BORN IN GULAG: FORMATION OF MUSICAL THEATER IN THE NORTH OF THE FAR EAST OF RUSSIA (1933-1950)
The article is devoted to the rise of the musical theatre at the north part of Far East of the Soviet Russia as a vital art phenomenon of the region’s culture. On the basis of the analyses and interpretation of the different unknown and less known sources is studied its early stage- from the concert programs and the one-time music performances to the starting of the regular stagings. It is set that the predecessors of the stationary music theatre in Magadan were several theatre unions consisted of prisoners and civilian actors. The main components of the musical theatre culture are set: intellectual level of the social sphere and spectators, singers, repertoire, reviews. Studying the questions of the musical repertoire helped to find out that the choice of the play totally depended of the performative opportunities and artistic singers. In the theatre's repertoire are classical, Viennese and Soviet operettas, early Ukranian operas. But it is also mentiones fact of the staging of the opera “Traviata” by the prisoners at main roles. The author of the article succeeded in receiving the first review on the music performance. The new historical facts are revealed of staging comedies upon the music of Magadan composer. The spur for the development of music and theatrical culture was the active concert touring movement of the theatre companies within the region and arrival to Magadan in 1945 the Khabarovsk regional theatre of music comedy. As a result of cultural reflection regarding the opportunity to create music theatre in the GULAG system the author made a conclusion about paradox of this phenomenon which was only possible in the Stalin’s period of Soviet culture.