«Opera “The Gambler” in Prokofiev’s diary»

Abstract

The article is devoted to some literary features of Prokofiev's diary, which clearly showed themselves in the diary records about the opera «The Gambler». The general rhetorical devices in Prokofiev’s diary records belong to tropes. Using the metonymy trope leads to witty reductions of the text: «to orchestrate Babulenka (Grandma)» instead of «to orchestrate the stage of the appearance of Babulenka», «Roulette is going well» instead of «The roulette scene from the opera “the Gambler” is going well»). Such reductions are compared with the Prokofiev's consonant writing (theomissionofvowels): metonymy gave him the opportunity to omit not only letters, but also words. The words «Roulette» and «Babulenka» acquire the meaning of leitmotives, which can sometimes replace the name of the opera «Gambler» (the type of metonymy, when the part replaces the whole: pars pro toto).

Using the personification trope Prokofiev gave to musical compositions the human properties. He calls the opera «Gambler» «Igrochyonochek» (Child gambler) and even fights to outranceagainsthis composition, as it appears from Prokofiev’s diary records about «The Fiery angel»: «...finished the Overture. It was time to strangle her, otherwise  she would strangle me».

Careful reading of Prokofiev's diary records provides an opportunity to make wonder of a possible correlation between the style of the diary and Prokofiev's musical style in order to get some additional ideas about the psychological portrait of the composer.

Key words: Prokofiev, diary, metonymy, personification “Babulenka”, “roulette”