Mythological Models and Ritual Forms in Contemporary Musical Theater Performance

Abstract

Performativity as one of the essential qualities of the present-day art of music has created
an important role in the process of renewal of its leading genres. Drawing its sources in the
theatrical experiments in the mid-20th century, toward the end of the century musical performance
has imbedded itself not only into the sphere of art practice, but also created an impact on such a
conservative sphere of academic music as musical theater, and in particular, on the genre of opera.
The article sets the issue of manifestations of mythological models and elements of ritual
characteristic of theatrical performance in operas by contemporary music. Basing themselves on
the theory of performativity, the authors explain the innovations in the production from the point of
view of the presence of liminality in them. At the center of attention are compositions insufficiently
studied in Russian musicology the analysis of which makes it possible to indicate the direction of
development of the opera genre: its revival from within by means of a search of a new form of
synthesis by introducing new dramaturgical regularities and also as a result of connection of art with
elements of real actuality. From the perspective of the authors of the article, performance becomes
one of the forms of theatrical presentation, replacing the traditional theatric demonstration built
according to the laws of drama. This position is actively developed in the sphere of contemporary
theater studies in Europe in the works of Hans-Thies Lehmann, Erika Fischer-Lichte and Richard
Schechner. Such formulation of the question explains the aesthetic foundations of the innovative
aspirations of opera composers.

Keywords: performance, ritual, contemporary musical theater.