A drum intrudes on the most lyrical moments of intimate sentiments on the other hand, in the scenes of fighting and excitement, when the action on the stage portrays heroic events, the music for some reason becomes soft and lyrical. This disharmony, this lack of correspondence between the music and the actions, moods, and events, represented on the stage in the course of the opera, produces a depressing effect. Throughout a major portion of the opera, the musical accompaniment consists of but a few instruments, and only once in a while, sometimes in the most unexpected places, the whole orchestra] ensemble enters in stormy, discordant, and often cacophonic interventions, getting on the nerves of the listener and violently perturbing his mood. The resources of the orchestra in the opera are utilized to a very limited extent. The substitution of inharmonious and at the same time noisy improvisations for melody transformed the opera into a chaotic assortment of screeching sounds. The music of the opera turned out to be very poor. It is not by accident that a rather considerable and sufficiently qualified audience, consisting of no fewer than five hundred people, did not respond during the performance to any part of the opera. In the music of this opera there is not a single memorable melody.
Speaking of the basic defects of the opera, one must first of all mention its music. What were, in the opinion of the Central Committee, the reasons, and what were the circumstances which led to the bankruptcy of this opera? What are the basic defects of this opera? The opera Great Friendship turned out to be a failure. Unfortunately, the hopes of the Central Committee were not justified.
You can well imagine with what attention and interest the Central Committee anticipated the very fact of the appearance of a new Soviet opera.
Recently the Central Committee took part in the social preview of the new opera by Comrade Muradeli, Great Friendship. February 17, 1948Ĭomrades, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) has decided to assemble a conference of Soviet musicians for the following reasons. Andrei Zhdanov, Speech at a General Assembly of Soviet Composers.