Gayaneh
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Gayaneh (also Gajaneh , Armenian Գայանե , Russian Гаянэ ) is the title of a full-length ballet by Aram Chatschaturjan from 1942. The piece consists of four acts in the original version that used to be common in the Soviet Union . The plot of the work takes place in the Caucasus region in 1941 and towards the end of the work already has a current reference to the Second World War . A libretto by Konstantin Derschawin served as a template . The music publisher Sikorski now sells a different version with a prologue , three acts in five pictures and a completely different plot.
History and musical arrangement
The work was commissioned by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and was conceived by the composer in the style of Socialist Realism . The choreographer Nina Aleksandrovna Anissimowa later revised the work's content for the performances in 1945 and 1952, in accordance with the requirements of the Leningrad Kirov Ballet . This was preceded in 1939 by Khachaturjan's first ballet entitled Счастье ( happiness ). Work on the score began in 1941, the premiere took place on December 9, 1942 in the Perm City Opera because during the Leningrad blockade by the German Wehrmacht in the German-Soviet War, no more work in the theater was possible and all musicians and theater people had to leave the city. The first cast consisted of Natalia Dudinskaja (Gayaneh), Nikolai Subkowski (Karen), Konstantin Sergejew (Armen), Tatjana Wetscheslova (Nuneh), and Boris Shawrow (Giko) in the main roles . The conductor of the first performances was Pawel Feldt. The choreography came from Nina Aleksandrovna Anissimowa, wife of Konstantin Derschawin, the set design by Natan Issajewitsch Altman and the costumes by Tatjana Bruni.
In the ballet there are elements of socialist realism typical of the Soviet ballet theater of that time . On the one hand, a communist heroine who is portrayed in an absolutely positive way, and an opponent in the form of a drinker who is indoctrinated by the imperialist West. The last scenes of the play, which premiered in 1942, allude to World War II , when the Red Army soldiers go to war against fascism , while cotton production continues undisturbed by the happily working people.
The dramaturgy of Gayaneh is based on the traditional classical ballet art of the 19th century with its dance numbers. The action continues with the alternation of dances and facial play. The individual dances are assigned to the ethnic groups of the Caucasus and use corresponding rhythms of the respective traditional folk dances with their own instrumentation. In 1957, the Moscow choreographer Wassili Wainonen developed a completely new plot for the work. Depending on the political situation, it was changed several times, so there were other new productions by Boris Yakovlevich Eifman in 1972 in Leningrad and 1978 in Moscow, with a choreography by Natalija Kassatkina and Vladimir Viktorovich Wassiljew.
There is also an instrumental suite for the ballet . Some pieces from it have been used in numerous films. The famous saber dance, for example, in the 1961 film Eins, Zwei, Drei by Billy Wilder accompanies a table dance scene with Liselotte Pulver . In Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey , the Adagio , the third piece in the suite, can be heard in the story section Die Reise zum Jupiter (Jupiter Mission 18 Months Later) .
The composer and his work Gayaneh are important components of Armenian culture and were depicted on the 50- dram banknote .
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People (selection)
- Gayaneh , a harvest worker
- Well , her friend
- Giko , her first husband
- Owanes , Gayaneh's father
- Poor her brother
- Karen , Armen's friend
- Aisha , Armen's fiancée
- Kazakov , chairman of the collective farm
- Three arsonists
- Red Army soldiers
Content of the original plot
- first act
In the first act you can see how the young Gayaneh actively helps with the cotton harvest. Her husband Giko, on the other hand, is an alcoholic, can no longer fulfill his duty and does not want to be part of the community. Maybe it's because Gayaneh looks after an officer of the border troops (other version: ... looks after the chairman of the kolkhoz and gets a rose from him). He is getting more and more into the role of the outsider and has thoughts of revenge.
- Second act
A variety of activities can be seen on the stage, the production of a carpet, the baking of flatbread and other colorful folk activities. The mood is good until Giko appears with three men. They are saboteurs who want to set fire to the kolkhoz cotton stores in order to destroy the cotton harvest. Gayaneh has overheard the men and tries desperately to bring her husband to his senses, but he locks her up.
- Third act
One morning Aisha , the fiancée of Gayaneh's brother Armen , wakes up alone in bed. He's gone and she's sad. Finally he comes back and they hug. It turns out that he tracked the three arsonists who set fire to the cotton granaries and contributed to their arrest by border troops. Gayaneh reports that her husband Giko was the instigator of the crime. He and the arsonists are taken to the labor camp. Gayaneh now has a daughter without a father, but "the fatherland is above everything."
- Fourth act
The reconstruction work on the burned down granaries is progressing quickly with dance and music, the next harvest is just around the corner, thanks to clever soil management. The saber dance , which is still famous today, is played at the topping out ceremony . Gayaneh and the kolkhoz chairman Kazakov confess their love to each other and want to get married right away.
Version with different content
Since Chatschaturjan composed his music for the ballet in a folkloristic and dramatic way, but not directly oriented towards ideology, other contents and person constellations were also possible without any problems. The new version from 1972 by Imre Keres, which was performed in Wiesbaden, bears the subtitle A Love Story from Armenia and describes a timeless, apolitical act. Four decorations are planned for the set design of this new version. In the non-ideological version, unlike most of today's performances, Armen is a Kurdish shepherd who loves Gayaneh because of her beauty. His competitor is the drinker Giko , who also desires and harasses her. Armen drives out his competitor, but after the shepherd has to return to work in the mountains, he harasses Gayaneh again and, in a drunkenness, sets her house on fire . The fire spreads to the neighboring houses and to the whole village. Gayaneh is saved from the flames by her friend Nune at the last moment. Nune runs to the men in the mountains to get help. Finally they can put out the fire. Giko is exposed as an arsonist and put to flight by the angry villagers. In the end, Armen and Gayaneh get married in a happy wedding feast attended by all the villagers.
Dance Numbers (1972 version)
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Publications
- Music CD Gayaneh (ballet in three acts, seven scenes with a prologue) BMG Classics. Recording by the Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra with a libretto by B. Pletyov from 1957.
Web link
- Video recording of a performance in St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theater
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Gayaneh on musirony.de.tl
- ↑ a b Gayaneh. Ballet in 3 acts with a prologue. on sikorski.de
- ↑ Victor Yuzefovich: Aram Khachaturyan. Sphinx Press, New York 1985, pp. 133 f.
- ↑ Grigory Shneerson: Aram Khachaturyan. Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow 1959, p. 57.
- ^ Martha Bremser: International Dictionary of Ballet. Volume 1, St. James Press, 1993, ISBN 978-1-55862-084-1
- ↑ Reclam's Ballet Guide. 14th edition, Ditzingen 2006, p. 201 ff.
- ↑ Film sequence from one, two, three
- ↑ Film sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey
- ↑ Aram Khachaturi︠a︡n, Dzhansug Kakhidze, Vsesoi︠u︡znoe radio, Bol'shoĭ simfonicheskiĭ orkestr: Gayaneh. 1999, accessed June 24, 2015 (German program notes, including the plot of the ballet, with English and French translations, in container).