Victory Over the Sun

The Futurist opera Victory over the Sun was a key event of the Russian avant-garde, notorious for its libretto, its unconventional score and its pioneering abstract sets and costumes. This volume brings together the first fully annotated translation of the libretto of this ‘anti-opera’ and other important primary source materials.

The Futurist opera Victory over the Sun, first staged in 1913 in St Petersburg, was a key event of the Russian avant-garde, notorious for its libretto, its unconventional score and its pioneering abstract sets and costumes designed by Kazimir Malevich. The iconic importance of Victory over the Sun as a theatrical event is universally acknowledged. This volume brings together the first fully annotated translation of the libretto of this ‘anti-opera’ and other important primary source materials, including the score, the set and costume designs and contemporary newspaper reviews. The second part of the volume provides a wide-ranging collection of interpretive essays which explore the artistic, literary and musical dimensions of the staging, its theatrical and historical context, its relationship to Italian Futurism, and its position within the Russian modernist movement.

Victory Over the Sun: The World's First Futurist Opera List of Illustrations Acknowledgements About the Text About the contributors Introduction - Rosamund Bartlett and Sarah Dadswell Texts and Scores i. Biographies of the Librettists, Set Designer and Composer ii. Annotated translation of the libretto of Victory Over the Sun (translated by Rosamund Bartlett) iii. Pobeda nad solntsem: facsimile of the original 1913 Russian publication, incorporating some fragments by Matiushin iv. Maria Ender's transcription of Matiushin's original score for Victory Over the Sun v. Contemporary reviews vi. 'About the Opera Victory Over the Sun', by Aleksei Kruchenykh Essays The Russian Cubo-Futurist Opera Victory Over the Sun: Aleksei Kruchenykh's Alogical Creation, Michaela Bohmig Entertainment and Enlightenment in Late Imperial Russian Theatre, Murray Frame On the Eve: the Russian Stage 1911-1914, Laurence Senelick Victories over the Sun: the Drama of the Russian Futurists, Robert Leach Darkness and Light: Solar Eclipse as a Cubo-Futurist Metaphor John E. Bowlt Kazimir Malevich and the Designs for Victory Over the Sun, Christina Lodder Victory over the Sun - the Music, Catja Gaebel 'Be a Spectator with a Large Ear': Victory over the Sun as Public Laboratory Experiment for Mikhail Matiushin's Theories of Colour Vision, Margareta Tillberg Branding the Futurists, Sarah Dadswell The Collision of Italian and Russian Futurism: Marinetti's Visit to Russia, Aurora Egidio Burnt by the Sun: the Transmutation of Performativity, Theatricality, and Framing in the Late Work of Kazimir Malevich, Anna Wexler-Katsnelson A Modern Victory: Reflections on the 1999 Staging, Julia Hollander, Director and Jeremy Arden, Composer, in conversation with Sarah Dadswell Notes Selected Bibliography Index,

Victory Over the Sun: The World’s First Futurist Opera
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
About the Text
About the contributors                                                                                                           
Introduction – Rosamund Bartlett and Sarah Dadswell                                                         
Texts and Scores
i.     Biographies of the Librettists, Set Designer and Composer
ii.    Annotated translation of the libretto of Victory Over the Sun (translated by Rosamund Bartlett)
iii.   Pobeda nad solntsem: facsimile of the original 1913 Russian publication, incorporating some fragments by Matiushin
iv.   Maria Ender’s transcription of Matiushin’s original score for Victory Over the Sun
v.    Contemporary reviews
vi.   ‘About the Opera Victory Over the Sun’, by Aleksei Kruchenykh           
Essays
The Russian Cubo-Futurist Opera Victory Over the Sun: Aleksei Kruchenykh’s Alogical Creation, Michaela Böhmig
Entertainment and Enlightenment in Late Imperial Russian Theatre, Murray Frame  
On the Eve: the Russian Stage 1911–1914, Laurence Senelick                                      
Victories over the Sun: the Drama of the Russian Futurists, Robert Leach   
Darkness and Light: Solar Eclipse as a Cubo-Futurist Metaphor John E. Bowlt        
Kazimir Malevich and the Designs for Victory Over the Sun, Christina Lodder    
Victory over the Sun – the Music, Catja Gaebel                             
“Be a Spectator with a Large Ear”: Victory over the Sun as Public Laboratory Experiment for Mikhail Matiushin's Theories of Colour Vision, Margareta Tillberg
Branding the Futurists, Sarah Dadswell
The Collision of Italian and Russian Futurism: Marinetti’s Visit to Russia, Aurora Egidio
Burnt by the Sun: the Transmutation of Performativity, Theatricality, and Framing in the Late Work of Kazimir Malevich, Anna Wexler-Katsnelson
A Modern Victory: Reflections on the 1999 Staging, Julia Hollander, Director and Jeremy Arden, Composer, in conversation with Sarah Dadswell
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

• Edited by Rosamund Bartlett
• Edited by Sarah Dadswell
• Contributions by Jeremy Arden
• Contributions by Michaela Bohmig
• Contributions by John E. Bowlt
• Contributions by Aurora Egidio
• Contributions by Murray Frame
• Contributions by Catja Gaebel
• Contributions by Julia Hollander
• Contributions by Anna Wexler Katsnelson
• Contributions by Robert Leach
• Contributions by Christina Lodder
• Contributions by Laurence Senelick
• Contributions by Margareta Tillberg

"This project brings the highest possible standard of scholarship to bear on avant-garde cultural production." Maria Gough, Professor of Modern Art, Harvard University "This collection opens fascinating and enriching views into a brief but powerful explosion." The Times Literary Supplement, 2 November 2012 "Without doubt, it will be rewarding reading for anyone interested in Russian modernism." Slavic Review, Summer 2013, vol. 72, no.2
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‘This project brings the highest possible standard of scholarship to bear on avant-garde cultural production.’
Maria Gough, Professor of Modern Art, Harvard University

 

‘This collection opens fascinating and enriching views into a brief but powerful explosion.’
The Times Literary Supplement, 2 November 2012

 

‘Without doubt, it will be rewarding reading for anyone interested in Russian modernism.’
Slavic Review, Summer 2013, vol. 72, no.2

 

 

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