Opera "Mermaid": content, video, interesting facts

A.S. Dargomyzhsky opera "Mermaid"

Literary basis "Mermaids"- Opera Dargomyzhsky, became the eponymous essay by Alexander S. Pushkin. The composer worked on creating this work for seven years - anxiously, with a soul, carefully recreating and deepening the images of Pushkin's drama. So, note by note, scene by scene, a tragic story Miller’s daughter’s love was recreated by the composer in opera genreover the years to become the most famous and beloved creation in its heritage.

Summary of the opera Dargomyzhsky "Mermaid" and a lot of interesting facts about this work, read on our page.

Summary of "Mermaids"

The daughter of the miller Natasha is madly in love with the Prince, every day she gazes into the distance with anguish, expecting her lover. But the Prince comes less and less, and the girl begins to guess about the reason for his absence. He is forced to marry another, noble and rich girl, which Natasha reports at the last meeting. The prince leaves without knowing that soon a baby should be born to her. A girl cannot live without her beloved and rushes into the waters of the Dnieper in despair.

But the Prince is not destined to find happiness with a new lover. The death of Natasha condemns the unhappy life of all the participants in this drama. And at the princely wedding, in the midst of the feast, a terrible omen of this will sound someone's mournful song about tragic and deceived girlish love. The princess will spend all her marriage alone, Natasha's father will go crazy and consider herself a raven, but the Prince ... The Prince will meet on the banks of the night Dnieper a little Mermaid who will tell him about the unfortunate girl, her mother, who threw 12 years ago into the water and became the Underwater One kingdom And then, under the influence of some mysterious spell, he will go after the Little Mermaid under the water ...

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Interesting Facts

• As you know, their drama "Rusalka" A.S. Pushkin did not have time to complete. Perhaps the work would not have ended with the death of the Prince, if the poet had not died, but he himself decided to make the final Dargomyzhsky. Thus, thanks to the composer, Rusalka also gained the idea of ​​revenge, which Pushkin did not have.
• The premiere performance was not successful. The reasons for this were: the plot - the aristocrats did not appreciate the suffering of Melnik's daughter, the reduction of many scenes, as well as the completely inappropriate scenery and costumes from another opera production called "Russian Wedding".
• The opera “Mermaid” by Dargomyzhsky is not the only one in the history of Russian musical theater. "Mermaid Boom" came in the XIX century, when a whole series of opera performances about the Dnieper Mermaid was staged (for example, "Lesta, or Dnieper Mermaid" by S.I. Davydov, "The Danube Mermaid" by F. Cower ", etc.

• V. Belinsky believed that the main feature of Dargomyzhsky’s musical creativity was the idea of ​​bringing the sublime to the realities of life. The theme, which permeates many of his works "natural (real) school" - this topic implies the life of ordinary people from the poor class, in real outlines. He also raises the question of a “little” person and reveals his psychological aspects. It was these themes that worried Dagomyzhsky and they were seriously involved in the opera "Mermaid", as well as in many romances.
• In total, taking into account the breaks, the composer wrote the opera for about 10 years.
• Composing the opera "Mermaid" Dargomyzhsky introduced a new direction in Russian opera art: lyric and dramatic domestic drama. The essence is in complex human characters that are intertwined with conflict-sensitive relationships, and in the end a great tragedy happens.
• This opera is not the only work of the composer, written on the work of A.S. Pushkin. Many romances and some operas of Dargomyzhsky are also written on poems and poems of the great writer. (Opera "The Stone Guest", romances: "I loved you ...", "Vertograd", and many others).
• The famous opera singer Leonid Vitalyevich Sobinov collected his stage costumes, theatrical accessories and props - creating from this a whole exclusive collection. People's artist was very scrupulous about creating costumes, and almost always took a personal part in the process of sewing clothes. Among his first personal theatrical costumes - the image of the Prince from the opera "Mermaid".
• In 1971, the gorgeous black and white film-opera "Mermaid" was shot. Among the actors you can meet such famous personalities as: E. Suponeva, O. Novak, A. Krivchenya, G. Korolev and others. As is known, in such films, actors and vocal performers are different people. Therefore, watching the opera, you will hear: I. Kozlovsky, V. Borisenko, E. Smolenskaya, etc. It is interesting that Alexei Krivchenya, an opera singer, turned out to be such a good actor that not only his bass sounds, but also Melnik himself in the film.

Popular arias and numbers

Melnik's aria "Oh, that's all you girls are young" - listen

Mermaid Aria - listen

Prince Cavatina - listen

Choir "Choir" - listen

Music

Drama "Mermaids" composer recreated by demonstrating the great life truth in the libretto and showing the deep heartfelt spiritual worlds of the main characters. Dargomyzhsky manages to convey the characteristic features of the characters to music, as well as to show all the emotional experiences. The dialogue scenes in the opera are quite common, and with their help, the composer manages to show the tense relations between the actors. Due to this particular scene, they occupy a particularly significant place (like arias, ensembles). The whole action of the work proceeds against the background of the usual, unremarkable picture of the life of that time.

Dargomyzhsky singled out a significant place in the "Mermaid" choral episodes. In the actions there are pictures where the people's life is shown. Most of the peasants' choirs were written by the composer using authentic folk texts.

Ensembles in musical drama most often have a flexible form of arioso, the value of words and meanings in recitatives that characterize peak, culminating dramatic fragments increases. Dargomyzhsky writes opera on the principle of "number" score, i.e. he designates individual numbers with the usual names - ariyas, duets, tertsetami etc ... But, the composer still often expands the ensembles in "Mermaid" to large-scale scenes. In such scenes there is an interweaving of song-arious elements with recitative-declamatory elements.

History of creation

The idea of ​​writing an opera on the plot of "Mermaids" by A.S. Pushkin originated from the composer at the end of the mid-19th century. Already in 1848 Dargomyzhsky made the first sketches on sheet music. After 7 years, in 1855, the musical creator finished the opera.

Dargomyzhsky himself wrote the libretto for the opera "Mermaid". Despite the fact that he had to finish the end of the poem himself, the composer kept a lot of the author's text unchanged. Including he added the final scene of the death of the Prince. And with the changes he interpreted the images of Pushkin, for example, in the image of the Prince, he removed the excessive hypocrisy that is inherent in the author's text. The poet did not pay enough attention to the drama of the Princess, and the composer developed this theme extensively. The miller in Pushkin’s version is self-serving, Dargomyzhsky also showed him to be a good, loving father. The image of Natasha, the composer retained, showing a line of characteristic changes the same as in the writer's poem.

Productions

May 4, 1856 was the first production of the opera "Mermaid" at the Mariinsky Theater (St. Petersburg). The premiere was casual, sloppy (inappropriate costumes, decorations). Because of this, the theatrical directorate was unhappy and hostile to this musical drama, and the audience did not like the opera. Less than 10 plays "Mermaid" removed from the scene. Only in 1865 the performance was resumed, which was enthusiastically accepted by the new public, including the intelligentsia.

This opera and to this day is popular on the operatic stages of Russia. For more than 150 years, Rusalka has been part of the repertoire of Russian theaters

In conclusion, I want to say that "Mermaid"insanely relevant to the realities of any time. Such situations occur in our time, when such incidents occur in the relationship between a man and a woman. Dargomyzhsky I managed with my music to express the whole palette of emotions in such a way that while listening to this musical drama, you involuntarily join the proposed story and empathize with the main characters.