measure phrases, the "theme of return" (in G minor) of two four-measure phrases. The "theme of return" is also more modal in character than "Rano-ranen'ko," moving from its fundamental in the first measure to the natural seventh degree and closing with a (linear) plagal cadence. The rhythmic organization and melodic contour (intervallic leaps of a perfect fifth) of the two themes is nonetheless comparable. The "theme of return" reappears in modified form at the end of the first tableau (Act l, Scene II). Here, however, Prokofiev alters its ending to that of "Rano-ranen'ko," and the combination of the two themes mirrors the reunion of Semyon and his mother (Example 9, next page (piano reduction»). The transition from the "theme of return" to "Rano-ranen'ko" is effected by the repetition of the melodic turn figure that l have labelled "A" in Example 9. "A" first simply signals the opening of the "theme of return," in which the melodic motion from C# to B natural (the tonic to the lowered 7th scale degree) in the upper line produces the polyharmony C#-A-B. Six measures later the motive sounds over a consonant A natural, where it becomes the melody ot "Rano­ ranen'ko." Linear cadential ~losure (D natural to G natural) is achieved in th~ following measures. Motive "A" thus changes its status in the passage from a signifier of discord to cousonance. It also evolves from an abstract musical idea to become a participant in the dramatic scheme. The dichotomy between Semyon's role as a soldier and a civilian is here shown by the manipulation of a common motive in two different contexts; we see that Semyon's apprehension about returning to the Ukraine eases as his two themes resolve their semantic difference. "Rano-ranen'ko" and the "theme of return", instead of functioning as self-contained entities, have acquired • a more complex dual identity. 56 ~ -: ~ i.n---:JIA ~ ~ ~ --.r. 1 1- J .. .. ::!-.. ..l .... :! • . 1 1 1 1r r i ~ 0/...11 • •'pr",ivo r r .. - :e: ':i ~. ~ . =ï_~ :; 8 -_ - _._._...... -- . - _ J ......

A 5 L~ ~ ~. .,r. •. JO 1 .-. " 1 v .- tir 1 ~ r p .- ...... L .fiT:l', ~ :; , "U'- ~ ~ ~ ~ • ------~------

:11:­ ~----- The similarity of the two themes Iater ~ndermines the distinction between Semyon's military and private :ife (his partiinost' and narodnost'), a feature that contributed to the aforementioned criticism of the character as "unheroic." In the Scene 11 of third act, for examp1e, Semyon sings the "theme of return" while reflecting on the injustice of having to Ieave friends and famiIy to join the partisan regiment (Example la,

next page (piano reduction)). 109 The theme is presented in F minor, without the altered ending noted earlier, and is described

I~ The "theme of return" is also used in the funeral chorus. • See below. 57 by Sabinina as follows: He [Semyon] is unable to "leave the people", to • place his personal interests above the common. Thus the ascent of the theme from a "personal" leitmotif to a leitmotif of the general, the symbolic, is accomplished. 110 • p- ' ,A. -- -. B 'l'llM . .,.10 BO~ ao••e • u,....c'I'e,JI.- 6po . ,lla - l'ai.

I~ 1 ~ -. -; - ':. .,- -...J LrLr l' - r .... 1 1 .J ~- ..... r r r 1 l"""'--""" lr u poco rU ...... di•• . A - -_. Oeil. - - ~ , -, Aon_lKeil a DO . K. . 111'1'10 lia., MaTa, ce _ C'I'PJ, Be _ • e _ C'I'J •

~ .

~ ~ ~ ., Y",,--~ 1-.. --- E..U.,i - - Tl -~ di_. 1 -, 1 1 - . :; r r 1 U r - - • - - -

Translation: "In the dark l will sleep in the steppe like a vagrant. l must leave my home, mother, sister. and bride."

110 "Semyon Kotko, " p. 199. l disagree with Sabinina' s assertion that Semyon is "unable" to place personal interests above those of the villagers. His hesitancy to leave is clearly bound up with his feelings for Sophi 'l, which are deeply personal. In seeking to rehabilitate the opera in the eyes of the practitioners of Socialist Realism, Sabinina inadvertently portrays Semyon as a • greater populist than the musical and textual evidence warrants . 58 Absent in the passage is a representation of so-called "revolutionary consciousness." The folk-like quality of the music projects narodnost' rather than partiinost', and consequently illustrates Semyon's reluctance to join the military. The semantic sameness of the musical material - that aspect of the dramaturgical conception that raised the ire of Soviet critics - in this way subverts the concept of heroism in the opera. Prokofiev composed two other themes which function in a similar way to diminish Semyon's stature as a hero. The first, a march-like tune in B fiat major,1I1 is heard in the first and fifth scenes of Act I, framing the episode in which Semyon tells war stories to the neighb~rs. Prokofiev scores the excerpt in triple meter and annotates the voice part with the instruction "zadumchivo" ("pensively"). As shown below in Example 11 (piano reduction) , the accents of the text conflict with those of the music, giving the passage a slightly satiric qua1ity. C.~diH Ua..,.",!:.) =- :a ~:» =--:>

ml.. cO.....YO 10! .'11111...C•• de "o.Mol.

-

CL

---f-.....· --- Translation: The soldier- was walking from the Front anèl finally came home. Four years of fightino and here i5 my nativfl hnmD

11\ Sabinina (p. 202) notes that Bb major has a "nch genealogy" in Prokofiev' s music, used as the principal key in • Alexander Nevsky (Opus 78) and the Fifth Symphony (Opus 100) . 59 In the second tableau of Act IV, during the "dramaturgically unnecessary"l12 artillery lesson, Semyon sings the other theme • (E~:ample 12).

n •

Arpa l~ "1/' =i =i- ( ~. > > 1 Ce... tl -' ~ •• r r D)'m·ICY· n)'w.xy oll.pae.Da At.BaTL.COT .e~ ...p. \o•. ro ro • fta ~ TJ)'W.KY.

l'A ca. ~ :0 • n;ym.KY·

nap. • n;ym.ICY· 2·A c,.. ~ 14 11 ••• ~ I~ool " liT ~1 ~~ > --...... -...' arCG ,;- Archl re Il -00" • > "'P - areG .--' ~ - '- --, r.:. >

Translation: "The cannon is a 1904 model." • 112 Sollertinsky, op. cit.. 60 • Ir. this scene Semyon assumes a leadership role by instructing the partisan soldiers on the use of the weapons they have amassed. For Sabinina, Semyon's sparsely accompanied vocal line has a "cheerful and buoyant" character,l13 which presumably shows Semyon's devotion to the military. When Semyon leaves the regiment two scenes later, however, Prokofiev transfers the melody to Remeniuk's part. Upon rescuing Semyon in the fourth scene of Act V, the commander sings th~ passage shown below in Example 13.

Ob.

C.1De 1.

CI.

Pae.

Tr'DI Toba•

PlaUI

Po ... • CQ.D1'QJl1' ap. u du 1••

Arclll

~T~r~a=n~s~l~a~t~i~o=n~: '~L~e~t=-them ride in the carriage in the wagon train.' • 113 "Semyon Kotko," p. 206 • 61 Although Sabinina finds "nothing illogical" in the repetition ­ to her it simply expresses the "comradery" within the 11 • regiment '- it seems that Remeniuk, rather than Semyon, has assumed the role of hero. Rather than symbolizing the [futuristic] Ideal of a Soviet soldier, Semyon emerges an unwilling participant in the struggle. The depiction of Semyon in these examples corresponds to the dramaturgical principle that viable stage characters display human frailties. In contrast, the heroes described by the practitioners of Socialist Realism are generally unblemished. The composer (under Meyerhold's influence) sought psychologically complex protagonists, avoiding the simplicity of idiom and schematic characterization of such conformist operas as Khrennikov's V Bur'iu. Prokofiev enriches the characterization of Semyon Kotka using musical ideas in a variety of contexts. His style blends two dramaturgical concepts: 'through' composition, in which material evolve~ according to the plot; and the use of 'constant' motives as symbols of the action. 1IS Example 14 (piano

Il' Ibid.

115 In partial defense of Prokofiev' s non-conformity, Sabinina writes: "Russian Classical Opera 1.0.] chooses the first method of characterization as more answerable to the task of realistic dramaturgy, which requires a multi-sided depiction of personality and character, their formation being a result of the dramatic • conflict." (ibid, p. 123) 62 • reduction), a series of sonorities that portends later events in the opera, typifies the practice. It is heard after the "theme of return" in Acts 1 and III. The "pensive"116 quality of the passage results from the juxtaposition of unrelated sonorities. In the first and second measures, Eb minor, B minor, F minor, and D major harmonies are sllperimposed over a pedal G. Their functional 'ambiguity' temporarily displaces the tonality, allowinq Prokofiev to "draw parallel relations" to other features of the [voice-leading] struct'Jre. 117 The passage recurs in ornamented form in the funeral chorus "Zapovit," for example, where it symbolizes collective sorrow [discussed below]. Upon closer examination we also see that jt realizes harOlonically both the "theme of return" and "Rano-~·anen'ko." The sonorities (G)-F-Ab-C (Measure 3:1) and C-(C#)-G-Bb-F (Measure 4:3) are simply embellishments of vii (natural) and iv in G minor, the predominant harmonies of the "theme of return"; the superimposed D major chord (Measure 3:3) and the 'cadential' descent from D to G (Measure 5) recall "Rano­ ranen'ko." The harmonie realization of the two narodnost' melodies illustrates the richness of Semyon's character (the simplicity of the themes merely masking greater complexity). In Act III, [or example, the described harmonies denote Semyon's fear and hesitation about leaving his mother and fiancé to join the partisans. Similar procedures are used in The Gambier, particularly in those passages where Meyerhold had encouraged Prokofiev to use instrumental interludes "as a reflection of

116 Terminology of Tsukkerman, "Neskol' ko myslei 0 sovetskoi opere," p. 69.

117 Richard Bass, "Prokofiev' s Technique of Chromatic Dis1'~acement," Music Anaiysis, Volume 7:2 (July, 1988), p. 200. Bass does not cite examples from Semyoil Kotko, but è,is analytical ... method pertains to the present discussion. 63 characters' emotions.""o Whereas in Part Two l highlighted severa', cases in which the • music projects the ideological message of Kataev's novel, the absence of straightforward musical depiction in the opera marks the dissolution of this message. A striking ex~mple is found in Prokofiev's portraya1 of Tkachenko. Sabinina describes the villain's music as untypica1 of the "tradition ingrained in Soviet opera": Tkachenko does not have a specifie orchestral leitmotif. Moreover, almost aIl of his part (sufficiently vast for this "multifaceted" and action fil1ed opera) is built on sangs, on the very nature of his vocal intonation. 1\9 More unusual from a Socialist Realist perspective is the closeness of Tkachenko and Semyon's music. Prior ta the scene in which Tkachenko learns of Sofia's plans ta marry Semyon, the orchestra plays his principal theme (Example 15 (piano reduction) ). ~J"l_ A .. Il ~----- C"- ~ ~. ~~- J- ~~ h.l 1 ( 1 ... u_. y.1o - :>- ~ - ~ J~l l'. ~- ... -:.ç .. J:J .1 1 1 Cur. Y•• - :>- - -...... ::;: 1

J ;---- ~hJ~ 1.. Il ; J-:J - ~ - "....':St •• h. - ~

• ~ ,; p J J .J--" J,...- I--.. r--" J fj 1":::: 1 ~ - '~I

liB Robinson, "Love for Three Operas," p. 298. • ~19 "Semyon Kotka," p. 153 . 64 • Here we find the familiar open fifth and descending eight-notc pattern of "Rano-ranen'ko," its modal contour and octave doubling. Sabinina, attempting to show musical opposition between the villain and the 'hero', omits mention of this similarity, even though the latter part of her description of Tkachenko's theme could be applied to the "theme of return'o: It [Example 15] personifies Tkachenko's character, the self-centered staidness of his bearing and his cruel, despotic disposition. [ ... 1 There i~ in this musical characterization something archaic, inflexible, stubborn. 120 One could perceive the musical association of Tkachenko and Semyon (the bad and the good) as ideologically subversive ­ Prokofiev deliberately baiting the critics - but the claim would be isolated and unprecedented in Prokofiev's music, contradicting evidence of an essentially apolitical aesthetic. ~he replacement of direct signification with indirect, rather than consciously subversive, is a procedure that originated in Prokofiev's earlier compositions. The repetition of musical material in different guises (to an extent irrespective of dramatic developments) typifies each act of Semyon Kotko. This latter point clarifies Tsukkerman's criticism of the opera's thematic organization: Almost half of all musical themes in the opera are concentrated in the first act; in the following acts new themes appear all the more sparingly. The general extent of thematic crystallization is maximized in Act land reduced in later acts. 121 An explanation for the analogous portrayal of the two characters emerges upon examining Tkachenko's other theme, the folk-like "Zhalko tebya, Kotko" ('OI pitY you, Kotko") of Act V (Scene 3) .122 As Tkachenko exalts in the upcoming execution of the Bolsheviks, the narodnost' music exposes the full extent of his treachery. The pseudo-opposition of text and music reveals

120 Ibid, p. 154.

121 "Neskol'ko myslei 0 sovetskoi opere," p. 67 . • 122 The theme is shown in Example 7 of Part T~lo. 65 ~ how far Tkachenko has strayed from his folk roots and has lost touch with the villagers. While Tsukkerman (op. cit.) was perturbed by the absence of "new themes" in the final acts of Semyon Kotka, one could argue that Prokofiev's use of varied repetition and the semantic sameness of many passages enhances the quality of characterization. In a novel defense of this style (one that pays lip service to the ideological censors), Prokofiev wrote: Any melody is easy to memorize if its pattern is familiar. On the other hand, if the pattern is new, the melody will not impress itself on the ear of the listener until he has heard it several times. And more: an opera may have few tunes, but if each tune is repeated several times the listener will remember them. If there are too many tunes the listener will be unable to absor.b them all at the first hearing and is apt ta mist.::;e abundance for poverty.123 Because man y of these "tunes" were given to the orchestra or incorporated into lengthy passages of recitative, the music of Semyon Kotko proved "unnecessarily complicated and refined"12' for the proponents of Socialist Realism. Hence determining the extent to which Prokofiev compromised his musical language necessitates examination of the oper~'s set pieces. For t~is reason in the final section of the study l will compare the three large choruses.

B. The Mass Song Motivic variation, the use of declamation, and the small number of set pieces in Semyon Kotko correspond to Meyerhold's belief that "a libretto should strive above all for dramatic truth. ,,12> Dostoevsky' s The Gambler was an ideal subject for a recit~tive opera because of its dramaturgical compactness and the

123 Materials, Articles, Interviews, pp. 37-38. 124 Asaf'ev, op. cit. . • 12~ Robinson, "Love for Three Operas," p. 302. 66 • comparative absence of "philosophical argumentat ion. "\2,, In contrast, l am a Son of the Working People is problematized by the inclusion of 'mass' events: a wedding, a funeral, and a battle. Though Prokofiev was compelled to add ensemble scenes to Semyon Kotko he was highly concerned about their '~tatic' effect: ... 1 was afraid of breaks in the action when eighty or a hundred people sing at once and nothing happens. To avoid this, T tried adding a scene to the chorus to keep the action going. 127 His comment echoes that of Meyerhold: Participants in a choir are restricted by the dreadful organization of choral ensp.mbles on thp stage as a part of the action. This is done very primitively. [ ... ) Staging a chorus w,s clearly made difficult in those cases where t.le composer had not considered the problem of its role in the scene. 129 To ensure widespread appeal, Socialist Realist doctrine called for ensemble pieces with memorable tunes, simple harmonies and tonal clarity.129 Two of the three choruses in Semyon Kotko are modelled after this style; the third, sung by a female choir during the village fire scene (Act III), in dramaturgical

126 Robinson, "Dostoevsky and Opera: Prokofiev' s The GambIer, " The Musical Quarterly (Volume 70:1), p. 100. Prokofiev nonetheless felt that the ending of Dostoevsky's novel was too introspective for opera. He wrote: " ... In view of the fact that the dramatic action is considerably declining towards the end [ ... ] and turns into psychological emotional experiences, and that this would have affected the closing scene and weakened its effect and that of the whole opera, l thought it better to end the opera at the point where Polina leaves the main character.." ("On The GambIer," translated by Andrew Markow, Materials, Interviews, Articles (op. cit.), p. 28. 127 "Semyon Kotko," p. 37. 129 Stat'i, pis'ma, rechi, besedy: Chast' vtoraia, pp. 189-90.

129 Prokofiev considered the official demand for. simplicity unreasonable. Sabinina (ibid, p. 64) writes that " ...the secret of writing garish, popu1ar, easily memorized me10dies lies on a level .' which always remained for Prokofiev aesthetically unacceptable." 67 • conception recalls the final ensemble of The Gambier. 130 The difference between the choruses (like the above noted distinction between direct and indirect musical signification) inadvertently mirrors that of Prokofiev's early and late styles. Within the confines of the opera, however, their disparity symbolizes the struggle between the partisans and the Germans. The "victory" chorus of Act V is rudimentary in musical and textual conception. Prokofiev provides what Sollertinsky would call an 'optimistic' finale,131 where syntactical clarity mirrors the resolution of the drama. The melodic line is simply an augmented version of the folk tune "Rano-ranen'ko," sung over tonie, subdominant and dominant harmony in C major. Dissonances (where present) resolve according to traditional voice-leading principles (Example 16) .

. I~ The climatic scene of Dostoevsky's novel takes place in a gambling hall, where a crowd of spectators expresses disbelief at Alexis' s good fortune. Prokofiev accordingly scored the passage as a (loosely organized) set piece. • 131 "Dramaturgiia opernogo libretto," p. 28. • 68

Translation: nOver free Ukraine, over the blue [steppe, a line of partisan forces stretched forward!l"

"Zapovit" ("Testament"), the chorus sung by the villagers at the funeral of Ivasenko and Tsarev (Act IV, Scene 3), quotes in a similar manner from the "theme of return," though it also has its own melody. (As noted in Part Two, the text of "Zapovit" was written by the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko.) Sabinina somewhat misleadingly suggests that Prokofiev's "complicated formaI organization" contributes to the ephiphanal effect of the chorus: The absence of stage action focusses attention on the semantic musical expression of the mood of the present episode, which permitted the departure from the principal plan of "action" music. Prokofiev is thus by no means orthodox with respect to his ideas about the use of choruses ... IJ2 However the complexity of "Zapovit" lies only in Prokofiev's synthesis of the principal theme and the "theme of return" in the •• IJ2 "Semyon Kotko," p. 243. 69 second, third, and fifth stanzas. The phrasing in each stanza ­ • corresponding to that of the textual phrases - is entirely uniform: a sixteen-measure period with a two-measure cadential extension. Harmonically, "Zapovit" makes consistent use of bass pedal points, moving between stanzas from the home key of C minor through G, C sharp, and F sharp minor. Although Sabinina notes the "psalm-like" quality of the

final section of the chorus, \33 she avoids mention of its distinguishing feature - the expressive chain of harmonies played by the cellos (Example 17).

6. Xop

• IUI.Ce..Jlbe .0.nll.xoH,a CO.K.O Bon•.aoH,Ho.BOii, ao aa.6J,ll•••n, DO.KJI.HH.!e,ll06.(lblll,!ILXJlK

Y'IO

• Y·c. 1011

C'Il. •

Translation: "A tamily new and free, do not forget, with good intent [speak quietly of me.]" • 133 Ibid, p. 242. 70 • These sonorities are an E'mbellished version of Semyon's "pensive" chords (Example 14), which Prokofiev has transformed "from a 1eitmotif of the personal" ta symbo1ize collective grief. The chromatic descent of a major tenth (E natural ta C natura1) over the bass peda1 marks the emotiona1 dissolution of "Zapovit". In another context, it would not be untypical of Prokofiev to present the ce110 passage in isolation. In such a case, the penultimate motion from C sharp to C natura1 wou1d faci1itate a move from F sharp minor to the seemingly remote key of C minor. Althougil linear 'displ~cements' of this type often supplant standard modul~tic~d in the composer's music, the addition of a tonie pedal ta the present example great1y reduces its funcLiona1 s ... gnificance. The "fire" chorus (Act III, Scene 14) differs marked1y from the two others. (The reader will recall that it replaces the storm scene in Kataev's novel.) In it Prokofiev uses an ostinato bass pattern to intensify the sense of fear and horror at the burning of the villagers' homes.l~ The ostinato emerges directly out of the action to become an integral part of the dramaturgical conception (Example 18, next page). The passage is distinguished both by its innovative harmony and the absence of clear-cut formal boundaries. Unlike "Zapovit" and the choral finale, Prokofiev composed the "fire" chorus using a diatonic pitch collection rather than functional chords. As shown in Example 18, the five-measure strophe of the ostinato is harmonized with a major seventh chord (Gb-Bb-Db-F) in first inversion, in which D flat alternates with a neighbor note D 13 natural on alternate beats. ' In measure three this sonority

134 Ibid, p. 240. Though it represents the dramatic counterpart of the "Victory" chorus, Sabinina feels that the absence of formal boundaries leaves no context for comparison.

135 Upon examining the double bass part, one could argue that B flat major constitutes the 'real' harmony of the passage, and that the G flats are auxiliary tones. Given the absence of a • functional harmonie progression, either interpretation is possible. 71 is replaced by a half"diminished seventh chord (C#-E-G-B); here C • sharp alternates with D natural .

.1 ••.

'"

.,.1 1

'1,.1 Il

Y·.a

y••• Ch.

c· •. Il ., .. ,

'"

y••• f

'1·.1 Il

Yole

't••• c ••.

C.'.

Translation of choir part: ·0 listen! 0 listen! We've been attacked by ang:ty ravens!-" • 72

The chromatic displacement (the two sonorities lie a mino~ • second apart) resolves at the end of the chorus to a series of fortissimo B flat minor chords (Example 19).

Cot.

n..6.

Xop

Arclal

Prokofiev provides neither a straightforward modulation from one key to another nor a functional cadential progression in the "fire" chorus. l would argue that Prokofiev has instead expanded the diatonic system of the piece to include pitches from two tonal areas, one being the 'shadow' of the other. Richard Bass • qualifies this point as follows: 73 ...... two structural interpretations [are) possible. The first interpretation regards the chromatic notes as altered notes in a 'surface structure'; the second yields a diatonic structure with both surface ~otes (those actually present) and shadows (those represented by the displacements) .13' The stylistic differences between th8 "fire" chorus and the two previous examples symbolize the conflict between the Germans and the partisans, in which diatonicism triumphs over chromaticism (traditionalism over "formalism") .'77 However it also mirrors the opposition of Prokofiev and Meyerhold's ideas on dramaturgy and th~ dictates of Socialist Realism. The simple harmonies and formal autonomy of the first two examples typify the 'stand and sing' style of Socialist Realist composers. The "fire" chorus, on the other hand, employs syntax more commonly associated with Prokofiev's early compositions. By adhering Lo the dramaturgical principle that consciousness of reality "dies" when the progress of events "cornes to a halt," it in turn reveals the dramatic weaknesses of "Zapovit" and the "victory" chorus. 138

* **

Together with the musical portrayal of the main character, the three choruses reveal the earlier described "contradictory tendencies" in Prokofiev's compositional style. 1J9 As noted throughout this study, the disparity between innovation and conservatism in the opera reflects the opposing influences of

17' "Prokofiev' s Technique of Chromatic Displacement," p. 201.

177 "Formalism" and "expressionism" in Socialist Realist discourse represent the outmoded pasto The return to simplicity, or "traditionalism," somewhat ironically embodies the aspirations of the future. '3. Terminology of Kristeva, op. cit., p. 47 . • 13' Grinberg, op. cit.. 74 • Meyerhold and Kataev on the composer. While Proko fiev dismissed Kataev's contention that "lots of arias" would ensure the success of the opera, in many respects the music projects the ideological message of the source novel. The opposition of diatoni~ism and chromaticism, for example, symbolizes the political battle in the story. In contrast, many features of Prokofiev's dramaturgy function to subvert Socialist Realist doctrine. The noted 'flaws' in Prokofiev's portrayal of the villain and hero are the most apparent results of a desire to avoid schematic characterization. We can therefore conclude that Prokofiev was in a state of transition when he composed Semyon Kotko, somewhere in between the conceptual daring of The Gambler and the sadly uninspired Story of a Real Man (Opus 117, 1948) .1<" Upon returning to the Soviet Union [Russia], he attempted to preserve his intuitive compositional style while meeting the demands of official doctrine. In the end, Prokofiev was "frustrated and coerced" 1<, into artistic compromise by a dictator who, having sung in the seminary during his childhood, considered himself an opera critic. Prokofiev's music, like the art of the Soviet intelligentsia in the 1920'5, was debased by Socialist Realism. Although Meyerhold, Mayakovsky, and (to a lesser extent) Gorky saw artistic experimentation as a reflection of the "new reality", the Stalinist regime eliminated the possibility of

1<0 With respect to this work, Harlow Robinson (Sergei Prokofiev: A Biography, p. 479) writes: "Both dramatically and musically, Real Man is almost more appropriately described as a cantata or an oratorio than an opera. It is heavily influenced both by the tradition of Soviet "song opera" and by Prokofiev's own work on Soviet mass forms, like Zdravitsa or Ballad of an Unknown Boy. Due to the immense pressure under which he was operating, Prokofiev was extremely 5~nsitive as he was writing Real Man [ ... ] to the impact his chosen musical style would have on the "average" Soviet listener." • 141 Conrad, "A Light at the Opera," p. 39. 75 • innovation. An inherently regressive artistic practice was codifj~d under the guis8 of liberalism: It soon beCa"le apparent that there was not and could not be a proletariat art, that it was a phantom in th. service of mediocre and cynical persons. [ ... ] As for socialist realism, its phantom is but a materialized nonbeing. 142 Prokofiev evidently ~onvinccd himself that it was possible to rnaintain artistic integrity within a repressive political system. The events surrounding the composition of Semyon Kotko underscore his error in judgement.

142 Ernest Neizvestny, as quoted by Ivashkin, "Post October • Soviet Art: Canon and Symbol, " p. 304. 76 BIBLIOGRAPHY

• (Russian sources are cited according to the Library of Congress transliteration system, eKcept in those instances when an alternate spelling is ;" popular use.)

A. PRlMARY SOURCES Kataev, Valentin. Ia, syn trudovogo naroda. Moscow: Khudozhestvennaia literatyra, 1938. Prokofiev, Sergei. Semyon Kotko. Opera in Five Acts, Opus 81 (1939). Libretto by Prokofiev and Valentin Kataev. Moscow: Muzyka, 1967.

B. SECONDARY SOURCES Abloaham, Gerald. "Dostoevsky in Music," in Russian and Soviet Music: Essays for Boris Schwarz. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1984, pp. 193-199. Asaf'ev, Boris. Ob opere: Izbrannye stat'i. Leningrad: Muzyka, 1985. 344 pp. Aslan'ian, M. "Ritmicheskaia organizatsiia prozaicheskogo teksta v opere S. Prokof'eva "Igrok"" in Muzykal'nyi teatr - sobyti~a, problemy. Moscow: Muzyka, 1990, pp. 98-108. Bass, Richard. "Prokofiev's Technique of Chromatic Displacement." Music Analysis, Volume 7:2 (July, 1988), pp. 197-214. Blok, Vladimir, ed. Sergei Prokofiev: Materials, Articles, Interviews. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1978. 257 pp. Brown, Edwaru J. Russian Literature Since the Revolution. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982. 413 pp. Brown, Malcolm Hamrick. "Stravinsky and Prokofiev: Sizing Up the Competition" i.n Confronting Stravinsky. Berkeley: University of Callfornia Press, 1986, pp. 39-50. Conrad, Peter. "A Light at the Opera." London Times Magazine, April, 1992, pp. 36-39. Elagin, Iuril. Temnyi genii. New York: Izdate1'stvo imeni Chekhova, 1955. 413 pp. Furie, Kenneth. "'Nevsky', Alive and WeIl." The New York 7'imes, • October 20, 1991. 77 Glikman, Isaak. Meierhol'd i muzykal'nii teatr. Leningrad: Sovetskii kompozitor, 1989. 352 pp. • Grinberg, M. "Spor c kompozitorom." Literaturnaia Gazeta, August 11, 1940. Groman, A. "Semyon Kotko." Vecherniaia Moskva, June 25, 1940.

Hayward, Max. writers in Russia, 1917-1978. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983. 340 pp. Ivashkin, Alexander. "Post October Soviet Art: Canon and Symbol." Musical Quarterly, Volume 74:2 (1990), pp. 303-317. James, C. Vaughan. soviet Socialist Realism. Np.w York: St. Martin's Press, 1973. 146 pp. Kholopov, Iurii. Sovermennye cherty garmonii Prokof'eva. Moscow: Muzyka, 1974. 453 pp. Klimovitskii, A. Opera Prokof'eva "Semyon Kotko". Moscow: Sovetskii kompozitor, 1961. 56 pp. Kramer, Lawrence. "Song and Story." 19th Century Music, Spring, 1992, pp. 235-239. Krebs, Stanley Dale. Soviet Composers and the Development of Soviet Music. Allen and Unwin, 1970. 364 pp. Kristeva, Julia. Desire in Language. Transl"ted by Thomas Gora, Alice Jardine, and Leon Roudiez. New York: Columbia University Press, 1980. 305 pp.

Meyerh~ld, Vsevolod. Meyerhold on Theatre. Translated and Edited by Edward Brown. New York: Metheun and Co., 1969.

Stat'i, pis'ma, rechi, besedy (1917-1939). Mosccw: Iskusstvo, 1968. 643 pp. Nakhimovsky, Alexander D. and Nakhimovsky, Alice Stone, Eds. The Semiotics of Russian Cultural History. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985. 229 pp. Nest' ev, Izrail. ''''Semyon Kotko" S. Prokof' eva. " Sovetskaia muzyka, No. 9, 1940, pp. 7-30. Nest'eva, Marina. S. S. Prokof'ev. Moscow: Muzyka, 1990. 160 pp. Orlova, Elena and Kriukov, Andrei. Akademik Boris Vladimirovich Asaf'ev: Monografiia. Leningrad: Sovetskii kompozitor, • 1984. 272 pp. 78 Prokofiev, Sel"geL The Gambler. Opera in Four Acts, Opus 24 (1928). Libretto by Prokofiev based on the novel by Fyodor • Dostoevsky. Moscow: Muzyka, 1967. Robin, Régine. Le Réalisme Socialiste: une esthétique impossible. Paris: Payot, 1986. Robinson, Harlow. Sergei Prokofiev: A Biography. New York: Paragon House Publishers, 1987. 573 pp. "Dostoevsky and Opera: Prokofiav's The Gambler." Musical Quarterly. Volume 70:1 (Winter, 1984), pp. 96-106. "Love for Three Operas: The Collaboration of Vsevolod Meyerhold and Sergei Prokofiev." The Russiall Review, Volume 45:3 (July, 1986), pp. 287-304. "Born That Way." Opera News, January 19, 1991, pp. 22-24. Russell, Robert. "The Problem of Self-Expression in the Later Works of Valentin Kataev," in Studies in Twentieth Century Russian Literature. Edinburgh: Scottish Academie Press, 1976, pp. 78-91. Ryan, Michael. Marxism and Deconstruction. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1982. 232 pp. Sabinina, Marina. "Semyon Kotko" i problemy opernoi dramaturgii Prokof'eva. Moscow: Sovetskii kompozitor, 1963. 292 pp. __=' "Ob opernom stile Prokof' eva," in Sergei Prokof'ev: Stat'i i materialy. Moscow: Muzyka, 1965, pp. 55-93.

Schnittke, Alfred. "Slovo 0 Prokof'eve." Sovetskaia muzyka, No. 11, 1991, pp. 1-3. Schwarz, Boris. Music and Musical Life in Soviet Russia, 1917-81 Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1983. 722 pp.

Scruton, Roger. "Analytical Philosophy and the t~ean ing 0 f Music." The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Volume XLIV, 1987, pp. 169-176. Shevchenko, Taras. Poems. George S. N. Luckyj, Literary Editor. Munich: Molode Zuttia, 1961. 116 pp. Skorino, L. Picatel' i ego vremia: Zhizn' i tvorchestvo V. P. Kataeva. Moscow: Sovetskii Picatel', 1965. Sollertinskii, Ivan. "Dramaturgiia opernogo libretto." • Sovetskaia muzyka, No. 3, 1941, pp. 21-31. 79

Syrnons, J. Meyerhold' s 7'heatre of the Grotesque. Coral Gables: University of Miami Press, 1971.

• 'l'aruskin, Richard. "Prokofiev, Hai1. .. and FarAwell?" 7'he New York 7'imes, April 21, 1991.

'l'sukkermar. V. "Neskol'ko myslei 0 sovetskoi opere." Sovetskaia muzyka, No. 12, 1940, pp. 66-78 .

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