Singing the Myths of the Nation: Historical Themes in Russian Nineteenth-Century Opera
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Singing the Myths of the Nation: Historical Themes in Russian Nineteenth-Century Opera Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate school of The Ohio State University By Ray Alston, M.A. Graduate Program in Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures The Ohio State University 2018 Dissertation Committee: Alexander Burry, Advisor Angela Brintlinger Helena Goscilo Jon Linford © Ray Alston 2018 Abstract Historical opera represents an important subgenre in the Russian repertoire, but many of the Russian operas on historical themes are unperformed and unknown in the West. However, they continue to play an important role in Russia’s self-exploration and historical identity. This dissertation seeks to address the matter of what it means to interpret history through the lens of opera. What assumptions about history are present in these works by virtue of the genre? To answer this question, this dissertation draws on the essays of W. H. Auden who asserts that in opera, virtuosic singing causes even real, historical persons to seem like the gods and heroes of myth. This principle serves as something of the reversal of the concept of displacement that Northrop Frye discusses in Anatomy of Criticism. According to Frye, all plots have a mythic core. Realistic works displace their mythic core by limiting the power of heroes and placing greater obstacles in their way. In opera, the process collapses. A realistic or historical plot may displace the mythic elements of the story of an opera, but the virtuosic singing reconnects the plot with its mythic core. Thus, Auden and Frye combine to form the core theoretical foundation of this dissertation, which seeks to illuminate the particular myths about history implicit in seven operas by prominent Russian nineteenth-century composers: Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar and Ruslan and Liudmila, Borodin’s Prince Igor, Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Maid of Pskov and The Tsar’s Bride, and Musorgsky’s Khovanshchina and Boris Godunov. Running through these operas are variations on various myths, the most prominent of which is that of the Tsar as father. Composers rework these myths, combining them with other myths. They also present different solutions to the problems presented by the mythic nature of historical opera. Some composers, iii such as Glinka, fully embrace the mythic potential of opera as a means of dealing with religious themes, thus situating the history of the nation in the wider context of religious narratives about the origins, end, and purpose of human history. On the other end of the spectrum is the Musorgsky of Boris Godunov. I suggest that he saw the mythic nature of opera as an obstacle. By presenting self-consciously performed myths in Boris, Musorgsky draws a distinction between the mythic and “true” moments of the opera. Most of the operas discussed in this dissertation fall somewhere on the spectrum between these two treatments of myth. This dissertation will examine the different treatments of myth in each of the operas and how these myths relate to the historical and political circumstances in which the operas were written. Far from making the themes of the opera abstract and apolitical, the myths all have relevance to political matters facing the Russian nation in the nineteenth century. The operas discussed in this dissertation, therefore, serve as an important contribution to a nineteenth- century dialogue about Russia’s history and future. iv Acknowledgments I owe many thanks to those who have supported this project directly and indirectly. I am grateful to the Ohio State University Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures for generous support. I am also grateful to Dr. Alexander Burry, Dr. Angela Brintlinger and Dr. Helena Goscilo for their valuable insight and assistance on this project and others, and to Dr. Jon Linford for his assistance with the musical analysis in this dissertation. Thanks to my colleagues for their encouragement. The completion of this project would be impossible without the help of others who helped in ways not academic but no less meaningful. Chief among these is my dear wife, Megan. Your tireless work, patience and love made this project both possible and worth doing. Thanks also for somehow finding time to read passages of my dissertation to check for clarity and for listening to me lecture on these subjects when I needed to tease out an idea. I am also grateful to our son, David, for the motivation he gives me. I am grateful to my father and mother for their generous assistance at various times during this project. Even more importantly, you have set an example of diligence and persistence, and have had confidence in me throughout graduate school, even when my own has wavered. I would like to thank my mother-in-law, Wendy Chelson, for the eleventh-hour proofreading. Thanks also to my friend, Paul Williams, for his feedback on the clarity of my writing. Thanks to Kristy Russell and Andrea McVey, for watching David when both Megan and I needed to work. Thanks to other members of my family and the Worthington Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for spiritual support. This has been a collective effort, and too many people have aided to name them all. v As a final expression of gratitude, I wish to include the words of Captain Moroni from the Book of Mormon. After leading a decisive victory in the defense of his people, he observed “God…has strengthened our arms… by our faith, by our religion, and by our rites of worship, and by our church, and by the sacred support which we owe to our wives and our children, by that liberty which binds us to our lands and our country; yea, and also by the maintenance of the sacred word of God, to which we owe all our happiness” (Alma 44:5). This has been the case for me, throughout graduate school, and I pray it will continue so. vi Vita 2011................................................................B.A., English Brigham Young University—Idaho 2014................................................................M.A., Slavic Literature and Culture Studies, The Ohio State University 2013-2017 .....................................................Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures, The Ohio State University 2018 ……………………………………… Visiting Professor, Modern Languages and Literature Kenyon College Fields of Study Major Field: Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures vii Table of Contents Abstract ....................................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................................... v Vita ............................................................................................................................................... vii Notes on Transliteration and Translation…………………………………………………………x Chapter 1: Introduction ..……………………………………………………………………..…...1 Chapter 2: “We are Situated, as it were, Outside of Time”: Glinka’s Operas and Pyotr Chaadayev………………………………………………………………………….……….…...32 Chapter 3: From Myth to Realism and Back: Rimsky-Korsakov’s Ivan the Terrible Operas …………….……………………………………………………………………………..………77 Chapter 4: “Muzhaisia, kniaginia”: a Woman as the Father of the Nation in Borodin's Prince Igor…………………………………………………………………………………...………...117 Chapter 5: “Rage Against the Dying of the Light”: The Death of the Fathers in Musorgsky’s Khovanshchina………………………………………………………………………...……….138 Chapter 6: “All the World’s an Opera:” Negating Myths in Musorgsky’s Boris Godunov ……………………………………………………………………………………………….…167 Works Cited ……………………………………………………………………………………194 Appendix A: Note on Musical Samples ……………………………………………………….210 (Musical Samples are included in Supplemental Materials.) viii Notes on Transliteration and Translation I have opted to use the Library of Congress system for transliterating the Russian below. However, I make an exception for proper nouns. Earlier styles of transliteration for the names of composers and writers have become habitual. Thus, I keep the traditional “Tchaikovsky” instead of “Chaikovskii.” For the sake of uniformity, I apply this convention to all the names in the dissertation, including those of lesser known figures, simply because this style has become more familiar to Anglophone readers and thus looks more pleasing to the eye. Thus, “Yarustovsky” instead of “Iarustovskii.” All translations from the Russian are mine unless otherwise indicated. ix Chapter 1: Introduction According to Opera Base statistics, in the 2015/2016 season there were 1,490 opera performances in Russia, more than any other country after Germany and the United States.1 This fact suggests that opera maintains an important place in contemporary Russian culture. Many of the operas performed there are by Western composers, such as Mozart and Verdi, and could be seen in any opera house around the world. But operas by Russian composers are also well represented. Few of these operas are performed outside of Russia, and the attention they have received in scholarship does not match their continued relevance. An important subgenre of Russian opera is Russian historical opera. Of these operas, the only truly exportable has been Boris Godunov. However, in Russia historical opera plays an important cultural role, especially in terms of forming public opinion about history.