Between Two Worlds: the Image of a Dybbuk on the Modern Opera Stage

Abstract

The article is devoted to the theme of the artistic embodiment of the Hebrew legend of the dybbuk on the modern opera stage. The legends about the restless soul of a sinner, “stuck” between two worlds — the world of the living and the world of the dead — are reflected in the works of famous Jewish writers of the turn of the 19th—20th centuries. They received their first vivid refraction in drama in the play “Between Two Worlds (Dybbuk)” (1915) by the outstanding folklorist and ethnographer Semyon Akimovich Ansky. The story of the dybbuk, heard by Anton during folklore expeditions in Volhynia and Podolia, is reinterpreted by the playwright, “overgrown” with complex literary and philosophical connotations. The dramatic play is literally saturated with music: songs, dances, prayers and Hasidic melodies, one of which — “Mipney ma” in the genre of nigun — becomes the leitmotif of the work. The masterpiece of Ansky, reflecting the specifics of the everyday, cultural and religious life of the Hasidic community of the early twentieth century, gave rise to an extensive body of musical and theatrical works — more than ten over the last century (operas by L. Rocca, D. Tamkin, ballet by L. Bernstein, etc.). The article discusses the multimedia chamber opera “Dybbuk. Between Two Worlds” (2007) by the Israeli-American composer Ofer Ben-Amots through the prism of a dialogue with the original source. Previously, Ben-Amots’s musical work had not been studied in Russian art criticism, which predetermined the novelty of the chosen topic. The musician interprets the main ideas of Ansky’s dramatic play in his own way, presenting the image of the dybbuk as an allegory of the “borderline” existence between two worlds, turns to the traditional musical culture of Judaism (conducts the nigun “Mipney Ma” as the leitmotif of the opera, brings to the fore the timbres of the violin and clarinet, uses special techniques of sound production on these instruments associated with music playing in Klezmer chapels, stylizes the folklore of Jewish towns).