“SUICIDE” ON THE KHARKIV STAGE: MUSIC AND STAGE READING BY S. PASICHNYK – H. FROLOV

Abstract

Statement of the problem. The article examines the theatrical heritage of Les Kurbas, the founder of Shevchenko Kharkiv Academic Ukrainian Drama Theatre (originally called «Berezil»). Les Kurbas is the reformer of the Ukrainian theater; his theatrical ideas demonstrate a new understanding of the synthesis of the arts. He concentrated his creative aspirations not only on acting, but also on all components of the performance, in particular on music. The paper examines methodically the application of the basic principles of Les Kurbas Theatre – the co-authorship of the director and composer – in Kharkiv theatre. The article also studies the works by H. Frolov – talented Kharkiv composer. The critical legacy dedicated to the works of Les Kurbas does not fully illuminate the uniqueness of his views regarding directing and the originality of the musical language in the genre of dramatic performance (CherkashynaHubarenko, 2002; Hordieiev, 2003; Yermakova, 2012; Labinska, 2012). There are a number of works devoted to the issues of music in theater (Kurysheva, 1984; Kozyurenko, 1986; Tarshis, 2010; Matsepura, 2013; Lesakova, 2017; Oseeva, 2019; Kovalchuk, 2017; Nurtazin, 2013; Spagnolo, 2017). The novelty of our research. The paper investigates musical component in the current practice of Shevchenko Kharkiv Academic Ukrainian Drama Theatre and creative method of its leading composer H. Frolov. The aim of the article is to reveal the interconnection of music with the stage elements of the performance. The study of the stage play “Suicide” in Kharkiv Drama Theater required the implementation a number of scientific approaches: historical and genetic, studying the modern function of music in the analyzed dramatic performance in Kharkiv Drama Theater, the origins of which go back to Kurbas “Berezil”; a comparative analysis, revealing the ways of preserving old traditions in modern performance; genre analysis, investigating the embodiment of the comedy dell arte in the musical scenes; stylistic analysis, revealing the composer’s thinking in making the director’s decision regarding stagecraft. The presentation of the main material. The article analyzes a musical component in the stage performance “Suicide” based on the play by Nikolay Erdman (1928), reinterpreted by our contemporaries – the stage director Stepan Pasichnyk and the composer Henadii Frolov. The work reviews the production itself and the acting troupe. The article outlines the inheritance and development of the traditions in Les Kurbas Theatre regarding the mutual work of the composer and director, aimed at the organic fusion of the stage action and musical accompaniment of the performance. Conclusions. Dramaturgical and genre-compositional analyzes of the performance detected such distinctive features of the individual style of H. Frolov as: musical organization of the stage with one intonation, which, depending on the drama, can be flexible and transformative, acquiring new meanings and qualities and thus making the musical development monothematic; unity of the figurative and semantic layers of music with the director’s concept of the performance; transformation of genre features of tragic farce and commedia dell’arte.