Metamorphoses of the Genre: Notes on Contemporary Russian Opera

The article examines the phenomenon of contemporary Russian opera. The author focuses on experimental opuses by Russian composers (including the “neo-baroque” ballet Opera by L. Desyatnikov, opera about opera by V. Martynov Vita Nova, an individual genre project for eight voices a cappella by V. Rannev, the audiovisual art project Ascetic by N. Popov), their search for innovative forms of artistic synthesis that organize different aspects of the musical-visual-dramatic unity when creating polyphonized spatial-semantic compositions. Often such works are original author's reflections on the history of the European genre, filled in with numerous allusions to iconic “figures” of musical “speech” of different cultural and historical eras, as well as ironic remarks, playful comments. The “map” of modern Russian opera is a complex labyrinth of interweavings of various genre formations that arise as a result of the interaction of opera with oratorio, ballet, chamber vocal cycle, with dramatic theatre and instrumental theatre, and later with multimedia tech- nologies, with artistic practices of video art — performance, installation, which are especially demanded in the 21st century. By expanding artistic horizons, merging components of new types of contemporary art, using various musical writing techniques when creating hybrid genre formations, Russian composers are building a multi-level “landscape”. Among the common features of the works they create, we note the increased symbolism of the language, metaphorical nature, and saturation with cultural associations.