This thesis is devoted to the issue of directors’ embodiments of the musical performance in the context of productions of drama-extravaganza “The Forest Song”, romantic drama “On Sunday morning…” grotesque and satirical opera-extravaganza “Marco in Hell”, the chamber comic opera “Vernissage at the Fair”, dramatic opera “Boyaryny” by V. Kyreyko. The issue is considered through the lens of the own director’s interpretation of the opera “On Sunday morning...” (2014) and significant factors of the show, namely: interaction with the viewers, specifics of working with actor-singers, set design, and choreography. Also, when working with a director, a conductor, and performers, conflicts may arise because of a director’s ambiguous interpretation of the composer’s idea. The opera is analysed in terms of the director’s explication, genre and features of dramaturgy.
During the analysis of archival sources and other historical documents, such as interviews with the composer, performers and eyewitnesses of his opera performances, it was discovered that the musical theatre works of V. Kyreyko, which fundamentally influenced the development of national art, are relevant and necessary for the theatre stages, and therefore interest in his art is gradually increasing.
Although the works of following art critics and theatrical experts were devoted to the composer’s art – V. Antonyuk, L. Arkhimovych, O. Davydova, M. Zagaykevych, A. Kalenychenko, K. Mayburova, S. Pavlyshyn, Y. Stanishevsky, A. Tereshchenko, I. Shesterenko and others – today the analysis of the stage interpretations of Vitaliy Kyreyko’s body of work in musical theatre is not fully sufficient and inadequately substantiated, which led to the decision to research this particularly important aspect.
The research discusses relevant issues of the musical theatre and its producers in the process of creating the play, raises the theme of Ukrainian opera in the world context, characterises the concept of stage interpretation and draws attention to the issue of the director’s embodiment of composers’ ideas of opera performance.
The analysis of director’s interpretations of Vitaly Kyreyko’s operas revealed the need of an interaction between the director’s vision and the composer’s conception of opera productions, including the factors of the performance’s perception by the public and the role of the creator-interpreters of the musical piece. Using the examples of modern stagings of leading theaters from 2012 to 2018, the contemporary Ukrainian style of opera production was analysed and compared to the modern tendencies of the world opera theatre stage. The theatre performances were analysed in terms of expediency of experiments and possible risks of the production’s failure.
