MUSIC
FOR THEATRE
“…
I didn’t compose any opera. Imagine, it confuse
me, as I like theatre very much… My passion
to theatre is such, that if my thoughts weren’t
engaged by music in its time, I would probably become
an actor…”
Aram Khachaturian
As
Khachaturian confessed, he was always interested in
work in theatre and cinema. His first experience in
this sphere relates to the time, when he even hadn’t
entered the conservatory.
It happened due to his elder brother, composer Suren
Ilich Khachaturian. Two studios worked at Culture
House of Soviet Army in Moscow, and one of them (dramatic)
was founded by Suren Khachaturian. After his death,
the studio was headed by Rouben Simonov, and to his
play devoted to 10-th anniversary of establishment
of Soviet power in Armenia, Aram Khachaturian composed
music. It was his first experience in music-theatre
sphere. And further …
Aram Khachaturian composed a music to 20 dramatic
plays, though as composer said, only saved the music
in score, which was re-composed to suite for orchestra:
“Masquerade” by Lermontov, “The
Battle of Stalingrad” from known film V. Perov,
and Lope de Vega’s “The Valencian Widow”.
These compositions are the summit of music and theatre
activity of Khachaturian. But their creation was preceded
by long and saturated way.
In the beginning of 30-th, Khachaturian started to
work at MAAT-2 (Moscow Arts Academic Theatre) on plays
of Soviet authors on modern themes. In this way, he
had the opportunity to directly communicate with a
wide auditorium.
During these years, Khachaturian composed music to
the following plays: “An Affair of Honor”,
“Baku”, “The Big Day” etc.
Though, the theatre interests of Khachaturian in these
years weren’t limited by scope of Soviet themes.
Shakespeare’s themes (Shakespeareiana) occupied
an essential place in his creative work. The composer
was keen on Shakespeare. He composed the music to
three of Shakespeare’s works: “King Lear”
for Mossovet ‘s theatre (performance by Y. Zavadsky),
“Otello” music to film (scenarist S. Yutkevich)
and “Macbeth” to which he composed a music
twice: for Maliy Theatre and National Theater named
after Sundukian.
“MACBETH”
"THE VALENCIAN
WIDOW"
"MASQUERADA"