“ZAPOROZHETS ZA DUNAIEM” BY S. GULAK-ARTEMOVSKY – AN INTERPRETATIVE AND AXIOLOGICAL DISCOURSE

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to consider two radically different directorial approaches of A. Bocharov and O. Taranenko in the interpretation of the opera “Zaporozhets za Dunaiem” by S. Gulak-Artemovsky. A special place is given to the analysis of the main interpretive and axiological principles on which the productions are based, namely: the Kyiv Opera Theater (at that time the Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet of the Ukrainian SSR named after T.G. Shevchenko) in 1953 and the Lviv National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet named after Solomiya Krushelnytska in 2023. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that for the first time, it examines the influence of the socio-cultural space on the director’s visions when creating productions of the opera “Zaporozhets za Dunaiem”. Conclusions. The placement of accents in the interpretation of the opera canvas by the director can present it from radically different angles, and thus the opera acquires completely different meanings and messages. The interpretive and axiological analysis of the given readings of the opera demonstrates how the trends of the era in which a specific production was created, and even the political position of the directors, influence the main values that are conveyed to the audience. Two socio-cultural spaces, the time gap between which reaches 70 years, namely: the USSR and modern Ukraine, had a significant impact on the directorial approach of the creators of two different readings of the operas. The productions absorbed the political, social, philosophical-aesthetic, and axiological tendencies of the society of the two states. The main idea of the director’s vision of A. Bocharov was to emphasize and promote ideological principles and values that corresponded to the communist worldview – the shortsightedness of Ukrainians, drunkenness, and “sharovarnyi” theater. O. Taranenko’s directorial approach absorbed the new trends of Ukrainian art associated with the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine. O. Taranenko freed Ukrainian images from their superficial interpretation, which was based not on historical facts and the true Ukrainian mentality, but on distorted stereotypes of soviet reality. The production of the Lviv National Opera is a vivid example of the process when Ukrainian art became an informational weapon during the war in Ukraine. Turning to the treasury of Ukrainian opera art, O. Taranenko embodied the national liberation ideas and patriotic aspirations of the Ukrainian people in the current historical context.