When Kovalyov, a Russian bureaucrat, wakes up and finds his nose missing, he’s shocked. When he learns his nose has gone into society, prancing about in a fancy uniform and claiming a higher social status, Kovalyov is both hurt and angry.
“The rogue. The rotter. How dare he?”
So goes Nikolai Gogol’s 1835 satirical tale about life in early 19th century Russia. Kovalyov (pronounced KO-val-yoff) the anti-hero of Gogol’s “The Nose.” The little story inspired another Russian a century later to craft a short, zany opera on the tale. That composer was Dmitri Shostakovich.
The story’s premise brings another European writer to mind, Franz Kafka, although his “Metamorphosis” was written in 1915, 70 years after Gogol.
Kovalyov isn’t Kafka’s anti-hero, Gregor Samsa, so don’t go down that dark path. But there are similarities: two ordinary men each wake up one morning to find themselves transformed. Kafka’s salesman wakens to learn he’s now a huge insect. No one understands and he’s a burden to his family. Agonies follow, and at the end of this bleak story, Samsa dies.
No agony from Gogol. Considered the founder of Russian realism, he had a keen eye for detail and a satirical view of life. Gogol laughed at mankind’s rampant self-interest, bureaucratic pettiness, corruption, cupidity and stupidity. So he created an absurd premise for a short story to poke fun at bureaucratic jealousy and the hunger for social status.
I won’t give away the ending, but it’s helpful to know Gogol abandoned a “dream” conceit after his first draft. Given the comedic tone, you can expect an odd, but happy ending.
“The Nose” started as a young writer’s frolic in 1835, when Gogol was 26. Works tumbled out including The Diary of a Madman and Gogol’s lengthy historical romance, Taras Bulba. His epic satire on the Russian character, Dead Souls, was published in 1842.
Gogol’s impishness may have appealed to an equally young Russian composer more than 100 years later. In 1927, Shostakovich was gifted and barely 20. Apparently, he was captured by Gogol’s irreverent story and crafted a short opera with the help of three colleague-librettists.
The music is exuberant, brash, inventive and very modern for its time. Bluster illuminates Kovalyov’s bewilderment and the Nose’s antics about town. The score is a percussionist’s dream. Ivan, Kovalyov’s put upon servant, sings one fairly traditional ballad. Shostakovich scored the aria with balalaika accompaniment. In short, the work mixes avant-garde 20th century musical ideas with some traditional elements.
On the cusp of the Stalin era, “The Nose” was highly anticipated in 1930 and premiered in St. Petersburg that year. Its dissonant score and impertinent tone, however, were fiercely condemned. The opera wasn’t performed again in Russia until 1974.
The Met premiered a new production in 2010, and a live transmission will take place Saturday at the college.
“The Nose” is not your garden-variety European opera. It’s not “La Boheme” or “Carmen” or akin to other highly popular operas.” The Nose” is Russian satire at its most daring with a fresh musical language and now, thanks to the Met, a design by one of today’s most inventive visual artists: William Kentridge.
The Met invited the South African multi-media artist to design a new “Nose” for the 2010 season. Kentridge crafted two playing areas, more or less stacked on each other, for the protagonist and the antagonist, Kovalyov and his Nose, and apparently creates the frenetic bustle of urban life throughout.
Kentridge employs projections, still and moving images, drawings, puppetry and lots of text. His contemporary, high-concept scheme intends to link Gogol’s absurdist story with Shostakovich’s avant-garde music and make it live again.
If you are a die-hard Romantic, “The Nose” is going to be outside your comfort zone. But there’s more to opera than Puccini and Verdi. The great Italians serve us warm, mulled wine. Shostakovich offers a shot of very dry vodka, and Kentridge has tossed in a Russian olive.
jreynolds@durangoherald.com. Judith Reynolds is a Durango writer, artist and critic.
If you go
The MET: Live in HD presents Dimitri Shostakovich’s “The Nose,” at 10:55 a.m. Saturday in the Vallecito Room of the Fort Lewis College Student Union. Based on a short story by Gogol in a new production designed by William Kentridge. Tickets cost $23 general, $21 seniors, students and MET members, available online at www.durangoconcerts.com, by phone at 247-7657 or at the Welcome Center at Eighth Street and Main Avenue, or at the door. Note: Surcharges may apply. Running time: 2 hours 15 minutes.
