The Golden Cockerel, Censored and Uncensored

Abstract

This chapter addresses two contrasting aspects of The Golden Cockerel: its political provocativeness, which leads to a censorship saga, but also the attraction of the music and the mystery of the story. Using the aesthetic notion of enchantment, it also places the opera in the context of Symbolist and “decadent” currents in the culture of the time and shows how these were still relevant in the 2012 production by the choreographer Alexei Ratmansky. Three spheres emerge in the opera as in the ballet versions of The Golden Cockerel: the human, represented by Dodon and his court; the fantastic, where the Astrologer dwells; and the erotic exotic, home to the Astrologer's forever beloved Queen. Ultimately, the opera inverts Russian convention: the real Russian characters lose; the fake ones, the non-Russian characters from who knows where, win.