LYRICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DRAMA “REGRET FOR THE PAST” IN THE MIRROR OF ITS TIME: LU XUN – SHI GUANGNAN

Abstract

The reference to Shi Guangnan's (施光南) opera "Regret for the Past" (伤逝) is relevant in the context of the integration processes that characterize contemporary musical and theatrical art in Europe and China. Features of the libretto of the opera, based on the story of the outstanding Chinese writer and thinker Lu Xun (real name Zhou Shuzhen, 1881–1936) "Regret for the Past, or Notes of Juansheng" (1925), are considered through the prism of the socio-historical processes of the XX century, which had a direct impact on the plot concept of Lu Xun's story and the musical dramaturgy of Shi Guangnan's opera. Separated by more than half a century, Shi Guangnan's opera and Lu Xun's story were at the forefront of their time. In the work the main factors that determined the features of the worldview and aesthetic views of Lu Xun are identified, the main problematic lines of the writer's work are studied. The core ethical issues expressed in the story "Mourning of the Gone" are also indicated. Dramaturgy and the system of artistic images of the story are analyzed from the point of view of the relevant problems of Chinese society in the first quarter of the XX century. The relationship between the two main characters of the composition – Juansheng and Zijun – is the center of the dramaturgy of the opera. The story, told in the first person, is a dramatic narrative and the protagonist's remorse. Juansheng and Zijun belonged to a generation awakened by the wave of a new culture. Their youth coincided with the tragic events of the May 4th Movement. They aspired to democracy and science, wanting free and unconditional love. However, severe public condemnation and social obstacles have led to insurmountable difficulties in the life of a couple in love. The article highlights the explicit and hidden motives that prompted Shi Guangnan to reconsider the text, which has been known for a long time, but is not typical for the writer. The focus on the inner world of the characters determines the entire musical and stage structure of Shi Guangnan's opera “Regret for the Past”. The main feature of Shi Guangnan's opera is its intimacy. Shi Guangnan's commitment to the genre branch of the European lyric-psychological opera is obvious. The article uncovers the compositional and dramatic features of the opera in terms of the interaction of Chinese and Western European traditions, reveals the technology of organic combination in the stylistics of the opera of national codes with the academic musical language, determines the originality of the creative method of Shi Guangnan, due to the preservation of a large number of traditional cultural factors.