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[THE NEW ART OF OPERA SINGING] Novyi put’ pevtsa [i.e. The New Way of a Singer]

Kankarovich, A.

Item #662

Moscow: GIKhL, 1931. 48 pp. 16,5x11 cm. In original constructivist wrappers. Very good. Slightly rubbed on extremities, tears around the staples.

First and only edition. One of 3000 copies. Rare. Inscribed by the author to ‘Tanya’ with whom he apparently visited the cinema in October of 1931.
Cover design was produced by Aleksei Ushin (1904-1942), who is best-known as a book designer, but also as the designer of famous font for the first soviet talking movie Vstrechny [i.e. The Counter, 1932].
This is a critical essay on opera singing by Anatoly Kankarovich (1885-1956), composer, musical critic and vocal teacher. He studied under Tcherepnin and Rimsky-Korsakov; worked with Lunacharsky and Meyerkhold at the Institute of the Living Word.
In this book Kankarovich proposes to reform opera in the Soviet state, turning the “euphonious performance” into “the meaningful singing”. Kankarovich tries to conjoin opera as an art form with the means of the Soviet art. He doesn’t go as far as calling for ‘working class’ opera, but he does give the singers a practical advice on how to bring the ‘art for the art’ closer to regular listener. The author requests singers to understand what they are singing, using the right emphasis and pauses, loose the physiological approach to the singing and perform for the audience.
Overall, an interesting critical take on the one of the most conservative forms of art.

No copies on the Worldcat.

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