The article is devoted to M. P. Mussorgsky’s work on the libretto of the comic opera “Sorochinsky Fair.” The focus is on Mussorgsky’s creative reworking of Gogol’s comic prose, which he carried out in unity with the composition of the music. The study presents an analysis of various methods the composer used in handling the writer’s text—from direct quotation to the creation of new plot situations that are perceived by the audience as organically Gogolian. Emphasis is placed on the metric of the libretto, which emerged because of the influence of folk versification, as well as on the special fusion of songfulness and speech intonation that Mussorgsky called a “meaningful/justified melody.”
Ignatenko, S. A. “Gogol’s text in the opera ‘Sorochinsky Fair’: about M. P. Mussorgsky as a comic librettist,” Muzykal’naya akademiya [Music Academy], no. 3, 2026, pp. 50–63, doi:10. 34690/632. (In Russ.)
Acknowledgments
I express my gratitude to Candidate of Art Criticism, Associate Professor V. P. Pavlinova, under whose guidance I am developing the topic as a part of my dissertation work.
