Mythological Models and Ritual Forms in Contemporary Musical Theater Performance

Abstract

Performativity as one of the essential qualities of the present-day art of music has created an important role in the process of renewal of its leading genres. Drawing its sources in the theatrical experiments in the mid-20th century, toward the end of the century musical performance has imbedded itself not only into the sphere of art practice, but also created an impact on such a conservative sphere of academic music as musical theater, and in particular, on the genre of opera. The article sets the issue of manifestations of mythological models and elements of ritual characteristic of theatrical performance in operas by contemporary music. Basing themselves on the theory of performativity, the authors explain the innovations in the production from the point of view of the presence of liminality in them. At the center of attention are compositions insufficiently studied in Russian musicology the analysis of which makes it possible to indicate the direction of development of the opera genre: its revival from within by means of a search of a new form of synthesis by introducing new dramaturgical regularities and also as a result of connection of art with elements of real actuality. From the perspective of the authors of the article, performance becomes one of the forms of theatrical presentation, replacing the traditional theatric demonstration built according to the laws of drama. This position is actively developed in the sphere of contemporary theater studies in Europe in the works of Hans-Thies Lehmann, Erika Fischer-Lichte and Richard Schechner. Such formulation of the question explains the aesthetic foundations of the innovative aspirations of opera composers.