The operetta “Chornomortsi” (“Black Sea residents”) is one of the innovative plays of 19th -century Ukrainian musical dramaturgy. Mykola Lysenko and Mykhailo Starytsky attempted to incorporate Ukrainian worldview principles and mental archetypes into the operetta genre despite the prohibition on conceptual national genres. The purpose of this research is to study the operetta “Chornomortsi” by M. Lysenko and M. Starytsky as an experimental example of Ukrainian musical drama, which, under genre restrictions and cultural pressure, realizes the ideas of national identity through symbolism, mythologizing, song tradition and sacralized images. The synthesis of the everyday plot and the deep philosophical and ethical basis, which is revealed through musical symbolism, genre-thematic polyvalence and intonation-semantic saturation, is substantiated. The special chronotope of the fictional Black Sea coast as an artistic model of the national world, functioning according to the usual rules of Cossack life and morality, is analyzed. It is established that the main concept of the work unfolds around the idea of Cossack glory as the embodiment of dignity, love, honor, will and collective consciousness of the people. It is determined that the musical dramaturgy of the operetta is aimed at rethinking the folk tradition in the context of the genre restrictions of the era. The use of allusions to the work of Taras Shevchenko and Ivan Kotlyarevsky, the symbolization of tonal and harmonic means, the typification of characters as carriers of mental archetypes are traced. Through the analysis of the overture and vocal numbers, the functioning of the leitmotifs of dishonor, repentance and rebirth, which give the operetta a philosophical content, is revealed. In the center of the plot is the collective image of the Black Sea residents (in Ukrainian: Chornomortsi) as the personification of the national spirit. It is stressed that particular attention is given to the song’s function in arranging the interior dramaturgical space, detecting psychological motivations, and mythologizing reality. It has been demonstrated that “Chornomorsi” is more than just a comedy show; rather, it is a rich artistic manifesto with a strong ideological message that uses musical theater to preserve and spread Ukrainian spirituality.
Liudmyla Kokhan (Thu,) studied this question.