Ethnography and the empathic imperative: Negotiating histories in the Sydney Brundibár Project

The children’s opera Brundibár received fame through performances by Jewish children in the Theresienstadt ghetto from 1943 to 1944. Since its revival in the 1970s, the work has been performed around the world in multiple languages and has been transformed into a best-selling book by Tony Kushner and Maurice Sendak. Used as a tool for Holocaust education, many modern productions emphasize a narrative of cultural resistance as a way of reading the work, transforming Brundibár’s Brechtian agitprop plot of collective action profoundly. In the Sydney production of 2014, a decision was made to stay faithful to the original motives of the composer and librettist, and the production was shaped by ethnographic testimony of those who had witnessed the original performances. This article examines how the historical narrative interacts with the ethnographic and personal encounters in the interpretation and realization of this work. Burdened by a responsibility to historical context, how does ethnography assist in bringing nuance and multi-vocality? In what way does an empathic imperative inform these processes?

“BROTHER BUNNY“ OPERA FOR CHILDREN BY FATTAH: GENRE AND COMPOSITION FEATURES

Azon Nurtynovich Fattah (1922–2013), an outstanding composer, pianist, Honored Artist of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, is known among professional musicians primarily for the charm of his songwriting. Yet his music is little known to modern audience. The peak of composer's popularity came in the 1960–70s, when his songs were performed, for example, by Joseph Kobzon and Lev Leshchenko, Maya Kristalinskaya, Gelena Velikanova and Elena Kamburova. Fattah's works include a significant number of chamber-instrumental compositions and plays for orchestras by Yu. V. Silantyev, B. P. Karamyshev, V. V. Meshcherin, several musical comedies, the most famous of which was “Winged” (on the libretto of the wonderful children's poet V. I. Viktorov). The composer also created three operas, among which — the children's opera “Brother Bunny”. The interest of the widest audience in Fattah music at that time was initiated by the composer's film works, namely, music for tapes for children and youth: “The Tale of the Boy-Kibalchish”, “Scuba Diving at the Bottom”, “Young from the Schooner Columbus”. The audience especially remembered the songs that became real hits: “There Was a Stormy Time”, “How Can We Live Without the Sea”, “Song of Cycling Tourists”. Thus, the children's theme occupies one of the central positions in the composer's heritage. It is important that “Brother Bunny” opera stands out among the composer’s opera works by genre type and performing composition and continues the line of Soviet music compositions for the youngest ones, begun by Sergei Prokofiev. “Brother Bunny” is not only an opera for children (figuratively and subjectively accessible to the younger audience of listeners), it is intended for execution by children themselves, which determines the features of its structure, the composition of the participants and some characteristic features of the musical language. This article is an attempt to analyze this opus from the perspective of style guidelines and musical language in the context of Russian music traditions.

Musical and educational activities of Mykola Lysenko as a phenomenon of self-identification of the national culture

Formulation of the problem. In the globalized time-space of the 21st century, the musical heritage left by M.V. Lysenko motivates to comprehend at a new level the phenomenon of the creative universalism of the artist, the multiple manifestations of his musical-social, educational, ethnographic and composing activities. Given the importance of the choral singing for nurturing the national consciousness of young musicians, the role of M. Lysenko’s opera heritage for children and adolescents should be noted. The choice of the theme was actualized by the iconic premiere of M. Lysenko’s children’s opera called “Winter and Spring” (2017) at the Great Hall of Kharkiv National University of Arts named after I.P. Kotlyarevsky,performed by young performers, which coincided with honouring the memory of the great Kobzar (the 175th anniversary since his birthday). In particular, the orchestration was performed by Yelizar Pashchenko, the stage director – Sofia Melnikova; the conductor –the author of the article. Thus, M. Lysenko’s children’s opera is still relevant for young artists in terms of their professional and national self-growth. The purpose of the article is to systematize the manifestations of artistic universalism in the activities of M.V. Lysenko in the aspect of phenomenology of the creativity of the composer on the example of the genre of children’s opera. The object of the study is the Ukrainian music tradition; the subject – music-educational activity of M. Lysenko in the aspect of its actualization in the contemporary cultural and artistic space. The analysis of recent publications on the topic. The reflection of M.V. Lysenko’s creative heritage in its aspects was performed in the studies by the classics of Ukrainian studies (K. Kvitka (1986), M. Rylsky (1927), O. Pchilka (1913a, 1913b), L. Arhimovych, M. Gordiychuk (1992)), and by the modern scholars (L. Corniy (2011), S. Grytsa (2007)). One of the fundamental editions is the book-album called “Mykola Lysenko’s World. National identity, music and politics of Ukraine of the 19th– the beginning of the 20thcenturies»(compiled by T. Bulat and T. Filenko (2009)). However, there is no phenomenological approach to the master’s creative work in these sources. The presentation of the main material. M. Lysenko was a personality gifted with many talents, at that time he was presenting the figure of a universal personality – on the one hand, an intellectual, and on the other – an educator. He read in the original language the works by Russian, Polish, German, French writers (Dumas, Eugene Sue), independently studied the works by R. Schuman and R. Wagner, Y.S. Bach, performed virtuosic compositions by F. Liszt. The manifestations of the artistic universalism of M.V. Lysenko as a criterion of the composer’s activity in the light of the problem of self-identification of Ukrainian culture at the stage of its formation have been systematized. The composer’s outlook and aspects of his creative life have been characterized. Lysenko’s music-educational activities began the process of democratization of music education in Kyiv. So, in 1904 he opened the School of Drama and Music. He focused on the programs of Moscow and St. Petersburg Conservatories. Therefore, on the stage of the educational institution the authors of the modern version of the opera “Winter and Spring” take the ideas of the founder of the national musical culture. Their purpose was to preserve the holistic concept of the development of the musical form of the opera. The ancient folk intonations, the expressive and difficult in the technical performancesub-voices, the varied and original use of the fret, reflected in the melody of children’skolyadka (carols) and vesnyanka (spring songs), helped the young performers to achieve some level of the performing skills. It should be noted that the final choir (vesnyanka) “And it’s spring already, and it’s already good”, as well as the choral scenes of carolling and spring celebrations are in low demand in the modern choral performance and need to be popularized. For example, the choral scene that begins with the kolyadka called “Herod Is Damned” can be performed as a compulsory piece at children’s choral competitions in Ukraine. The opera is quite technically difficult to perform. Children’s mass scenes “cement” the opera’s musical material. The choir of the younger age children performed the first choral song “Go, Go, Let’s Meet”, built on the invocative intonation of the big tertiary, there are jumps on octave and the fifth; by means of harmonization, the composer gives a colourful sounding to the choir’s kolyadka and shchedrivka (New Year Ukrainian song). Conclusions. In the choral scene of the children’s opera called “Winter and Spring”, the composer applied such techniques as: the combination of shchedrivka and kolyadka in the choir “New Joy Began”; the techniques of folk polyphony: unison chants (vesnyanka “Cuckoo in the Meadow”), the tertiary doubles and octave thickenings (the ancient kolyadka “Herod Is Damned”); the original means of vocal-choral writing (the final choir “And it’s spring already, and it’s already good”). Thus, M. Lysenko’s creativity is filled, on the one hand, with the love to Ukrainian folklore, and on the other, with the perception of the European spiritual values of the music world, where Ukraine should take its rightful place. This is the phenomenon of self-identification of the professional activity of the great composer and figure of musical culture, which is inherited by the modern musicians of Kharkiv

Intervention

This Intervention describes some aspects of the complex creative dynamics of creating a children’s opera, involving playwright/librettist, theatrical director, composer and actor–performers. The composer Martyn Harry provides an insider’s account of the nonlinear collaborative process by which the opera came into existence, and some of the creative tensions and negotiated solutions that were involved.

Brundibár – A Children’s Opera: History and Present

The paper focuses on the opera Brundibár. The authorial couple – composer Hans Krasa and librettist Adolf Hoffmeister – wrote it in the period of growing interest of artists in pedagogical aspects of the works of art. The changed social climate, however, meant for the work an unplanned journey – during the Second World War it was performed inside the Terezin ghetto by its inhabitants. The human message of the fairy tale story has thus been elevated into a higher symbolic frame – a resistance against the arrogance of power and violence. Especially the post-war era followed this symbolism. The author of the paper contemplates the innovative interpretative levels whose ambition is to cross the traditional performance frame of the work and to find connections with problems of contemporary society.

Engagement, Participation, and Situated Learning in a Children’s Opera Chorus Program

In recent years, opera companies throughout the United Kingdom have begun to provide educational programs for children that offer opportunities for “apprenticeship” training in the context of professional opera productions, alongside formal choral musicianship training. This article outlines a qualitative case study of a recently established children’s opera chorus program located in a northern England city, in which I investigated the extent to which the children became engaged with opera as a genre through their participation in the program. This study also considers the extent to which such programs affected children’s emerging cultural identities and musical preferences in an acculturative sense. Findings suggested that the authenticity and situatedness of the learning experience had a positive impact on the children’s engagement, with those that had participated in main-stage productions being most likely to state that they wished to pursue opera or musical theatre as a career in later life.

Benjamin Britten, the ““National Faith,”” and the Animation of History in 1950s England

ABSTRACT This article examines constructions of national Christian tradition in 1950s England, focusing on images of deadness and revivification in two products of the religious drama movement: the York Mystery and other plays presented at the 1951 Festival of Britain, and Benjamin Britten's 1958 children's opera Noye's Fludde.