Лондонские постановки Владимира Дукельского второй половины 1920-х годов: от балета a la Russe – к английскому триллеру

Abstract

Participation of the Russian emigre composers of the “first wave” in the activities of the London music hall was a rare occurrence. The article examines one of such exclusive cases of the cooperation of Vladimir Dukelsky (Vernon Duke) with the musical entertainment industry in London in the 1920s. Dukelsky made his debut at the Coliseum Theater as an academic composer, the creator of the ballet music “Zephyr and Flora” (1925) and after a successful premiere signed several contracts for writing numbers to musical comedies. The greatest success was enjoyed by the musical thriller “The Yellow Mask” based on Edgar Wallace’s play “The Traitor’s Gate.” Thereby, the tightly plotted performance was from the very beginning “doomed for success” during the period of “the golden age of the detective genre.” Along with this, separate aspects of the plot of “The Yellow Mask” presented a curious commentary to the social-political situation of the 1920s. Keywords: music hall, the musical life of London in the 1920s, Dukelsky, Vernon Duke, “Yellow Mask,” Sergei Diaghilev’s “Ballets Russes.”