In the photo: A.S. Arefyev, sketches of the decorations for the opera "Aychurek". V. Vlasov, A. Maldybaev, V. Fere, 1959
In the 1960s, the first applied artists with professional training appeared in Kyrgyzstan. They were Jumabay Umetov, who graduated from the Leningrad Higher Art and Industrial School named after V.I. Mukhina, and Mukash Abdullayev, a graduate of the Moscow Technological Institute. They played an important role in creatively mastering national artistic traditions and incorporating them into the modern system of decorative applied art. Following them came professional masters.
When Arefyev began a new production, he would check himself each time on how deeply he could think in the specific categories of that performance. Therefore, he not only prepares sketches for it but, working on stage with color, light, space, and texture, he diligently searches for an expressive image of the performance, clarifying and revealing new facets of scenic possibilities. And it must be said that in most cases, he succeeds.
The Shakespearean world opened up to Arefyev with the production of the ballet "Romeo and Juliet" by S. Prokofiev. The scenographer in this ballet focused on the relationships between the color structure and volumetric elements, not introducing unnecessary details into the decoration. In the scene "Square in Verona," for example, only the black figures of knights and a similarly colored column-obelisk remain, and they do not change color even in sunlight. Looking at them, one feels that tragedy is inevitable.
The common background of all the scenes in the ballet was black velvet at the back of the stage, against which such laconic details as a branch with white flowers—a symbol of love—or a mourning Madonna—an illustrative metaphor for the inner state of Romeo and Juliet, or a huge cross—a sign of mourning—strikingly express the thematic mood of the performance.
The leitmotif of the design for the ballet "Laurensia" by A. Krein (1962) was the castle of the Commander, in which the artist seemingly reused his interesting find from the design of the ballet "Esmeralda" by C. Puni, R. Glmer, S. Vasilenko (1955), when the image of the Notre-Dame Cathedral, as a terrible force, passed through the entire performance. However, it seems that in the visual series of "Esmeralda," the narrative element prevailed, and the line of the oppressor of freedom—the Cathedral—was not carried through to the very end.
In "Laurensia," Arefyev brilliantly managed to reveal the artistic symbol of fear. The action unfolds, and the castle of the Commander seems to come alive, moving, visually directing the logic of the entire performance.
In the first scene, the castle with towers is located on a mountain, far from the area where the people are having fun. In the forest—the meeting place of Laurensia and Frondoso—the silhouette of the menacing castle increasingly emerges through the branches of the trees, as if watching the lovers. This is the reconnaissance of evil forces, which soon appear on stage in the form of the Commander's soldiers.
During the wedding of Laurensia and Frondoso, when the Commander's soldiers return, the castle already acts as an evil spirit. It is almost right next to the audience. Through its gates, the guards push Laurensia out. In the finale, the castle is engulfed in flames—the Commander is defeated! In terms of color, the ballet is resolved very strictly and restrainedly. The decorative design is based on light and dark tones.
In the 1960s, interest in one-act ballets grew, and the Kyrgyz theater contributed to this process, enthusiastically working on the creation of chamber performances. It is noteworthy that for the theater, this work was not new, as early as 1943 it presented such one-act ballets as "Selkinchek" by V. Vlasov and V. Fere, "The Magic Flute" by R. Drigo, and in 1953—the ballet "Spring is Coming" by S. Rachmaninoff.
However, these performances left no significant mark either in the theater's repertoire or in the creative biographies of the scenographers (the last ballet was designed by Arefyev).
While working on "Egyptian Nights" by A. Arensky (1963), "Francesco da Rimini" by P. Tchaikovsky (1963), "Spanish Caprice" by N. Rimsky-Korsakov (1963), Arefyev achieved great expressiveness and conciseness in the visual language in revealing the subtext of the musical dramaturgy of the ballet.
In "Egyptian Nights," short episodes of action changed in the weak glow of the moon, which only changed its color—from yellow to crimson-red. In "Francesco da Rimini," as soon as the curtain disappeared, the audience immediately found themselves under the spell of what was happening on stage.
With the help of tulle and draperies made of black velvet, a tangible, striking effect of stage spatiality was achieved, and light intensified the emotional tension, which manifested itself with particular force in "Spanish Caprice."
