Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky was born on February 2, 1813 in a small estate in the Tula province. The future composer's early childhood years were spent on his parents' estate in the Smolensk province. In 1817 the family moved to St. Petersburg. Despite their modest income, the parents gave their children a good home upbringing and education. In addition to general education subjects, children played various musical instruments and learned to sing. In addition, they composed poems and dramatic plays, which they themselves performed in front of the guests.
This cultural family was often visited by well-known writers and musicians of that time, and children took an active part in literary and musical evenings. Young Dargomyzhsky began playing the piano at the age of 6. And at the age of 10-11 I already tried to compose music. But his first creative attempts were suppressed by his teacher.
After 1825, his father’s position began to shake and Dargomyzhsky had to start serving in one of the departments of St. Petersburg. But official duties could not interfere with his main hobby, music. His studies with the outstanding musician F. Schoberlechner date back to this time. Since the early 30s, the young man has been visiting the best literary and art salons in St. Petersburg. And everywhere young Dargomyzhsky is a welcome guest. He plays the violin and piano a lot, participates in various ensembles, and performs his romances, the number of which is rapidly increasing. He is surrounded by interesting people of that time, he is accepted into their circle as an equal.
In 1834, Dargomyzhsky met with Glinka, who was working on his first opera. This acquaintance turned out to be decisive for Dargomyzhsky. If earlier he had not given serious importance to his musical hobbies, now in the person of Glinka he saw a living example of artistic achievement. Before him was a man not only talented, but also dedicated to his work. And the young composer reached out to him with all his soul. He gratefully accepted everything that his senior comrade could give him: his knowledge of composition, notes on music theory. Communication between friends also consisted of playing music together. They played and analyzed the best works of musical classics.
In the mid-30s, Dargomyzhsky was already a famous composer, the author of many romances, songs, piano pieces, and the symphonic work “Bolero”. His early romances are still close to the type of salon lyrics or city songs that existed in the democratic strata of Russian society. Glinka's influence is also noticeable in them. But gradually Dargomyzhsky realizes the increasing need for a different self-expression. He has a special interest in the obvious contrasts of reality, the clash of its various sides. This was most clearly manifested in the romances “Night Marshmallow” and “I Loved You.”
At the end of the 30s, Dargomyzhsky decided to write an opera based on the plot of V. Hugo’s novel “Notre Dame de Paris.” Work on the opera lasted 3 years and was completed in 1841. At the same time, the composer composed the cantata “The Triumph of Bacchus” based on Pushkin’s poems, which he soon converted into an opera.
Gradually, Dargomyzhsky became increasingly famous as a major, original musician. In the early 40s, he headed the St. Petersburg Society of Fans of Instrumental and Vocal Music.
In 1844, Alexander Sergeevich went abroad, to major musical centers - Berlin, Brussels, Vienna, Paris. The main goal of the trip was Paris - a recognized center of European culture, where the young composer could satisfy his thirst for new artistic experiences. There he introduces his works to the European public. One of the best works of that time is the lyrical confession “Both Bored and Sad” based on Lermontov’s poems. This romance conveys a deep sad feeling. The trip abroad played a big role in the formation of Dargomyzhsky as an artist and citizen. Upon returning from abroad, Dargomyzhsky conceived the opera “Rusalka”. At the end of the 40s, the composer's work reached its greatest artistic maturity, especially in the field of romance.
At the end of the 50s, great social changes were brewing in Russia. And Dargomyzhsky did not remain aloof from public life, which had a noticeable influence on his work. His art intensifies elements of satire. They appear in the songs: “Worm”, “Old Corporal”, “Titular Councilor”. Their heroes are humiliated and insulted people.
In the mid-60s, the composer undertook a new trip abroad - it brought him great creative satisfaction. There, in European capitals, he heard his works, which were a great success. His music, as critics noted, contained “a lot of originality, great energy of thought, melody, sharp harmony...”. Some concerts, composed entirely of Dargomyzhsky's works, caused real triumph. It was a joy to return to his homeland - now, in his declining years, Dargomyzhsky was recognized by a wide mass of music lovers. These were new, democratic strata of the Russian intelligentsia, whose tastes were determined by their love for everything Russian and national. Interest in the composer's work instilled new hopes in him and awakened new ideas. The best of these plans turned out to be the opera “The Stone Guest”. Written to the text of one of Pushkin’s “little tragedies,” this opera represented an unusually bold creative search. It is all written in recitative, there is not a single aria and only two songs - like islands among recitative monologues and ensembles. Dargomyzhsky did not finish the opera “The Stone Guest”. Anticipating his imminent death, the composer instructed his young friends Ts.A. Cui and N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov to finish it. They completed it and then staged it in 1872, after the composer’s death.
The role of Dargomyzhsky in the history of Russian music is very great. Continuing the establishment of the ideas of nationality and realism in Russian music, begun by Glinka, with his work he anticipated the achievement of subsequent generations of Russian composers of the 19th century - members of the “Mighty Handful” and P.I. Tchaikovsky.
The main works of A.S. Dargomyzhsky:
Operas:
- "Esmeralda". Opera in four acts to its own libretto based on Victor Hugo's novel Notre-Dame de Paris. Written in 1838-1841. First production: Moscow, Bolshoi Theater, December 5 (17), 1847;
- “The Triumph of Bacchus.” Opera-ballet based on Pushkin's poem of the same name. Written in 1843-1848. First production: Moscow, Bolshoi Theater, January 11 (23), 1867;
- “Mermaid”. An opera in four acts to its own libretto based on Pushkin's unfinished play of the same name. Written in 1848-1855. First production: St. Petersburg, May 4(16), 1856;
- “The Stone Guest.” Opera in three actions based on the text of Pushkin’s “Little Tragedy” of the same name. Written in 1866-1869, completed by C. A. Cui, orchestrated by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov. First production: St. Petersburg, Mariinsky Theater, February 16 (28), 1872;
- “Mazeppa”. Sketches, 1860;
- “Rogdana”. Fragments, 1860-1867.
Works for orchestra:
- “Bolero”. Late 1830s;
- “Baba Yaga” (“From the Volga to Riga”). Completed in 1862, first performed in 1870;
- “Cossack”. Fantasy. 1864;
- “Chukhon fantasy.” Written in 1863-1867, first performed in 1869.
Chamber vocal works:
Songs and romances for one voice and piano to poems by Russian and foreign poets: “Old Corporal” (words by V. Kurochkin), “Paladin” (words by L. Uland translated by V. Zhukovsky), “Worm” (words by P. Beranger in translation by V. Kurochkin), “Titular Advisor” (words by P. Weinberg), “I loved you...” (words by A. S. Pushkin), “I’m sad” (words by M. Yu. Lermontov), “I have passed sixteen years "(words by A. Delvig) and others based on words by Koltsov, Kurochkin, Pushkin, Lermontov and other poets, including two insert romances by Laura from the opera “The Stone Guest”.
Works for piano:
Five plays (1820s): March, Counter-Dance, “Melancholy Waltz”, Waltz, “Cossack”;
- “Brilliant Waltz.” Around 1830;
Variations on a Russian theme. Early 1830s;
- “Esmeralda's Dreams.” Fantasy. 1838;
Two mazurkas. Late 1830s;
Polka. 1844;
Scherzo. 1844;
- “Tobacco Waltz.” 1845;
- "Fierceness and composure." Scherzo. 1847;
Fantasia on themes from Glinka’s opera “A Life for the Tsar” (mid-1850s);
Slavic tarantella (four hands, 1865);
Arrangements of symphonic fragments of the opera “Esmeralda” and others.
Opera "Rusalka"
Characters:
Melnik (bass);
Natasha (soprano);
Prince (tenor);
Princess (mezzo-soprano);
Olga (soprano);
Swat (baritone);
Hunter (baritone);
Lead singer (tenor);
The Little Mermaid (without singing).
History of creation:
The idea for “Rusalka” based on the plot of Pushkin’s poem (1829-1832) arose from Dargomyzhsky in the late 1840s. The first musical sketches date back to 1848. In the spring of 1855 the opera was completed. A year later, on May 4 (16), 1856, the premiere took place in St. Petersburg on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater.
“Rusalka” was staged carelessly, with large bills, which was reflected in the hostile attitude of the theater management towards the new, democratic direction in operatic creativity. He ignored Dargomyzhsky’s opera and the “high society.” Nevertheless, “Rusalka” endured many performances, gaining recognition among the general public. Advanced musical criticism in the person of A. N. Serov and Ts. A. Cui welcomed its appearance. But real recognition came in 1865. When it was resumed on the St. Petersburg stage, the opera met with an enthusiastic reception from a new audience - the democratically minded intelligentsia.
Dargomyzhsky left most of Pushkin's text untouched. They included only the final scene of the Prince’s death. Changes also affected the interpretation of images. The composer freed the image of the Prince from the features of hypocrisy that he was endowed with in the literary source. The emotional drama of the Princess, barely outlined by the poet, is developed in the opera. The image of the Miller was somewhat ennobled, in which the composer sought to emphasize not only selfishness, but also the power of love for his daughter. Following Pushkin, Dargomyzhsky shows profound changes in Natasha’s character. He consistently displays her feelings: hidden sadness, thoughtfulness, violent joy, vague anxiety, a premonition of impending disaster, mental shock and, finally, protest, anger, the decision to take revenge. An affectionate, loving girl turns into a formidable and vengeful Mermaid.
Characteristics of the opera:
The drama underlying “The Mermaid” was recreated by the composer with great life truth and deep insight into the spiritual world of the characters. Dargomyzhsky shows characters in development, conveys the subtlest shades of experiences. The images of the main characters and their relationships are revealed in intense dialogic scenes. Because of this, ensembles occupy a significant place in opera, along with arias. The events of the opera unfold against a simple and artless everyday background.
The opera opens with a dramatic overture. The music of the main (fast) section conveys the passion, impetuosity, determination of the heroine and, at the same time, her tenderness, femininity, and purity of feelings.
A significant part of the first act consists of extended ensemble scenes. Melnik’s comedic aria “Oh, all of you young girls” is at times warmed by a warm feeling of caring love. Terzetto music vividly conveys Natasha’s joyful excitement and sadness, the Prince’s soft, soothing speech, and the Miller’s grumpy remarks. In the duet of Natasha and the Prince, bright feelings gradually give way to anxiety and growing excitement. The music reaches a high level of drama with Natasha’s words “You’re getting married!” The next episode of the duet is psychologically subtly resolved: short, as if unspoken melodic phrases in the orchestra depict the heroine’s confusion. In the duet of Natasha and Melnik, confusion gives way to bitterness and determination: Natasha’s speech becomes more and more abrupt and agitated. The act ends with a dramatic choral finale.
The second act is a colorful everyday scene; Choirs and dances occupy a large place here. The first half of the act has a festive flavor; the second is filled with worry and anxiety. The majestic chorus “As in an upper room, at an honest feast” sounds solemnly and widely. The Princess’s soulful aria “Childhood Friend” is marked with sadness. The aria turns into a bright, joyful duet of the Prince and Princess. Dances follow: “Slavic”, combining light elegance with scope and prowess, and “Gypsy”, agile and temperamental. Natasha’s melancholy song “Over the pebbles, over the yellow sand” is close to peasant lingering songs.
The third act contains two scenes. In the first, the Princess’s aria “Days of Past Pleasures,” creating the image of a lonely, deeply suffering woman, is imbued with sorrow and mental pain.
The opening of the second picture of the Prince’s cavatina, “Involuntarily to these sad shores,” is distinguished by the beauty and plasticity of the melodious melody. The duet of the Prince and the Miller is one of the most dramatic pages of the opera; sadness and prayer, rage and despair, caustic irony and causeless gaiety - in the comparison of these contrasting states, the tragic image of the mad Miller is revealed.
In the fourth act, fantastic and real scenes alternate. The first scene is preceded by a short, colorfully graphic orchestral introduction. Natasha’s aria “The long-desired hour has come!” sounds majestic and menacing.
The Princess’s aria in the second scene, “For many years already in grave suffering,” is full of ardent, sincere feeling. A charmingly magical tone is given to the melody of the Mermaid’s call “My Prince”. Terzet is imbued with anxiety, a premonition of approaching disaster. In the quartet, the tension reaches its highest limit. The opera ends with the enlightened sound of the melody of the Mermaid's call.
Women's choir "Svatushka" »
In it, the composer very colorfully conveyed the comic-everyday scene of a wedding ceremony. The girls sing a song in which they ridicule the unlucky matchmaker.
Libretto by A. Dargomyzhsky based on the drama by A. Pushkin
Matchmaker, matchmaker, stupid matchmaker;
We were on our way to pick up the bride, we stopped in the garden,
They spilled a barrel of beer and watered all the cabbage.
They bowed to Tyn and prayed to faith;
Is there any faith, show me the path,
Show the bride the path to follow.
Matchmaker, guess what, get to the scrotum
The money is moving in the purse, the red girls are striving,
The money is moving in the purse, the red girls are striving,
Strive, red girls strive, strive, red
girls, strives.
The choir “Svatushka” is of a humorous nature. This wedding song is heard in Act 2.
Genre of the work: comic wedding song accompanied by accompaniment. The “Svatushka” choir is close to folk songs, as chants are found here.
Alexander Dargomyzhsky, together with Glinka, is the founder of Russian classical romance. Chamber vocal music was one of the main genres of creativity for the composer.
He composed romances and songs for several decades, and if the early works had much in common with the works of Alyabyev, Varlamov, Gurilev, Verstovsky, Glinka, then the later ones in some ways anticipate the vocal work of Balakirev, Cui and especially Mussorgsky. It was Mussorgsky who called Dargomyzhsky “the great teacher of musical truth.”
Dargomyzhsky created more than 100 romances and songs. Among them are all the popular vocal genres of that time - from the “Russian song” to the ballad. At the same time, Dargomyzhsky became the first Russian composer who embodied in his work themes and images taken from the surrounding reality, and created new genres - lyrical and psychological monologues (“Both boring and sad”, “I’m sad” to the words of Lermontov), folk scenes (“The Miller” to the words of Pushkin), satirical songs (“The Worm” to the words of Pierre Beranger translated by V. Kurochkin, “Titular Councilor” to the words of P. Weinberg).
Despite Dargomyzhsky’s special love for the works of Pushkin and Lermontov, the circle of poets whose poems the composer addressed is very diverse: these are Zhukovsky, Delvig, Koltsov, Yazykov, Kukolnik, Iskra poets Kurochkin and Weinberg and others.
At the same time, the composer invariably showed particular demands on the poetic text of the future romance, carefully selecting the best poems. When embodying a poetic image in music, he used a different creative method compared to Glinka. If for Glinka it was important to convey the general mood of the poem, to recreate the main poetic image in music, and for this he used a broad song melody, then Dargomyzhsky followed every word of the text, embodying his leading creative principle: “I want the sound to directly express the word. I want the truth." Therefore, along with the song-aria features in his vocal melodies, the role of speech intonations, which often become declamatory, is so important.
The piano part in Dargomyzhsky's romances is always subordinated common task- consistent embodiment of words in music; therefore, it often contains elements of figurativeness and picturesqueness, it emphasizes the psychological expressiveness of the text and is distinguished by bright harmonic means.
“Sixteen years” (words by A. Delvig). Glinka's influence was strongly evident in this early lyrical romance. Dargomyzhsky creates a musical portrait of a lovely, graceful girl, using the graceful and flexible rhythm of the waltz. A brief piano introduction and conclusion frame the romance and build on the opening motif of the vocal melody with its expressive ascending sixth. The vocal part is dominated by the cantilena, although recitative intonations are clearly audible in some phrases.
The romance is constructed in three-part form. The light and joyful outer sections (C major) are clearly contrasted by the middle with a change of mode (A minor), with a more dynamic vocal melody and an excited climax at the end of the section. The role of the piano part is to provide harmonic support to the melody, and in texture it is a traditional romance accompaniment.
The romance “I'm Sad” (words by M. Lermontov) belongs to a new type of romance-monologue. The hero’s reflection expresses concern for the fate of his beloved woman, who is destined to experience “the insidious persecution of rumors” from a hypocritical and heartless society, and to pay “with tears and melancholy” for short-lived happiness. Romance is built on the development of one image, one feeling. Both the one-part form of the work - a period with a reprise addition, and the vocal part, based on expressive melodious recitation, are subordinated to the artistic task. The intonation at the beginning of the romance is already expressive: after the ascending second there is a descending motive with its tense and mournful sounding diminished fifth.
Great importance in the melody of the romance, especially its second sentence, it acquires frequent pauses, leaps at wide intervals, excited intonations and exclamations: such, for example, is the climax at the end of the second sentence (“with tears and melancholy”), emphasized by a bright harmonic means - a deviation into tonality II low degree (D minor - E-flat major). The piano part, based on soft chord figuration, combines a vocal melody rich in caesuras (Caesura is the moment of division of musical speech. Signs of caesura: pauses, rhythmic stops, melodic and rhythmic repetitions, changes in register, etc.) and creates a concentrated psychological background, a feeling of spiritual self-absorption.
In the dramatic song “The Old Corporal” (words by P. Beranger translated by V. Kurochkin), the composer develops the genre of monologue: this is already a dramatic monologue-scene, a kind of musical drama, the main character of which is an old Napoleonic soldier who dared to respond to the insult of a young officer and condemned to death for it. The topic that worried Dargomyzhsky was “ little man"is revealed here with extraordinary psychological authenticity; the music paints a living, truthful image, full of nobility and human dignity.
The song is written in a varied verse form with a constant chorus; it is the harsh chorus with its clear march rhythm and persistent triplets in the vocal part that becomes the leading theme of the work, main characteristic hero, his mental fortitude and courage.
Each of the five verses reveals the image of the soldier in a different way, filling it with new features - sometimes angry and decisive (second verse), sometimes tender and heartfelt (third and fourth verses).
The vocal part of the song is in a recitative style; her flexible declamation follows every intonation of the text, achieving complete fusion with the word. The piano accompaniment is subordinate to the vocal part and, with its strict and spare chord texture, emphasizes its expressiveness with the help of a dotted rhythm, accents, dynamics, and bright harmonies. A diminished seventh chord in the piano part - a volley of gunfire - ends the life of the old corporal.
Like a mournful afterword, the theme of the chorus sounds in E, as if saying goodbye to the hero. The satirical song “Titular Advisor” was written to the words of the poet P. Weinberg, who actively worked in Iskra. In this miniature, Dargomyzhsky develops Gogol’s line in musical creativity. Talking about the unsuccessful love of a modest official for a general’s daughter, the composer paints a musical portrait akin to literary images"humiliated and insulted."
The characters receive accurate and laconic characteristics already in the first part of the work (the song is written in two-part form): the poor timid official is depicted with careful second intonations of the piano, and the arrogant and domineering general’s daughter is depicted with decisive fourth forte moves. Chord accompaniment emphasizes these “portraits”.
In the second part, describing the development of events after an unsuccessful explanation, Dargomyzhsky uses simple but very precise means of expression: 2/4 time signature (instead of 6/8) and staccato piano depict the erratic dancing gait of the reveling hero, and the ascending, slightly hysterical jump to the seventh in The melody (“and drank all night”) emphasizes the bitter climax of this story.
25. Creative appearance of Dargomyzhsky:
Dargomyzhsky, a younger contemporary and friend of Glinka, continued the work of creating Russian classical music. At the same time, his work belongs to another stage in the development of national art. If Glinka expressed the range of images and moods of Pushkin’s era, then Dargomyzhsky finds his own way: his mature works are consonant with the realism of many works by Gogol, Nekrasov, Dostoevsky, Ostrovsky, and the artist Pavel Fedotov.
The desire to convey life in all its diversity, interest in the personality of the “little” person and the topic of social inequality, accuracy and expressiveness of psychological characteristics, in which Dargomyzhsky’s talent as a musical portraitist is especially clearly revealed - these are the distinctive features of his talent.
Dargomyzhsky was by nature a vocal composer. The main genres of his work were opera and chamber vocal music. Dargomyzhsky's innovation, his searches and achievements were continued in the works of the next generation of Russian composers - members of the Balakirev circle and Tchaikovsky.
Biography
Childhood and youth. Dargomyzhsky was born on February 2, 1813 on his parents’ estate in the Tula province. A few years later the family moved to St. Petersburg, and from that moment most of The life of the future composer takes place in the capital. Dargomyzhsky's father served as an official, and his mother, a creatively gifted woman, was famous as an amateur poetess. Parents sought to give their six children a broad and varied education, in which literature, foreign languages, and music occupied the main place. From the age of six, Sasha began to be taught to play the piano, and then the violin; later he also took up singing. The young man completed his piano education with one of the best teachers in the capital, the Austrian pianist and composer F. Schoberlechner. Having become an excellent virtuoso and having a good command of the violin, he often took part in amateur concerts and quartet evenings in St. Petersburg salons. At the same time, from the late 1820s, Dargomyzhsky’s bureaucratic service began: for about a decade and a half he held positions in various departments and retired with the rank of titular councilor.
The first attempts to compose music date back to the age of eleven: these were various rondos, variations and romances. Over the years, the young man shows more and more interest in composition; Schoberlechner provided him with considerable assistance in mastering the techniques of compositional technique. “In the eighteenth and nineteenth years of my age,” the composer later recalled in his autobiography, “a lot was written, of course not without errors, many brilliant works for piano and violin, two quartets, cantatas and many romances; some of these works were published at the same time...” But, despite his success with the public, Dargomyzhsky still remained an amateur; The transformation of an amateur into a real professional composer began from the moment he met Glinka.
The first period of creativity. The meeting with Glinka took place in 1834 and determined the entire future fate of Dargomyzhsky. Glinka was then working on the opera “Ivan Susanin,” and the seriousness of his artistic interests and professional skill made Dargomyzhsky for the first time truly think about the meaning of composer’s creativity. Music playing in the salons was abandoned, and he began to fill the gaps in his musical theoretical knowledge by studying notebooks with recordings of Siegfried Dehn's lectures, which Glinka gave him.
Acquaintance with Glinka soon turned into real friendship. “The same education, the same love for art immediately brought us closer, but we soon became friends and sincerely became friends, despite the fact that Glinka was ten years older than me. For 22 years in a row, we were constantly on the shortest, most friendly terms with him,” the composer later recalled.
In addition to in-depth studies, Dargomyzhsky, from the mid-1830s, visited the literary and musical salons of V. F. Odoevsky, M. Yu. Vielgorsky, S. N. Karamzina (Sofya Nikolaevna Karamzina is the daughter of Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin, a famous historian and writer, author of a multi-volume “ History of the Russian State"), where he meets with Zhukovsky, Vyazemsky, Kukolnik, Lermontov. The atmosphere of artistic creativity that reigned there, conversations and debates about the development of national art and the current state of Russian society shaped the aesthetic and social views of the young composer.
Following the example of Glinka, Dargomyzhsky conceived the idea of composing an opera, but in choosing the plot he showed independent artistic interests. The love of French literature brought up from childhood, his passion for the French romantic operas of Meyerbeer and Aubert, the desire to create “something truly dramatic” - all this decided the composer’s choice of the popular novel “Notre Dame de Paris” by Victor Hugo. The opera Esmeralda was completed in 1839 and presented for production to the Directorate of Imperial Theaters. However, its premiere took place only in 1848: “...These eight years of vain waiting,” Dargomyzhsky wrote, “and in the most ebullient years of my life, laid a heavy burden on my entire artistic activity.”
While waiting for the production of Esmeralda, romances and songs became the only means of communication between the composer and the audience. It is in them that Dargomyzhsky quickly reaches the pinnacle of creativity; like Glinka, he does a lot of vocal pedagogy. Musical evenings are held in his house on Thursdays, attended by numerous singers, singing lovers, and sometimes Glinka, accompanied by his friend Puppeteer. At these evenings, as a rule, Russian music was performed, and above all the works of Glinka and the owner himself.
In the late 30s and early 40s, Dargomyzhsky created many chamber vocal works. Among them are such romances as “I Loved You”, “Young Man and Maiden”, “Night Marshmallow”, “Tear” (to the words of Pushkin), “Wedding” (to the words of A. Timofeev), and some others are distinguished by subtle psychologism, searching for new forms and means of expression. His passion for Pushkin’s poetry led the composer to create the cantata “The Triumph of Bacchus” for soloists, choir and orchestra, which was later reworked into an opera-ballet and became the first example of this genre in the history of Russian art.
An important event in Dargomyzhsky’s life was his first trip abroad in 1844-1845. He went on a trip to Europe, with Paris as his main destination. Dargomyzhsky, like Glinka, was fascinated and captivated by beauty French capital, the richness and diversity of its cultural life. He meets with composers Meyerbeer, Halévy, Aubert, violinist Charles Beriot and other musicians, and attends opera and dramatic performances, concerts, vaudevilles, and trials with equal interest. From Dargomyzhsky's letters one can determine how his artistic views and tastes are changing; he begins to put depth of content and fidelity to life's truth in first place. And, as had previously happened with Glinka, traveling around Europe intensified the composer’s patriotic feelings and the need to “write in Russian.”
Mature period of creativity. In the second half of the 1840s, serious changes took place in Russian art. They were associated with the development of advanced social consciousness in Russia, with increased interest in folk life, with the desire to realistically depict the everyday life of people of the common class and the social conflict between the world of rich and poor. A new hero appears - a “little” man, and a description of fate and life drama the petty official, peasant, artisan becomes the main theme of the works of modern writers. Many of Dargomyzhsky’s mature works are devoted to the same topic. In them he sought to enhance the psychological expressiveness of music. His creative search led him to the creation of a method of intonation realism in vocal genres, which truthfully and accurately reflects the inner life of the hero of the work.
In 1845-1855, the composer worked intermittently on the opera “Rusalka” based on Pushkin’s unfinished drama of the same name. Dargomyzhsky himself composed the libretto; he carefully approached Pushkin's text, preserving as much as possible the majority of the poems. He was attracted by the tragic fate of a peasant girl and her unfortunate father, who lost his mind after his daughter’s suicide. This plot embodies the theme of social inequality that constantly interested the composer: the daughter of a simple miller cannot become the wife of a noble prince. This theme made it possible for the author to reveal the deep emotional experiences of the characters and create a real lyrical musical drama, full of life’s truth.
At the same time, the deeply truthful psychological characteristics of Natasha and her father are wonderfully combined in the opera with colorful folk choral scenes, where the composer masterfully implemented the intonations of peasant and urban songs and romances.
Distinctive feature The opera featured its recitatives, reflecting the composer’s desire for declamatory melodies, which had previously manifested itself in his romances. In “Rusalka” Dargomyzhsky creates a new type of operatic recitative, which follows the intonation of the word and sensitively reproduces the “music” of living Russian colloquial speech.
“Rusalka” became the first Russian classical opera in the realistic genre of psychological everyday musical drama, paving the way for the lyrical-dramatic operas of Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky. The opera premiered on May 4, 1856 in St. Petersburg. The management of the imperial theaters treated her unkindly, which was reflected in the careless production (old, poor costumes and scenery, reduction of individual scenes). The capital's high society, infatuated with Italian opera music, showed complete indifference to “Rusalka.” Nevertheless, the opera was a success among democratic audiences. The performance of Melnik's part by the great Russian bass Osip Petrov made an unforgettable impression. Progressive music critics Serov and Cui warmly welcomed the birth of a new Russian opera. However, it was rarely performed on stage and soon disappeared from the repertoire, which could not but cause difficult experiences for the author.
While working on Rusalka, Dargomyzhsky wrote many romances. He is increasingly attracted to the poetry of Lermontov, whose poems are used to create the heartfelt monologues “I’m sad,” “Both boring and sad.” He discovers new sides to Pushkin’s poetry and composes an excellent comedy-everyday sketch “The Miller”.
The late period of Dargomyzhsky’s creativity (1855-1869) is characterized by an expansion of the composer’s range of creative interests, as well as the intensification of his musical and social activities. At the end of the 50s, Dargomyzhsky began to collaborate in the satirical magazine “Iskra”, where morals were ridiculed in cartoons, feuilletons, and poems and the order of modern society, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Herzen, Nekrasov, Dobrolyubov were published. The magazine's directors were the talented cartoonist N. Stepanov and the poet-translator V. Kurochkin. During these years, based on poems and translations of Iskra poets, the composer composed the dramatic song “Old Corporal” and the satirical songs “The Worm” and “Titular Advisor.”
Dargomyzhsky’s acquaintance with Balakirev, Cui, and Mussorgsky dates back to this time, which a little later would turn into a close friendship. These young composers, together with Rimsky-Korsakov and Borodin, will go down in music history as members of the “Mighty Handful” circle and subsequently enrich their work with Dargomyzhsky’s achievements in various areas of musical expression.
The composer's social activity was manifested in his work on the organization of the Russian Musical Society (RMS - a concert organization created in 1859 by A. G. Rubinstein. It set itself the tasks of musical education in Russia, the expansion of concert and musical theater activities, and the organization of music educational institutions ). In 1867 he became chairman of its St. Petersburg branch. He also takes part in the development of the charter of the St. Petersburg Conservatory.
In the 60s, Dargomyzhsky created several symphonic plays: “Baba Yaga”, “Cossack”, “Chukhon Fantasy”. These “characteristic fantasies for orchestra” (as defined by the author) are based on folk melodies and continue the traditions of Glinka’s “Kamarinskaya”.
From November 1864 to May 1865, a new trip abroad took place. The composer visited a number of European cities - Warsaw, Leipzig, Brussels, Paris, London. A concert of his works took place in Brussels, which was a great success with the public, received sympathetic responses in the newspapers and brought a lot of joy to the author.
Soon after returning home, the revival of “Rusalka” took place in St. Petersburg. The triumphant success of the production and its wide public recognition contributed to a new spiritual and creative upsurge of the composer. He begins work on the opera “The Stone Guest” based on Pushkin’s “little tragedy” of the same name and sets himself an incredibly difficult and bold task: to preserve Pushkin’s text unchanged and build the work on the musical embodiment of the intonations of human speech. Dargomyzhsky abandons the usual operatic forms (arias, ensembles, choirs) and makes the basis of the work recitative, which is both the main means of characterizing the characters and the basis for the end-to-end (continuous) musical development of the opera (Some principles of operatic dramaturgy of The Stone Guest, the first Russian chamber operas, found their continuation in the works of Mussorgsky (The Marriage), Rimsky-Korsakov (Mozart and Salieri), Rachmaninoff (The Miserly Knight))
At musical evenings in the composer's house, scenes from the almost finished opera were repeatedly performed and discussed among friends. Her most enthusiastic fans were the composers of the “Mighty Handful” and the music critic V.V. Stasov, who became especially close to Dargomyzhsky in last years his life. But “The Stone Guest” turned out to be the composer’s “swan song” - he did not have time to finish the opera. Dargomyzhsky died on January 5, 1869 and was buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, not far from Glinka’s grave. According to the composer’s will, the opera “The Stone Guest” was completed according to the author’s sketches by Ts. A. Cui, and orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov. Thanks to the efforts of friends, in 1872, three years after the composer’s death, his last opera was staged at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg.
I don't intend to reduce...music to fun. I want the sound to directly express the word. I want the truth.
A. Dargomyzhsky
At the beginning of 1835, a young man appeared in the house of M. Glinka, who turned out to be a passionate music lover. Short, outwardly unremarkable, he was completely transformed at the piano, delighting those around him with his free playing and excellent sight-reading of notes. It was A. Dargomyzhsky, in the near future the largest representative of Russian classical music. The biographies of both composers have a lot in common. Dargomyzhsky's early childhood was spent on his father's estate not far from Novospasskoye, and he was surrounded by the same nature and peasant way of life as Glinka. But he came to St. Petersburg at an earlier age (his family moved to the capital when he was 4 years old), and this left its mark on his artistic tastes and determined his interest in the music of urban life.
Dargomyzhsky received a home-based, but broad and varied education, in which poetry, theater, and music occupied the first place. At the age of 7 he was taught to play the piano and violin (later he took singing lessons). Early on he discovered a desire for musical writing, but it was not encouraged by his teacher A. Danilevsky. Dargomyzhsky completed his pianistic education with F. Schoberlechner, a student of the famous J. Hummel, studying with him in 1828-31. During these years he often performed as a pianist, took part in quartet evenings and showed increasing interest in composition. Nevertheless, Dargomyzhsky still remained an amateur in this area. There was not enough theoretical knowledge, and besides, the young man plunged headlong into the whirlpool of social life, “he was in the heat of youth and in the claws of pleasure.” True, even then there was not only entertainment. Dargomyzhsky attends musical and literary evenings in the salons of V. Odoevsky, S. Karamzina, and hangs out with poets, artists, performers, and musicians. However, a complete revolution in his fate was accomplished by his acquaintance with Glinka. “The same education, the same love for art immediately brought us closer together... We soon got along and became sincere friends. ...For 22 years in a row, we were constantly with him in the shortest, most friendly relations"- wrote Dargomyzhsky in his autobiographical note.
It was then that Dargomyzhsky first truly faced the question of the meaning of composer’s creativity. He was present at the birth of the first classical Russian opera “Ivan Susanin”, took part in its stage rehearsals and was convinced with his own eyes that music is intended not only to delight and entertain. Music playing in salons was abandoned, and Dargomyzhsky began to fill the gaps in his musical theoretical knowledge. For this purpose, Glinka gave Dargomyzhsky 5 notebooks containing notes of lectures by the German theorist Z. Dehn.
In his first creative experiments, Dargomyzhsky already showed great artistic independence. He was attracted by images of the “humiliated and insulted”; he strives to recreate various human characters in music, warming them with his sympathy and compassion. All this influenced the choice of the first opera plot. In 1839, Dargomyzhsky completed the opera “Esmeralda” to the French libretto by V. Hugo based on his novel “Notre Dame Cathedral”. Its premiere took place only in 1848, and “these eight years vain expectations,” wrote Dargomyzhsky, “laid a heavy burden on my entire artistic activity.”
Failure also accompanied the next major work - the cantata "The Triumph of Bacchus" (at the station by A. Pushkin, 1843), revised in 1848 into an opera-ballet and staged only in 1867. "Esmeralda", which was the first attempt to embody a psychological drama " little people”, and “The Triumph of Bacchus”, where it took place for the first time as part of a large-scale composition of the windy with the brilliant Pushkin poetry, with all the imperfections they were a serious step towards “Rusalka”. Numerous romances also paved the way to it. It was in this genre that Dargomyzhsky somehow immediately easily and naturally reached the top. He loved vocal music and was involved in teaching until the end of his life. “...By constantly being in the company of singers and singers, I practically managed to study both the properties and bends of human voices and the art of dramatic singing,” wrote Dargomyzhsky. In his youth, the composer often paid tribute to salon lyricism, but even in his early romances he came into contact with the main themes of his work. Thus, the lively vaudeville song “I repent, uncle” (Art. A. Timofeev) anticipates the satirical songs and skits of later times; the urgent topic of freedom of human feeling is embodied in the ballad “Wedding” (Art. A. Timofeev), so beloved later by V. I. Lenin. In the early 40s. Dargomyzhsky turned to Pushkin’s poetry, creating such masterpieces as the romances “I Loved You,” “Young Man and Maiden,” “Night Zephyr,” and “Vertograd.” Pushkin's poetry helped to overcome the influence of the sensitive salon style and stimulated the search for more subtle musical expressiveness. The relationship between words and music became ever closer, requiring the renewal of all means, and first of all, melody. Musical intonation, capturing the bends of human speech, helped to sculpt a real, living image, and this led to the formation in Dargomyzhsky’s chamber vocal work of new varieties of romance - lyrical and psychological monologues (“I’m sad”, “Both boring and sad” in Art. M . Lermontov), theatrical genre-everyday romances and sketches (“Melnik” at Pushkin Station).
An important role in creative biography Dargomyzhsky was played by a trip abroad at the end of 1844 (Berlin, Brussels, Vienna, Paris). Its main result is an irresistible need to “write in Russian,” and over the years this desire acquires an increasingly clear social orientation, echoing the ideas and artistic quests of the era. The revolutionary situation in Europe, the tightening of political reaction in Russia, growing peasant unrest, anti-serfdom tendencies among the advanced part of Russian society, increasing interest in folk life in all its manifestations - all this contributed to serious shifts in Russian culture, primarily in literature, where by the mid-40s. The so-called “natural school” is emerging. Her main feature, according to V. Belinsky, consisted of “a closer and closer rapprochement with life, with reality, in a greater and greater proximity to maturity and manhood.” The themes and plots of the “natural school” - the life of a simple class in its unvarnished everyday life, the psychology of a small person - were very consonant with Dargomyzhsky, and this was especially evident in the opera “Rusalka” and the revealing romances of the late 50s. (“Worm”, “Titular Councilor”, “Old Corporal”).
“Rusalka,” on which Dargomyzhsky worked intermittently from 1845 to 1855, opened a new direction in Russian opera. This is a lyrical and psychological everyday drama, its most remarkable pages are the extensive ensemble scenes, where complex human characters enter into acute conflict relationships and are revealed with great tragic force. The first performance of “The Mermaid” on May 4, 1856 in St. Petersburg aroused the interest of the public, but high society did not honor the opera with its attention, and the management of the imperial theaters treated it unkindly. The situation changed in the mid-60s. Revived under the direction of E. Napravnik, “Rusalka” was a truly triumphant success, noted by critics as a sign that “the views of the public... have radically changed.” These changes were caused by the renewal of the entire social atmosphere, the democratization of all forms of public life. The attitude towards Dargomyzhsky became different. Over the past decade, his authority in the musical world has increased greatly; a group of young composers led by M. Balakirev and V. Stasov have united around him. The composer's musical and social activities also intensified. At the end of the 50s. he took part in the work of the satirical magazine Iskra, from 1859 he became a member of the RMO committee, and participated in the development of the draft charter of the St. Petersburg Conservatory. So when in 1864 Dargomyzhsky undertook a new trip abroad, the foreign public in his person welcomed a major representative of Russian musical culture.
Dargomyzhsky created a vocal style that lies between cantilena and recitative, a special melodic or melodic recitative, elastic enough to be in constant accordance with speech, and at the same time rich in characteristic melodic bends, spiritualizing this speech, bringing into it a new, missing emotional element.
(2(14).2.1813, Troitskoye village, now Belevsky district, Tula region, -
5(17).1.1869, St. Petersburg)
Dargomyzhsky, Alexander Sergeevich - famous Russian composer. Born on February 14, 1813 in the village of Dargomyzhe, Belevsky district, Tula province. Died on January 17, 1869 in St. Petersburg. His father, Sergei Nikolaevich, served in the Ministry of Finance, in a commercial bank.
Dargomyzhsky's mother, née Princess Maria Borisovna Kozlovskaya, married against the will of her parents.
She was well educated; Her poems were published in almanacs and magazines. Some poems she wrote for her children, mostly of an edifying nature, were included in the collection: “A Gift to My Daughter.”
One of Dargomyzhsky’s brothers played the violin beautifully, participating in a chamber ensemble at home evenings; one of the sisters played the harp well and composed romances.
Until the age of five, Dargomyzhsky did not speak at all, and his late-formed voice remained forever squeaky and hoarse, which did not prevent him, however, from subsequently moving him to tears with the expressiveness and artistry of his vocal performance at intimate gatherings.
Dargomyzhsky received his education at home, but thoroughly; he knew the French language and French literature very well.
Playing puppet show, the boy composed small vaudeville plays for him, and at the age of six he began to learn to play the piano.
His teacher, Adrian Danilevsky, not only did not encourage his student’s desire to compose from the age of 11, but destroyed his compositional experiments.
His piano training ended with Schoberlechner, a student of Hummel. Dargomyzhsky also studied singing with Tseybikh, who gave him information about intervals, and violin playing with P.G. Vorontsov, participating in a quartet ensemble from the age of 14.
There was no real system in Dargomyzhsky’s musical education, and he owed his theoretical knowledge mainly to himself.
His earliest works - rondos, variations for piano, romances to words by Zhukovsky and Pushkin - are not found in his papers, but during his lifetime "Contredanse nouvelle" and "Variations" for piano were published, written: the first - in 1824, the second - in 1827 - 1828. In the 1830s, Dargomyzhsky was known in the musical circles of St. Petersburg as a “strong pianist”, and also as the author of several piano pieces of brilliant salon style and romances: “Oh, ma charmante”, “The Virgin and the Rose”, “I repent, uncle”, “You're pretty” and others, not much different from the style of romances by Verstovsky, Alyabyev and Varlamov, with an admixture of French influence.
Meeting M.I. Glinka, who gave Dargomyzhsky the theoretical manuscripts he had brought from Berlin from Professor Dehn, contributed to the expansion of his knowledge in the field of harmony and counterpoint; At the same time, he began to study orchestration.
Having appreciated Glinka’s talent, Dargomyzhsky chose, however, for his first opera “Esmeralda” a French libretto compiled by Victor Hugo from his novel “Notre Dame de Paris” and only after the end of the opera (in 1839) did he translate it into Russian.
"Esmeralda", which remains unpublished (the handwritten score, keyboard, Dargomyzhsky's autograph, are stored in the central music library of the Imperial Theaters in St. Petersburg; a lithographed copy of the 1st act was also found in Dargomyzhsky's sheet music) - a weak, imperfect work that cannot be compared with "Life for the Tsar."
But Dargomyzhsky’s characteristics were already revealed in him: drama and the desire for expressiveness of the vocal style, influenced by familiarity with the works of Megul, Aubert and Cherubini. "Esmeralda" was staged only in 1847 in Moscow and in 1851 in St. Petersburg. “It was these eight years of vain waiting, even in the most intense years of my life, that laid a heavy burden on my entire artistic activity,” writes Dargomyzhsky. Until 1843, Dargomyzhsky served, first in control of the Ministry of the Court, then in the Department of the State Treasury; then he devoted himself entirely to music.
The failure of "Esmeralda" suspended Dargomyzhsky's operatic work; he began composing romances, which, together with earlier ones, were published (30 romances) in 1844 and brought him honorable fame.
In 1844 Dargomyzhsky visited Germany, Paris, Brussels and Vienna. Personal acquaintance with Ober, Meyerbeer and other European musicians influenced his further development.
He became close friends with Halévy and Fetis, who testifies that Dargomyzhsky consulted with him regarding his works, including “Esmeralda” (“Biographie universelle des musiciens”, St. Petersburg, X, 1861). Having left as an adherent of everything French, Dargomyzhsky returned to St. Petersburg much more than before, a champion of everything Russian (as happened with Glinka).
Reviews from the foreign press regarding the performance of Dargomyzhsky's works at private meetings in Vienna, Paris and Brussels contributed to some change in the attitude of the theater management towards Dargomyzhsky. In the 1840s, he wrote a large cantata with choirs based on Pushkin's text "The Triumph of Bacchus."
It was performed at the directorate's concert in Bolshoi Theater in St. Petersburg, in 1846, but the author was refused to stage it as an opera, completed and orchestrated in 1848 (see “Autobiography”), and only much later (in 1867) was it staged in Moscow .
This opera, like the first, is weak in music and not typical for Dargomyzhsky. Distressed by the refusal to stage Bacchus, Dargomyzhsky again closed himself in a close circle of his admirers and admirers, continuing to compose small vocal ensembles (duets, trios, quartets) and romances, which were then published and became popular.
At the same time, he took up teaching singing. The number of his students and especially female students (he gave lessons for free) is enormous. L.N. stood out. Belenitsyn (after her husband Karmalina; the most interesting letters to her from Dargomyzhsky were published), M.V. Shilovskaya, Bilibina, Barteneva, Girs, Pavlova, Princess Manvelova, A.N. Purholt (after her husband Molas).
The sympathy and worship of women, especially singers, always inspired and encouraged Dargomyzhsky, and he used to say, half-jokingly: “If there were no singers in the world, it would not be worth being a composer.” Already in 1843, Dargomyzhsky conceived a third opera, “The Mermaid,” based on Pushkin’s text, but the composition progressed extremely slowly, and even the approval of friends did not speed up the progress of the work; Meanwhile, the duet of the prince and Natasha, performed by Dargomyzhsky and Karmalina, brought tears to Glinka’s eyes.
A new impetus to Dargomyzhsky’s work was given by the resounding success of a grandiose concert of his works, staged in St. Petersburg in the hall of the Assembly of the Nobility on April 9, 1853, according to the thoughts of Prince V.F. Odoevsky and A.N. Karamzin. Taking up “Rusalka” again, Dargomyzhsky completed it in 1855 and arranged it into four hands (an unpublished arrangement is kept in the Imperial Public Library). In Rusalka, Dargomyzhsky consciously cultivated the Russian musical style created by Glinka.
What is new in “Rusalka” is its drama, comedy (the figure of the matchmaker) and bright recitatives, in which Dargomyzhsky was ahead of Glinka. But the vocal style of "Rusalka" is far from consistent; Along with truthful, expressive recitatives there are conventional cantilenas (Italianisms), rounded arias, duets and ensembles that do not always fit with the requirements of drama.
The weak point of "Rusalka" is also its technical orchestration, which cannot be compared with the rich orchestral colors of "Ruslana", and from an artistic point of view - the entire fantastic part is rather pale. The first performance of "The Mermaid" in 1856 (May 4) at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, with an unsatisfactory production, with old scenery, inappropriate costumes, careless execution, inappropriate notes, under the direction of K. Lyadov, who did not like Dargomyzhsky, was not successful .
The opera lasted only 26 performances until 1861, but renewed in 1865 with Platonova and Komissarzhevsky, it was a huge success and has since become a repertoire and one of the most beloved Russian operas. "Rusalka" was staged for the first time in Moscow in 1858. The initial failure of "Rusalka" had a depressing effect on Dargomyzhsky; according to the story of his friend, V.P. Engelhardt, he intended to burn the scores of “Esmeralda” and “Rusalka”, and only the formal refusal of the management to hand over these scores to the author, supposedly for correction, saved them from destruction.
The last period of Dargomyzhsky’s work, the most original and significant, can be called reformist. Its beginning, already rooted in the recitatives of "The Mermaid", is marked by the appearance of a number of original vocal plays, distinguished either by their comedy - or, rather, by Gogol's humor, laughter through tears ("Titular Councilor", 1859), or by their drama ("The Old Corporal", 1858; "Paladin", 1859), sometimes with subtle irony ("The Worm", based on the text by Beranger-Kurochkin, 1858), sometimes with the burning feeling of a rejected woman ("We parted proudly", "I don't care", 1859) and always remarkable for the strength and truth of vocal expressiveness.
These vocal pieces were a new step forward in the history of Russian romance after Glinka and served as models for the vocal masterpieces of Mussorgsky, who wrote a dedication to Dargomyzhsky, “the great teacher of musical truth,” on one of them. Dargomyzhsky's comic streak also manifested itself in the field of orchestral composition. His orchestral fantasies date back to the same period: “Little Russian Cossack”, inspired by Glinka’s “Kamarinskaya”, and completely independent ones: “Baba Yaga, or From the Volga nach Riga” and “Chukhon Fantasy”.
The last two, originally conceived, are also interesting in terms of orchestral techniques, showing that Dargomyzhsky had taste and imagination in combining the colors of the orchestra. Dargomyzhsky's acquaintance with the composers of the "Balakirev circle" in the mid-1850s was beneficial for both parties.
Dargomyzhsky's new vocal verse influenced the development of the vocal style of young composers, which especially affected the work of Cui and Mussorgsky, who met Dargomyzhsky, like Balakirev, earlier than the others. Rimsky-Korsakov and Borodin were especially influenced by Dargomyzhsky’s new operatic techniques, which were the practical implementation of the thesis he expressed in a letter (1857) to Karmalina: “I want the sound to directly express the word; I want the truth.” An opera composer by vocation, Dargomyzhsky, despite the failures with the state directorate, could not withstand inaction for long.
In the early 1860s, he began to write the magical-comic opera "Rogdana", but wrote only five numbers, two solo ("Duetino of Rogdana and Ratobor" and "Comic Song") and three choral (choir of dervishes to the words of Pushkin "Rise up" , fearful", of a stern oriental character and two women's choirs: "Quietly flow the streams" and "How the luminous morning star appears"; all of them were performed for the first time in concerts of the Free Music School 1866 - 1867). Somewhat later, he conceived the opera “Mazepa”, based on the plot of “Poltava” by Pushkin, but, having written a duet between Orlik and Kochubey (“You are here again, despicable man”), he settled on it.
There was not enough determination to expend energy on a large essay, the fate of which seemed unreliable. Traveling abroad in 1864-65 contributed to the rise of his spirit and strength, as it was very successful artistically: in Brussels, bandmaster Hansens appreciated Dargomyzhsky’s talent and contributed to the performance of his orchestral works in concerts (overtures to “The Mermaid” and “Cossack Woman” "), which was a huge success. But the main impetus for the extraordinary awakening of creativity was given to Dargomyzhsky by his new young comrades, whose talents he quickly appreciated. The question of operatic forms then became another issue.
Serov was engaged in it, intending to become opera composer and being carried away by the ideas of Wagner's operatic reform. Members of the Balakirev circle, especially Cui, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, also worked on it, solving it independently, based largely on the features of Dargomyzhsky’s new vocal style. When composing his “William Ratcliffe,” Cui immediately introduced Dargomyzhsky to what he had written. Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov also introduced Dargomyzhsky to their new vocal compositions. Their energy was communicated to Dargomyzhsky himself; he decided to boldly embark on the path of operatic reform and pulled out (as he put it) his swan song, starting with extraordinary zeal to compose “The Stone Guest”, without changing anything single line Pushkin's text and without adding a single word to it.
Dargomyzhsky’s illness (aneurysm and hernia) did not stop his creativity; in recent weeks he wrote while lying in bed, using a pencil. Young friends, gathering at the patient’s place, performed scene after scene of the opera as it was created and with their enthusiasm gave the fading composer new strength. Within a few months the opera was almost finished; death prevented the completion of music only for the last seventeen verses. According to Dargomyzhsky’s will, he completed Cui’s “The Stone Guest”; he also wrote the introduction to the opera, borrowing thematic material from it, and orchestrated the opera by Rimsky-Korsakov. Through the efforts of friends, “The Stone Guest” was staged in St. Petersburg on the Mariinsky stage on February 16, 1872 and resumed in 1876, but it could not stay in the repertoire and is still far from being appreciated.
However, the significance of “The Stone Guest,” which logically completes Dargomyzhsky’s reform ideas, is undeniable. In The Stone Guest, Dargomyzhsky, like Wagner, strives to achieve a synthesis of drama and music, subordinating the music to the text. The operatic forms of The Stone Guest are so flexible that the music flows continuously, without any repetitions not caused by the meaning of the text. This was achieved by abandoning the symmetrical forms of arias, duets and other rounded ensembles, and at the same time by abandoning the solid cantilena, as it is not flexible enough to express the rapidly changing shades of speech. But here the paths of Wagner and Dargomyzhsky diverge. Wagner transferred the center of gravity of the musical expression of the psychology of the characters to the orchestra, and his vocal parts were in the background.
Dargomyzhsky focused musical expressiveness on vocal parts, finding it more appropriate for the characters themselves to speak about themselves. The operatic links in Wagner's continuously flowing music are leitmotifs, symbols of persons, objects, and ideas. The operatic style of The Stone Guest is devoid of leitmotifs; Nevertheless, Dargomyzhsky’s characteristics of the characters are vivid and strictly maintained. The words put into their mouths are different, but homogeneous for everyone. Denying the solid cantilena, Dargomyzhsky also rejected the ordinary, so-called “dry” recitative, little expressive and devoid of purely musical beauty. He created a vocal style that lies between cantilena and recitative, a special melodic or melodic recitative, elastic enough to be in constant accordance with speech, and at the same time rich in characteristic melodic bends, spiritualizing this speech, bringing into it a new, missing emotional element.
Dargomyzhsky’s merit lies in this vocal style, which fully corresponds to the peculiarities of the Russian language. The operatic forms of The Stone Guest, caused by the properties of the libretto and text, which did not allow the widespread use of choirs, vocal ensembles, or independent orchestral performances, cannot, of course, be considered immutable models for any opera. Artistic problems allow for more than one or two solutions. But the solution to Dargomyzhsky’s opera problem is so characteristic that it will not be forgotten in the history of opera. Dargomyzhsky had not only Russian followers, but also foreign ones.
Gounod intended to write an opera based on The Stone Guest; Debussy, in his opera Pelléas et Mélisande, implemented the principles of Dargomyzhsky's operatic reform. - Dargomyzhsky’s social and musical activities began only shortly before his death: from 1860 he was a member of the committee for reviewing compositions submitted to competitions of the Imperial Russian Musical Society, and from 1867 he was elected director of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Society. Most of Dargomyzhsky's works were published by P. Jurgenson, Gutheil and V. Bessel. Operas and orchestral works are named above. Dargomyzhsky wrote few piano pieces (about 11), and all of them (except for the “Slavic Tarantella”, op. in 1865) belong to the early period of his work.
Dargomyzhsky is especially prolific in the field of small vocal pieces for one voice (over 90); He wrote 17 more duets, 6 ensembles (for 3 and 4 voices) and “Petersburg Serenades” - choirs for different voices (12 ©). - See letters from Dargomyzhsky ("Artist", 1894); I. Karzukhin, biography, with indexes of works and literature about Dargomyzhsky ("Artist", 1894); S. Bazurov "Dargomyzhsky" (1894); N. Findeizen "Dargomyzhsky"; L. Karmalina "Memoirs" ("Russian Antiquity", 1875); A. Serov, 10 articles about “Rusalka” (from a collection of critical works); C. Cui "La musique en Russie"; V. Stasov “Our music for the last 25 years” (in collected works).
G. Timofeev
Russian Civilization
Glinka’s work was continued by Dargomyzhsky, his younger contemporary, friend and follower, a passionate admirer of Pushkin. Like his great teachers, he was a convinced champion of nationally distinctive, truly folk and deeply human art in content. But he belonged to another generation and another era.
He was the same age as Lermontov, Herzen, Belinsky. His conscious life began under the conditions of the Nikolaev reaction that followed the Decembrist uprising. “Awakened by this great day, we saw only executions and expulsions,” Herzen wrote about his generation. “Forced to silence... we learned to concentrate, to harbor our thoughts - and what thoughts!.. they were doubts, denials, evil thoughts.” And although Dargomyzhsky, especially in his youth, was far from politics, new trends could not help but affect him. In any case, Glinka’s harmony, clarity, and balance were alien to his worldview.
Creative maturity came in the 40s. At this time, advanced literature, as before, sensitively reflected shifts in social consciousness. More and more works appeared that traced their lineage back to Pushkin’s “The Station Agent,” Gogol’s “The Overcoat,” and Gogol’s “The Inspector General.” "Have already been written" Dead Souls Gogol, The Thieving Magpie and Who's to Blame? Herzen, “Notes of a Hunter” by Turgenev, “Poor People” by Dostoevsky. Despite all the differences that exist between these works, many things unite them, first of all, warm sympathy for representatives of the lower strata of society and hatred for their oppressors.
At this time, the main direction in Dargomyzhsky’s work was determined. It is associated with the exposure of the discord within modern society between the world of those in power and the world of the disadvantaged, with a passionate protest against oppression human personality. Following Pushkin, Lermontov became Dargomyzhsky’s favorite poet, revealing the deceit and hypocrisy of high society. True to Belinsky’s call to reproduce reality in all its truth, without embellishment, “extracting poetry from the very prose of life,” Dargomyzhsky devoted himself to showing the destinies of “little” people, deprived of the right to happiness under the conditions of Tsarist Russia.
Great love and respect for man was reflected in how carefully and sensitively the composer revealed spiritual world their humble heroes. He portrayed people persecuted by society not only as pitiful and downtrodden. He loved to reveal the sense of human dignity that lived in them, their pride, their ability to love ardently and passionately, and contrasted them, as bearers of high spiritual qualities, with weak-willed and selfish representatives of high society.
Dargomyzhsky is the creator of a satirical romance and a satirical song. Like Gogol in literature, Fedotov in painting, the composer used laughter as a tool to expose social vices and social injustice. He caustically ridiculed the servility of officials, groveling before influential persons, and denounced the arrogance, arrogance and callousness of representatives of the highest circles.
New tasks brought to life new artistic principles. Dargomyzhsky did not follow the path of Glinka, who in his operas presented the people as a monolithic whole and embodied the idea of the Motherland in the form of epic, semi-legendary heroes. Dargomyzhsky sought to show the deep differences between people at different social levels, and thereby give a true picture modern life. He found convincing musical means in order to create vivid, socially accurate characteristics, to present his heroes as persons of a certain class, a certain living environment (peasant, prince, official, soldier, village or city girl).
Dargomyzhsky's heroes are often bearers of complex mental conflicts and experience a struggle of opposing feelings. The characters of some of them represent a peculiar combination of tragic and comic, attractive and repulsive traits.
With his insight, ability to reveal the most striking features of each character, as well as subtlety and depth psychological analysis Dargomyzhsky won a well-deserved reputation as an outstanding musical portrait painter.
From Glinka he inherited a passionate love for folk songs. He often introduced authentic folk tunes into his works and knew how to maintain an affinity with folk music in original, independently composed melodies. At the same time, embodying the images of the people around him, he used mainly the intonations of modern “urban songs and everyday romance; songs dating back to antiquity,” for example, ritual ones, were almost not reflected in his work.
The desire to make his works accessible to the broadest masses forced him to often turn to the most democratic types of urban everyday music - for example, a gypsy song, a vaudeville verse, etc.
However, all this was not enough for the goals that the composer set for himself, for example, to recreate the diversity of characters encountered in life or to convey subtle, capricious bends of feelings and instant changes of mood.
Observing people, Dargomyzhsky noticed that a person’s character, his belonging to one or another social circle, as well as his state of mind, can be determined by the very sound of his speech, by the manner of pronouncing, “intoning” words. The speech of a withdrawn, gloomy person sounds different than the speech of a lively, sociable person. The talk of a peasant can be distinguished by ear from the talk of a city dweller. Joyful excitement colors speech in different tones than mournful depression.
And the composer found ways to make his musical portraits even more vivid and... convincing, and the outline psychological states even more subtle: he began to introduce melodic and rhythmic turns into his music, reproducing the characteristic features of various types of human speech. This explains the frequent use of recitative and the introduction of a speech, declamatory element into the song melody.
He carefully preserved the wonderful traditions of Glinka’s recitative - its songfulness, its connection with folk melodies. However, Glinka's recitative corresponds mainly to the majestic epic structure of his operas. Dargomyzhsky's recitatives are more varied and, in addition, changeable. They reflect the inner essence of different characters and types and follow sensitively the slightest changes in psychological states. They can be everyday, comedic, dramatic, ironic, full of bitterness or sarcasm. And they are always flexible and changeable.
Dargomyzhsky's work is not as multifaceted as Glinka's work. Not all of his works bear the stamp of the same high perfection. But the fact that he turned to new themes, images, and embodied the spirit of the new time in sounds, made his contribution to Russian music invaluable. We honor Dargomyzhsky as an associate of Glinka, as the founder, along with Glinka, of a number of the most important movements in music of the 19th century.
Dargomyzhsky’s activities were also of great importance for further development Russian vocal performing culture. Like Glinka, Dargomyzhsky was an outstanding performer of vocal music, although he did not have singing voice. He also constantly worked with amateur and professional vocalists, thereby strengthening the foundations of the Russian performing school. He passed on to his students the ability to “play” with a voice, that is, to create bright, lively characters even without the help of a stage and costume. He demanded simplicity and sincerity from the performer in conveying human feelings, resolutely fighting against meaningless virtuosity. “Our brother needs music, not singers,” he said.
During Dargomyzhsky’s lifetime, the contradictions between the tastes of the aristocratic public and the desire of advanced Russian composers for great ideological art, which had such a heavy impact on Glinka’s fate, especially intensified. Dargomyzhsky countered the uncritical passion of the “tops” for low-quality foreign music and fashionable virtuosos with a desire for truth and faith in the great future of Russian music. He fought against the view of music, widespread among the St. Petersburg aristocracy, as easy, thoughtless entertainment. He wrote: “I do not intend to reduce music to entertainment for them. I want the sound to directly express the word. I want the truth."
In the last decade of his life, Dargomyzhsky received; an opportunity to see the fruits of the work to which Glinka and he devoted their spiritual strength completely. He witnessed the unprecedented flowering of the Russian national school in music represented by composers of the Mighty Handful and Tchaikovsky. During this period, he himself experienced a new surge of creative powers and took a further step along the path of musical progress.
This is how he went down in history: a brave innovator, a living link between the era of Glinka - Pushkin and the 60s - the era of the great rise of the democratic forces of Russia.
LIFE AND CREATIVE PATH
Childhood and youth. Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky was born on February 2, 1813 in the Tula province, on the estate of his parents. At the age of four, the future composer was transported to St. Petersburg, where his entire future life took place.
Dargomyzhsky's father, the illegitimate son of Catherine's nobleman, served as an official. Mother was famous as a poet: her poems appeared in some magazines of that time. People in Dargomyzhsky's house loved art. The children studied music and constantly participated in musical evenings organized on the initiative of their father. At the age of six, the boy began taking piano lessons from teachers who came to his home, and when he was nine years old, a violinist from one of the serf orchestras began teaching him to play the violin. Pianist education ended at the end of the 20s. At the same time, Dargomyzhsky took singing lessons.
As a composer, Dargomyzhsky was essentially self-taught (in which he shared the fate of many remarkable Russian composers of the 19th century). He acquired his professional skills through years of persistent, intense independent work. His art was honed in communication with outstanding musical figures (primarily with Glinka) and through the creative study of samples of folk music and classical heritage that did not stop throughout his life.
The passion for writing emerged very early - from childhood. In his early youth, Dargomyzhsky wrote a large number of musical works. But during these years he still thought little about serious creative issues. In aristocratic salons, where amateur music-making flourished, he gained a well-deserved reputation as an excellent pianist and an excellent performer of romances.
The first period of creativity. A significant date in Dargomyzhsky’s creative path was 1834 - the year of his meeting with Glinka. The love of art helped quickly bring both musicians together, despite the age difference. The rapprochement occurred during the period when Glinka, having just returned from abroad, was creating his “Ivan Susanin”. This opera was thus born before Dargomyzhsky's eyes. Trying out individual scenes with Count Yusupov's home (serf) orchestra, Glinka recruited Dargomyzhsky as his closest assistant.
Dargomyzhsky’s creative growth was also facilitated by his work organizing numerous charity concerts under Glinka’s leadership, which required him to learn parts with singers, make orchestral arrangements, and conduct an orchestra. On the advice of Glinka, Dargomyzhsky took up the study of music theory. But what was even more important was that, communicating with Glinka, Dargomyzhsky began to understand more and more clearly the high tasks facing Russian art.
The beginning of a passion for Pushkin’s work also dates back to this time. A number of remarkable works by the composer are associated with the name of the great poet. Pushkin's creativity played a huge role in his artistic formation.
During these years, Dargomyzhsky wrote a lot. The 30s and early 40s are the first period of his work. At that time, all the characteristic features of the composer's style had not yet been fully revealed, but from his pen even then a number of works of great artistic value came out (mainly in the field of romances, songs and vocal ensembles).
The pinnacle of chamber-vocal creativity of the first period is a group of works based on the words of Pushkin (“I loved you,” “Night Zephyr,” “Young Man and Maiden,” “Vertograd,” “Tear,” “The fire of desire burns in the blood,” etc.) - The best of them, created at the turn of the 30s and 40s, probably as a tribute to the memory of the untimely death of the poet, indicate that by this time Dargomyzhsky had already achieved high artistic skill. One of the major works of this period is also associated with the name of Pushkin. This is the cantata “The Triumph of Bacchus” for soloists, choir and orchestra, written to the text of the poet’s poem of the same name (later new numbers were added to the already written numbers and the cantata was turned into an opera-ballet).
Dargomyzhsky's first opera was Esmeralda, based on Victor Hugo's novel Notre Dame. Despite all the youthful immaturity and relatively little independence of the music, this opera is still indicative of the future author of “The Mermaid.” Characteristic, in particular, is the desire to emphasize acutely dramatic situations, to truthfully embody strong and deep feelings, as well as the general direction of the work: the listener's sympathy is evoked by the touching image of a little street dancer who becomes a victim of wild, unbridled passions and monstrous prejudices that reigned in medieval society.
The history of the production of Esmeralda can serve as an example of the difficulties a Russian composer had to face at that time when trying to promote his opera on the stage. Due to the disdainful attitude of the heads of the imperial theaters towards domestic art, Dargomyzhsky tried in vain for eight years to get the opera staged. Only in 1847, thanks to the assistance of Verstovsky, was it performed in Moscow, and only in the 50s was it first shown in St. Petersburg.
This failure was a difficult test on the path of the young composer. It was the first sign of the discrepancy between the aspirations of the advanced musician and the tastes of the official legislators of Russian theatrical life, which was destined to continuously deepen as the ideas of democracy and nationality received increasingly clear expression in Dargomyzhsky’s work.
In 1844-1845, the composer made his first trip abroad. He visited Vienna, several German cities, Brussels, and Paris. The trip allowed him to become closely acquainted with life, everyday life and art. foreign countries, brought him closer to a number of outstanding artistic figures.
The meaningful letters that the young composer sent to his father give a vivid idea of his impressions abroad. They characterize him as a person who already had independent views by that time. He approached some of the phenomena of foreign artistic culture critically, assessing them from the standpoint of the requirement of truth in art. Thus, he negatively assessed the pursuit of external showiness, which, in his opinion, is characteristic of the so-called grand French opera.
The trip also contributed to Dargomyzhsky’s fame: a number of foreign newspapers published sympathetic articles about the work of the Russian musician.
The period of creative maturity. The return to his homeland in 1845 marks the beginning of the mature period of Dargomyzhsky’s work.
Since the second half of the 40s, the composer has been working on the opera “Rusalka”. It is characteristic that, turning again now, at a new stage, to Pushkin, he chooses a work full of socially accusatory pathos and vivid drama. After Glinka’s “Ruslan,” this was a discovery for music of new sides in the work of the great poet.
While working on Rusalka, Dargomyzhsky wrote a large number of romances. They still give pride of place to Pushkin's lyrics. At the same time, in the field of small forms, Dargomyzhsky now finds new themes in Pushkin that have not yet been touched upon by any of the musicians. Along with lyrical romances, he creates a folk comedy skit “The Miller”, a stern, courageous monologue “God help you” (in Pushkin this is an appeal to the Decembrists exiled to the Siberian mines).
However, Pushkin’s lyrics still could not fully meet Dargomyzhsky’s need to express the sharply critical thoughts and sentiments typical of modern times.
He was attracted to Lermontov's poetry, full of protest against violence against man and hatred of the insidious and soulless high society. The romance “Both Boring and Sad” (1847) was the first herald of the critical trend in Dargomyzhsky’s work. It was soon followed by the romance “I'm Sad” based on the words of the same poet. Dargomyzhsky put his mournful reflections on the insignificance of modern society in the form of heartfelt lyrical monologues.
In the early 50s, he turned to the work of Koltsov, a national songwriter. In his songs to the words of Koltsov, Dargomyzhsky gave truthful pictures of folk life, showed ordinary people with their grief and need, with their sincere, ingenuous feelings, while masterfully using the intonation and form of a simple everyday song. And in the work of a number of minor poets of his time, Dargomyzhsky was able to find images that were close to himself, effective for his time, and acquired new strength and brightness in his musical embodiment.
Many of the romances of this period depict the tragedy of a lonely, abandoned woman. They were, as it were, an echo of the composer’s work on the central image of the opera “Rusalka”.
“Rusalka” was completed in 1855 and staged in St. Petersburg in May 1856. The comparative ease with which Dargomyzhsky managed to achieve the production this time is explained by the greatly increased popularity of his name, which made it difficult for the hostile actions of the theater management. However, the management did not consider it necessary to make any expenses for it. If huge amounts of money were spent on staging Italian operas cash, then “Rusalka” was performed in prefabricated sets, and the costumes and props were taken from the play “Russian Wedding,” which has already gone through over 60 performances.
The opera was performed with significant cuts that distorted some of the most significant and musically striking scenes. The production was saved only by the wonderful performance of the Melnik part by the inspired stage master, Glinka’s friend, Petrov.
The public's attitude towards "Rusalka" was ambivalent. The aristocracy considered it a sign of good taste to have a contemptuous attitude towards the new Russian opera. Democratic-minded theater visitors received the opera enthusiastically, but there were still very few of them in those years.
The opinions of critics were also sharply divided. The reactionary part of them, although forced to recognize the undoubted merits of the opera, attacked Dargomyzhsky for his “excessive” passion for the national, folk element, which, in their opinion, led to the monotony of the music.
Serov came to Dargomyzhsky’s defense with a long article about “Rusalka”. He ardently defended the right of the national Russian opera school to exist and hailed Rusalka as a shining achievement. He considered the distinctive features of this school to be the originality of melody, rhythm, harmony, due to the deep intonational connection with folk music, and “a constant striving for truth in expression, which does not allow (except for very rare exceptions) the serving of virtuoso goals and, in terms of the seriousness of the direction, is far from all flat and tinsel effects.”
In his article, Serov subjected a detailed analysis to the music and libretto of “Rusalka”. This article remains to this day the best study of Dargomyzhsky’s opera.
The low quality of the production and the cold attitude of the majority of the public towards the opera had a difficult effect on the composer. The bitter feeling of disappointment especially intensified after the opera was removed from the repertoire in 1857, after eleven performances.
By this period, the dramatic changes that have occurred in Dargomyzhsky’s character and lifestyle since his youth become especially noticeable. Failures in the operatic field, blows constantly inflicted on his artistic pride by the official leaders of theatrical life - all this seemed to have aged him prematurely and instilled in him disbelief in the possibility of ever achieving recognition in his homeland.
Dargomyzhsky’s circle of acquaintances also changed dramatically. In the past, a regular at St. Petersburg salons, he now completely stops attending social gatherings. In society, he is given the reputation of being unsociable and a homebody. He isolates himself in a narrow circle of friends and like-minded people. These were, first of all, regular visitors to his home evenings, mostly amateur singers who benefited from his lessons and advice. Regularly gathering at the composer’s apartment to play music, they performed chamber music, and in particular - the works of Glinka and Dargomyzhsky himself. It was here that a realistic style of performance was developed, alien to external showiness, in keeping with the spirit of new Russian music.
But soon Dargomyzhsky’s activities were destined to take on a wider social scope.
The end of the 50s was a period when deep and significant changes were being prepared in the social life of Russia. These years were marked by a sharp aggravation of the crisis of the feudal system and a powerful increase liberation movement peasants The threat of a revolutionary explosion wrested the peasant reform of 1861 from the government. Russia has entered a new, capitalist phase of its development. The mixed-democratic stage of the liberation struggle of the Russian people began.
During these years, the role of advanced Russian literature increased unprecedentedly as an exposer of the vices of the old system and an ardent champion of the interests of the oppressed people. Next to the organ of revolutionary democracy - Sovremennik by Nekrasov and Chernyshevsky - other journals of advanced trends arose. Dargomyzhsky also had a chance to take part in the activities of one of them.
Through his sister's husband, the famous cartoonist Nikolai Stepanov, he met the talented poet and translator Vasily Kurochkin. When Kurochkin and Stepanov founded the satirical magazine Iskra in 1859, they invited Dargomyzhsky to participate in the editorial work.
For four to five years, the composer took an active part in the Iskra departments devoted to issues of art and especially music. He ideologically directed these departments and supplied themes and plots for numerous cartoons, feuilletons and stories from the field of modern musical and theatrical life. He thus received the opportunity to wage an open struggle against the rigid ideas about art that reigned in an aristocratic society, for the assertion of the rights of a democratic national musical culture.
Communication with Kurochkin and his entourage caused a new surge of creative forces in Dargomyzhsky.
Back in 1858, he wrote the dramatic song “The Old Corporal” to Beranger’s poems, translated by Kurochkin - one of his best works, directed against the oppression of the human person. The image of an old courageous soldier, insulted by an officer and innocently sentenced to death, is one of the most impressive in the entire work of the composer.
During the years of collaboration in Iskra, Dargomyzhsky’s accusatory gift flourished especially brightly, and he wrote his immortal musical satires: “The Worm” based on the words of Kurochkin (from Bérenger) and “Titular Advisor” based on the words of the “Iskra member” Pyotr Weinberg.
Dargomyzhsky apparently stopped his work at Iskra in 1864, when a break occurred between Stepanov and Kurochkin.
Continuing to be burdened by his loneliness among musical figures and still not believing in the possibility of success in the operatic field, Dargomyzhsky decided to take a new trip abroad. He also sought to dissipate after the difficult experiences caused by the death of his father. His trip lasted from November 1864 to May 1865. This time he visited Warsaw, Leipzig, Brussels, Paris and a number of other European cities.
In Brussels, Dargomyzhsky was destined to experience a true artistic triumph. The concert performance of his works caused great delight among the Belgian public. The newspapers were full of rave reviews of his music.
Last years of life. Inspired by foreign success, Dargomyzhsky returned to his homeland. And here, in his declining years, he finally found the joy of wide public recognition and experienced a new powerful surge of creative forces.
The 60s were marked by a high blossoming of advanced Russian culture, reflecting the powerful rise of democratic forces.
During these years, a brilliant galaxy of great talents appeared in the musical field, who led an active attack on the dilapidated norms of noble and aristocratic art. In St. Petersburg, at the forefront of progressive forces, a militant community of young composers emerged, which went down in history under the name “The Mighty Handful.” Its members were: Balakirev, Cui, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin; The ideologist of this group was the wonderful Russian critic Stasov. By the time Dargomyzhsky returned, young musicians began performing bright, original works.
New trends affected all areas of musical and social life. A new, heterogeneous listener authoritatively declared his rights. The democratic public who poured into the halls of the imperial theaters made their own independent assessment of the works performed on stage and helped spread the fame of domestic composers. And although representatives of the noble-aristocratic and court-bureaucratic elite still had a decisive influence on the repertoire, the artistic demands of the various intelligentsia became a force with which it was already difficult to ignore.
In 1865, the directorate of the imperial theaters could not resist the demands of the musical community and agreed to the renewal of “Rusalka”. This time the success exceeded all expectations. New listeners enthusiastically greeted the wonderful Russian opera. The success was greatly facilitated by the excellent performance of the role of the Miller by O. A. Petrov and the performance of the talented Yu. F. Platonova in the role of Natasha, who managed to convey the deep drama of the central image of the opera.
Following “Rusalka,” Dargomyzhsky’s early works, “Esmeralda” and “The Triumph of Bacchus,” were revived on the St. Petersburg and Moscow stages. The performances were invariably warmly received by the public. Even his enemies could no longer interfere with Dargomyzhsky’s growing fame and had to recognize him as the largest musical figure of his time.
In 1867, he was nominated to the directorate of the St. Petersburg branch of the Russian Musical Society, and soon after that he was elected chairman of the St. Petersburg branch.
I had to work in difficult conditions. The RMO was dependent on court circles, who hated the new Russian music and tried in every possible way to slow down its development. Dargomyzhsky embarked on a subtle diplomatic struggle with the titled authorities and achieved a turning point in the activities of society.
During the 1868/69 season, a number of works by Russian composers - Glinka, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Borodin and Dargomyzhsky himself - were performed at the RMS concerts.
Get out of the state of previous isolation and give all your strength to the big one in the decline of life public cause Dargomyzhsky was helped not only by the elation that was the result of great artistic success. He could draw strength to fight from a new source, previously unknown to him: he was no longer alone. In the young succession of progressively thinking Russian composers, he found comrades and like-minded people.
Dargomyzhsky turned to a new type of creativity for him. From 1861 to 1867, he wrote successively three symphonic fantasy overtures: “Baba Yaga”, “Ukrainian Cossack” and “Fantasy on Finnish Themes” (“Chukhon Fantasy”). Based on the example of Glinka in “Kamarinskaya,” Dargomyzhsky based these works on genuine folk song themes of national origin and created vivid genre pictures on this material.
Dargomyzhsky's symphonic fantasies attract with their richness of invention, humor and bright, life-affirming character.
However, the pinnacle of creativity in the 60s was the opera “The Stone Guest,” on which the composer worked in the last years of his life, inspired by the sympathy of the Balakirevites and friends from the advanced artistic environment, experiencing an extraordinary surge of creative strength. This opera, which Dargomyzhsky himself called his swan song, amazed contemporaries with its bold novelty and unusual concept.
The composer left the text of the little tragedy intact and, without writing a special libretto, set Pushkin’s entire work to music. Thus, he created an opera based solely on recitative dialogues.
Work began at the end of 1867. A year later, it had already progressed so much that individual episodes began to be performed at the piano in the composer’s apartment. The performers were Dargomyzhsky himself, Mussorgsky and the Purgold sisters: Alexandra Nikolaevna - singer, Dargomyzhsky's student, and Nadezhda Nikolaevna - pianist.
Dargomyzhsky had to continue his work when he was already seriously ill. However, creative fire did not leave him. Anticipating his imminent death and eager to finish The Stone Guest, he hurried and did not stop working, despite severe physical suffering. And yet he did not have time to completely complete his work.
According to the wishes of the deceased, The Stone Guest was completed by Cui and orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov. In 1872, faithful to the memory of their elder friend, the Balakirevites achieved the production of the opera on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg.
