Victory Over the Sun: The World's First Futurist Opera

364 Pages·2012·13.675 MB·English

by  Rosamund Bartlett (editor), Sarah Dadswell (editor)

the world’s first futurist opera
Rosamund Bartlett is Visiting Professor at Rose
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Bruford College of Theatre and Performance, t V I C T O R Y
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London, and Visiting Research Fellow in the Music
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Department at King’s College London. She is the
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author and editor of several books, including t
‘this project brings the highest possible standard of scholarship o
Wagner and Russia (1995), Shostakovich in Context o o v E r t H E S U N
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to bear on avant-garde cultural production.’
(2000) and biographies of Tolstoy and Chekhov.
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Maria Gough, Professor of Modern Art, Harvard University d
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Sarah Dadswell is a cultural historian specialising sy

in performance and an Honorary Research Fellow
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in the Department of Drama at Exeter. Her doctoral The Futurist opera Victory over the Sun, first staged io
r In 1913, the year in which the Romanovs celebrated
thesis on the emergence and development of
in 1913 in St Petersburg, was a key event of the sv their tercentenary, the premieres of two revolu-
Russian Futurist performance 1910-1914 (University t
Russian avant-garde, notorious for its libretto, its
tionary theatrical events brought Russian artists
of Sheffield) formed part of an AHRB project, E
f
unconventional score and its pioneering abstract to the forefront of the European avant-garde. With
entitled ‘Russian Visual Arts, 1863-1913: Documents ur
from the British Library Collection’. sets and costumes designed by Kazimir Malevich. t its nonsensical ‘trans-sense’ libretto by Aleksei

u Kruchenykh and Velimir Khlebnikov, experimental
The iconic importance of Victory over the Sun as a t
r
score by Mikhail Matiushin and pioneering abstract
H
theatrical event is universally acknowledged. i
sets and costumes by Kazimir Malevich, the Futurist
s
E
t opera Victory over the Sun may be compared in
This volume brings together the first fully annotated translation of
o terms of its radical assault on artistic convention to
S
the libretto of this ‘anti-opera’ and other important primary source p Igor Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring.
U
e
materials, including the score, the set and costume designs and
A complete list of titles published is available from:
r
University of Exeter Press contemporary newspaper reviews. The second part of the volume aN This interdisciplinary volume brings together a
Reed Hall distinguished team of international scholars to
provides a wide-ranging collection of interpretive essays which
Streatham Drive discuss the artistic significance of this epoch-
Exeter explore the artistic, literary and musical dimensions of the staging, its
making ‘anti-opera’, which is now recognised as a
EX4 4QR
theatrical and historical context, its relationship to Italian Futurism,
key event of avant-garde cultural production, and a
UK
and its position within the Russian modernist movement. Bartlett turning point in stage history.
www.exeterpress.co.uk
and
Jacket images Front: Kazimir Malevich, costume design dadswell The book offers new insight into the theatre practice
for The Enemy, 1913. Back: The Troublemaker, 1913.
and history of Russian Futurist performance, which,
Front flap: The Certain Person with Bad Intentions, 1913.
Selected from 150 screenprints made from original sketches to date, has received little attention from theatre
for the album: Kasimir Malewitsch, ‘Sieg über die Sonne’,
scholars despite its influence on the development
1913-1973, published in 1973 by the Gmurzynska Gallery ISBN 978-0-85989-839-3
in Cologne. These images, reproduced courtesy of Nikita of European drama in the twentieth century.
and Nina Lobanov-Rostovsky, are taken from Khudozhniki
russkogo teatra 1880-1930 – sobranie Nikity i Niny Lobanovykh
-Rostovskikh, text by John Bowlt (Moscow: iskusstvo, 1991). ISBN 978 0 85989 839 3 edited by
UNIVERSITY OF EXETER PRESS
rosamund Bartlett and sarah dadswell
Jacket design Bettina Newman www.exeterpress.co.uk 9 780859 898393

Victory oVer the Sun
‘This project brings the highest possible standard of scholarship to bear
on avant-garde cultural production. It includes a flawless translation of
an otherwise very difficult text.’
Maria Gough, Professor of Modern Art, Harvard University
The Futurist opera Victory over the Sun, first staged in 1913 in St Petersburg, was
a key event of the Russian avant-garde, notorious for its nonsensical libretto, its
unconventional score and its pioneering abstract sets and costumes designed by
Kazimir Malevich.
A close analysis of the performance as an event reveals much about the role of
Futurism in Russian and European avant-garde theatre history. This is made all
the more important in the light of Russia’s entry into World War I the following
year.
This book brings together important source material – including an annotated
translation of the libretto and contemporary newspaper reviews – and contextual
essays on the opera’s significance. It will be of interest to students and scholars of
Russia, art history, literature, theatre, music and cultural studies.
Rosamund Bartlett is Visiting Professor at Rose Bruford College of Theatre and
Performance, London, and Visiting Research Fellow in the Music Department
at King’s College London. Sarah Dadswell is a cultural historian specialising in
performance and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter.
Victory over the Sun.indb 1 11/10/2011 10:17:14 AM
Exeter Performance Studies
Series editors: Peter Thomson, Professor of Drama at the University of Exeter; Graham
Ley, Professor of Drama and Theory at the University of Exeter; Steve Nicholson, Reader
in Twentieth-Century Contemporary Theatre at the University of Sheffield.
From Mimesis to Interculturalism: Readings of Theatrical Theory Before and After ‘Modernism’
Graham Ley (1999)
British Theatre and the Red Peril: The Portrayal of Communism 1917–1945
Steve Nicholson (1999)
On Actors and Acting
Peter Thomson (2000)
Grand-Guignol: The French Theatre of Horror
Richard J. Hand and Michael Wilson (2002)
The Censorship of British Drama 1900–1968: Volume One 1900–1932
Steve Nicholson (2003)
The Censorship of British Drama 1900–1968: Volume Two 1933–1952
Steve Nicholson (2005)
Freedom’s Pioneer: John McGrath’s Work in Theatre, Film and Television
edited by David Bradby and Susanna Capon (2005)
John McGrath: Plays for England
selected and introduced by Nadine Holdsworth (2005)
Theatre Workshop: Joan Littlewood and the Making of Modern British Theatre
Robert Leach (2006)
Making Theatre in Northern Ireland: Through and Beyond the Troubles
Tom Maguire (2006)
“In Comes I”: Performance, Memory and Landscape
Mike Pearson (2006)
London’s Grand Guignol and the Theatre of Horror
Richard J. Hand and Michael Wilson (2007)
Theatres of the Troubles: Theatre, Resistance and Liberation in Ireland
Bill McDonnell (2008)
The Censorship of British Drama, 1900–1968: Volume Three, The Fifties
Steve Nicholson (2011)
British South Asian Theatres: A Documented History
Graham Ley and Sarah Dadswell (2011)
Critical Essays on British South Asian Theatres
edited by Graham Ley and Sarah Dadswell (2012)
Victory over the Sun.indb 2 11/10/2011 10:17:14 AM
Victory oVer the Sun
The World’s First Futurist Opera
edited by
R B
osamund aRtlett
and
s d
aRah adswell
Victory over the Sun.indb 3 11/10/2011 10:17:14 AM
First published in 2011 by
University of Exeter Press
Reed Hall, Streatham Drive
Exeter, Devon, EX4 4QR
www.exeterpress.co.uk
© 2011 Rosamund Bartlett, Sarah Dadswell and the individual contributors
The right of Rosamund Bartlett, Sarah Dadswell
and the individual contributors to be identified
as authors of this work has been asserted by them
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
ISBN: 978 0 85989 839 3
Typeset in Aldine and Gill Sans
by JCS Publishing Services Ltd
Printed in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe
Victory over the Sun.indb 4 11/10/2011 10:17:14 AM
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgements xi
About the Text xii
About the Contributors xiii
Introduction
Rosamund Bartlett and Sarah Dadswell 1
PART I
Texts and Scores
1 Biographies of the Librettists, Set Designer and Composer 17
2 Annotated Translation of the Libretto of Victory over the Sun
Rosamund Bartlett 19
3 Pobeda nad solntsem: Facsimile of the Original 1913 Russian
Publication, incorporating score fragments by Matiushin 46
4 Maria Ender’s transcription of Matiushin’s original score for
Victory over the Sun 72
5 Contemporary Reviews 87
6 ‘About the Opera Victory over the Sun’
Aleksei Kruchenykh 96
PaRt II
Essays
1 The Russian Cubo-Futurist Opera Victory over the Sun: Aleksei
Kruchenykh’s Alogical Creation
Michaela Böhmig 109
2 Entertainment and Enlightenment in Late Imperial Russian
Theatre
Murray Frame 126
3 On the Eve: The Russian Stage 1911–1914
Laurence Senelick 136
4 Victories over the Sun: The Drama of the Russian Futurists
Robert Leach 153
Victory over the Sun.indb 5 11/10/2011 10:17:14 AM
vI vIctoRy oveR the sun
5 Darkness and Light: Solar Eclipse as a Cubo-Futurist Metaphor
John E. Bowlt 165
6 Kazimir Malevich and the Designs for Victory over the Sun
Christina Lodder 178
7 Victory over the Sun: The Music
Catja Gaebel 194
8 ‘Be a Spectator with a Large Ear’: Victory over the Sun as a Public
Laboratory Experiment for Mikhail Matiushin’s Theories of
Colour Vision
Margareta Tillberg 208
9 Branding the Futurists
Sarah Dadswell 224
10 The Collision of Italian and Russian Futurism: Marinetti’s Visit
to Russia
Aurora Egidio 237
11 Burnt by the Sun: The Transmutation of Performativity,
Theatricality, and Framing in the Late Work of Kazimir
Malevich
Anna Wexler Katsnelson 254
12 A Modern Victory: Reflections on the 1999 Staging
Julia Hollander and Jeremy Arden in conversation with
Sarah Dadswell 263
Notes 285
Selected Bibliography 315
Index 323
Victory over the Sun.indb 6 11/10/2011 10:17:14 AM
Illustrations
Figures
1 Tsar iudeiskii (‘King of the Jews’) by the Grand Duke Konstantin 137
2 Nikolai Massalitinov as Claudius and Olga Knipper-Chekhova as
Gertrude in the Gordon Craig/Stanislavsky Hamlet at the Moscow
Art Theatre, 1912 139
3 Caricature of Kornei Chukovsky as ‘an admirer of the Futurists’ 143
4 Futurists at the Stray Dog 143
5 The Cellar of the Stray Dog 143
6 The Imaginary Invalid at the Moscow Art Theatre, as directed and
designed by Aleksandr Benois, 1913 146
7 Fedor Komissarzhevsky’s production of Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme,
Nezlobin’s Theatre, Moscow, 1911 150
8 Kazimir Malevich, Black Circle, c. 1923 166
9 Kazimir Malevich, Blue Cosmos, 1917 167
10 Anon., ‘The Largest Phase of the Solar Eclipse on 8 August, 1914 in
Odessa (2.55 a.m.)’ 170
11 Anon., ‘Part of the Leo constellation in which the sun will be during
its eclipse’ 171
12 Kazimir Malevich, Transrational Drawing (Two Zeros), 1915 172
13 Anon., ‘Diagram tracking the sequence of the eclipse on 8 August,
1914’ 173
14 Anon., front cover of A. Mikhailov et al., Polnoe zatmenie solntsa 8-go
avgusta 1914 goda v Evropeiskoi Rossii 174
15 Anon., front cover of A. Orlov: O zatmenii solntsa 8 avgusta 1914 goda
dlia goroda Odessy 175
16 Archive photograph of Aleksei Kruchenykh, Kazimir Malevich and
Mikhail Matiushin, 1913 179
17 Kazimir Malevich, costume design for Victory over the Sun, the Traveller
through All Centuries, 1913 180
18 Kazimir Malevich, costume design for Victory over the Sun, the Strong
Man of the Future, 1913 181
19 Kazimir Malevich, costume design for Victory over the Sun, the Strong
Man of the Future, 1915 181
20 Kazimir Malevich, design for a backcloth for Victory over the Sun, 1915 182
21 Kazimir Malevich, design for a backcloth for Victory over the Sun, 1915 182
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vIII vIctoRy oveR the sun
22 Kazimir Malevich, set design for Victory over the Sun, Act Two, Scene
Five, 1913 182
23 Kazimir Malevich, The Pilot, 1913 183
24 Photograph of the actual performance of Victory over the Sun, 1913,
Act One, Scene One 185
25 Photograph of the actual performance of Victory over the Sun, Act One,
Scene Four 185
26 Kazimir Malevich, set design for Victory over the Sun, Act One, Scene
One, 1913 186
27 Kazimir Malevich, costume design for Victory over the Sun, Nero and
Caligula, 1913 186
28 Kazimir Malevich, set design for Victory over the Sun, Act One, Scene
Two, 1913 186
29 Kazimir Malevich, set design for Victory over the Sun, Act One, Scene
Three, 1913 187
30 Kazimir Malevich, set design for Victory over the Sun, Act One, Scene
Four, 1913 187
31 Kazimir Malevich, set design for Victory over the Sun, Act Two, Scene
Six, 1913 189
32 Drawing of a tesseract or four-dimensional square 191
33 The visible spectrum 214
34 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, ‘Chart IIA’ 221
35 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, colour chart 222
36 David Burliuk in Futurist garb with painted face, 1914 225
37 ‘Gordost’ khudozhnika’ (‘The Pride of the Artist’), cartoon, 1913 225
38 ‘Futuristicheskii disput’ (Futurist Debate), cartoon, 1913 228
39 Lebedev, ‘Futuristy burliukaiut’, cartoon, 1913 228
40 ‘Mir iskusstva. Glavar’ (The World of Art), cartoon, 1913 229
41 Newspaper advertisement for international premieres of Futurist
Theatre, 1913 230
42 Arnshtan, ‘Pervyi vecher futuristov’ (First Futurist Evening),
cartoon, 1913 232
43 A. Lebedev, ‘Tozhe “lekstiia”’ (‘Call this a “Lecture”’), cartoon, 1913 236
44 Nero, ‘Triumf Marinetti’ ‘Marinetti’s a Hit’, cartoon 241
45 ‘Marinetti in Moscow’, 1914 243
46 Futurists on a tour of the Russian provinces, 1914 243
47 ‘Marinetti Gives a Lecture at the Hall of the Polytechnical Museum’,
1914 245
48 Lecture by Marinetti, St Petersburg, 1914 246
49 Cangiullo, Marinetti and Folgore performing at an Italian Futurist
evening, 1914 252
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