"At last a breach in the wall, "erected by indifference or Cesar Cui's opera. "The Prisoner of the Caucasus" through the eyes belgian music criticism

Abstract

The study is devoted to Belgian critical reviews on the production of “Le prisonnier du Caucase” by César Cui in Liège in 1886. Scientific literature on the given work is rather scant, so the genesis of the opera and its production history in Russia up to the recent production of Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre (2017) are under consideration also. Both the advertisements and critical reviews from Liège and Brussels newspapers and magazines are gathered and analyzed for the first time. The presented material helps to discover in what way did Belgian newspapers get the audience ready to perceive the completely unknown work, what was the structure of the first night audience, how did the appreciation of “Le prisonnier du Caucase” change from the dress rehearsal to the third (and the last) performance, and what opinions on César Cui’s musical nationalism were like. In order to judge carefully on the grade of success or fail of Cui’s opera in Belgium, the quantity and contents of reviews on Cui’s opera are compared with the response of Belgian press to the productions of “Lohengrin” by Richard Wagner and “Sardanapale” by Alphonse Duvernoy. The comparison shows that the premiere of “Le prisonnier du Caucase” in Liège caused the extraordinary resonance among Belgian critics, and the attention attracted by it was many times greater than in case of any other Liège opera productions. However, only two performances were really successful, in large part due to attendance of melomaniacs from Bruxelles and Paris.

Keywords: C.Cui, “Le prisonnier du Caucase”, Liège, R.Wagner, A. Duvernoy