Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, whose 185th birthday is celebrated in 2024, is known as an outstanding opera composer, creator of romances and songs, author of symphonic compositions and works for piano. This article highlights another facet of the great master’s oeuvre, which is addressed to the visual interpretation of his works. As it turns out, this is due to a number of features typical of the composer’s creative method, among which the first place is given to the theatricality of his artistic thinking. From the perspective of ballet aesthetics, especially important is the composer’s imprinting in his works of vividly contrasting images, characters and positions in their juxtaposition, which is inherently close to the carnival worldview. In the context of the research topic, we can also talk about Mussorgsky’s directorial talent, which is manifested in his penchant for explanations illustrating the emotional state of the character and his actions. The composer’s remarks in the notes, as well as the definitions given to his characters in correspondence, indicate that the musical image was born in the composer’s mind simultaneously with the visual one. Mussorgsky’s ability to express subtle psychological nuances, as well as to describe the appearance of a character — his gestures, gait, specific movements — could not pass unnoticed by choreographers. As a result, many of the composer’s works, which were not intended for the ballet stage, served as a musical text for choreographic productions.
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