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."
In the photo: A.S. Arefyev. Sketch of the decoration for the opera “Boris Godunov”. M. Mussorgsky, 1960
The work on "The Fountain of Bakhchisarai" by B. Asafyev (1964) was based on the image of the fountain and the unified structure of the performance. Here, the fountain was supposed to symbolize the socio-psychological meaning of what was happening.
In the design of D. Shostakovich's ballet "The Young Lady and the Hooligan" (1965), Arefyev turned to stage graphics. Many found this unexpected and too bold, but the artist, who sensitively captured the nature of the musical and dramatic structure of the performance, managed to embody it in the design so that the graphics convincingly solved all the problems associated with the production of "The Young Lady and the Hooligan."
In "Don Juan" by L. Feigin (1968), "the stage image of the performance was composed of a combination of light, varying-height arches and lace. The lace attire of the stage—white with black, gray, blue, orange—formed the stage space in different ways, creating the world of theatrical Spain, a Spain of serenades, fencing duels, and the amorous escapades of Don Juan."
In the 1960s, the artist designed "Optimistic Tragedy" by A. Kholminov (1965), "Romeo, Juliet, and Darkness" by M. Molchanov (1966), "Quiet Don" by I. Dzerzhinsky (1967, 1968), "The Barber of Seville" by D. Rossini (1954, 1969), "Sleeping Beauty" by P. Tchaikovsky (1956, 1969), and other remarkable operatic and ballet works. The visual image of the ballet "Spartacus" by A. Khachaturian (1968, 1969) was interestingly resolved by the artist: Rome—a city shackled in chains. And each time Arefyev managed to find original stage images.
The merit of this artist in the development of theatrical and decorative art in Kyrgyzstan in the late 1940s and 50s-60s lies in the fact that he, thanks to his deep knowledge of the stage, acute sense of the laws of scenography, and talented use of its rich arsenal, created genuine works of art, for which other masters owe him not only the stage culture they learned from him but also the creation of such stage images of the national ballet and national opera that rightfully entered the golden fund of Soviet scenography.
He proposed memorable artistic versions for the operas "Toktogul" by V. Vlasov, A. Maldybaev, V. Fere (1958), "Aychurek" (1959, fig. 259) and the ballet "Cholpon" by M. Raukhverger (1958), and he was offered the design for the operas "Jamilya" by M. Raukhverger (1961, 1964), "Mother's Heart" by S. Germanov (1965), "Manas" by V. Vlasov, A. Maldybaev, V. Fere (1969), and the ballet by V. Vlasov "Asel" (1967).
A remarkable creative school for composers, filmmakers, and theater artists was the magnificent prose of Chinghiz Aitmatov. While working on the opera "Jamilya," Arefyev set himself a difficult task: to emphasize the duality of the state of Seyit—the narrator, when Daniyar and Jamilya leave into the unknown, breaking the shackles of old customs in one fell swoop.
The teenager approves of their act, but at the same time, with a pang of pain in his soul, he parts with them. The story scenographically begins and ends like this: Seyit created a picture of the lovers; the boy stands before it in deep thought, as if pondering what is happening on stage, with Jamilya and Daniyar.
And they in his picture "The Happiness of Jamilya" walk down the road in the evening towards the light, which invitingly beams from behind the mountains. It symbolizes hope for better days, but the ominous sky warns that their happiness will not be easy. The picture fades, leaving the frame, within which the action unfolds, which is close to everyone who has read this remarkable story about love.
It must be said that many performances based on Aitmatov's works were unfortunate, as their scenographic solutions generally did not achieve the high resonance of the writer's prose, because artists primarily illustrated the plots rather than penetrating into their essence.
In the performances "Jamilya" of the Kyrgyz Academic Theater (artist A. Toropov, 1965), "My Little Topol" of the Naryn Theater (artist S. Toboiev, 1965), "Mother's Field" of the Osh Uzbek Theater (artist T. Safarov, 1966), the main point that the writer himself stated was not expressed: "To overcome, to transform reality today is only possible for a person with a poetic perception of reality, capable of creating his image of the world, his picture of life."
The most successful interpretation of Aitmatov's works by Arefyev is the ballet "Asel" by V. Vlasov (1967), about which the authors wrote the following: "We wanted to look at the world through the eyes of these different in character, but kind, honest, and sincere heroes—and most importantly, in conveying universal human problems, moral and duty questions that concern all Soviet people, not to detach from the people's soil, from the specific place of events—our republic."
How was this idea realized, how was the moral and ethical task posed by the writer and composer before the artist solved?
Arefyev depicts mountains with a piece of sky on the curtain, and in the foreground—a road to the pass, which appears and disappears, and at the very top connects with a heavy cloud. This motif contributes not only to revealing the image of life but also to understanding the fate of the main character.
The symbol of the road arises every time when the scenes of memories of Ilyas, Asel, and Baitemir unfold. Each scene is endowed with its characteristic image of the road, which seems to rush through the tulle and shades the joyful, anxious, or dramatic mood of the action.
In the photo: Sketch of the decoration for the ballet “Romeo and Juliet”, S. Prokofiev, 1962
An interesting design was created for the opera "An Hour Before Dawn" by V. Vlasov and V. Fere (1969), in which conditional backdrops were used to organize the stage space, executed in the form of stylized national felt. The performance had no painted decorations, yet at the same time, they looked very picturesque.
Arefyev's scenography in the 1960s shows that he was a traditionalist in the best sense of the word, but at the same time a restless, tireless experimenter in his work on literally every performance.
In those years, Asanbek Moldakhmatov also designed performances from the classical and national repertoire, who in most cases used pictorial decoration, sought details in conveying the domestic environment, loved landscapes, and filled the design with numerous details, wishing to emphasize the authenticity of the stage action. However, he did not always manage to maintain a sense of proportion, and as a result, there arose "the feeling that before the audience is not a decoration, but an enlarged easel painting."
In the 1960s, the theatrical and decorative art of Kyrgyzstan had various styles and understandings of the creative tasks of scenographers. Besides Arefyev and Moldakhmatov, such artists as Toropov, Sydyqbaev, Toboiev, Safarov, and others worked in dramatic theaters.
S. Toboiev worked in the Naryn Drama Theater, T. Safarov—in the Osh Uzbek Musical Drama Theater. Toboiev and Safarov did not have solid knowledge in the field of scenography; the former graduated from an art school, while the latter was self-taught.
In the decorative activities of Toboiev and Safarov, there were probably more shortcomings than successes: some of their performances were resolved primitively, abounded in very plausible but not convincing in a decorative sense details, which noticeably lowered the overall culture of the theaters.
During this period, S. Ishenov also participated in the design of performances (it cannot be said otherwise, as scenography in his creative biography was episodic). A well-known film artist, characterized by a severe and laconic figurative style, later an organizer and head of Kyrgyz animation, made his creative debut as a scenographer at the Moscow Drama Theater named after K.S. Stanislavsky in 1964, where he, together with the famous director B. Lviv-Anokhin, staged "Mother's Field" by Ch. Aitmatov.
In the performance, "...there is no props, and the word 'decoration' seems strange in relation to this large cube (the compositional center of the scenographic solution was a rotating cube, which ensured uninterrupted replacement of decorations, and each side of which had its specific stage image. — S. A.) of light and air, which silently turned—and the edge of the mountains, as if suspended in the air, gave way to an autumn tree with tangled strands or a white apple tree-dandelion, or the frosty mist of a lonely wayside station. In the performance "Mother's Field," nature is both poetic and human. The trees—like people, they reach up like long-legged teenagers, frown in bad weather, bowing their tousled heads, and the red thin trunk at Aliman's porch suddenly broke and helplessly hung next to another—straight, steadfast, having survived in the battle with the wind.
In these naive trunks, or rather, in the images, there is much poetry and no didacticism at all. They are natural in the performance based on Ch. Aitmatov's story.
In 1969, Ishenov designed the performance "The Golden Cup" based on B. Dzhakiev's play at the Kyrgyz Drama Theater. In this case, he maintained the stylistics of an artist inclined towards severe laconicism, which with bright, clear, memorable details reveals the images of nature and the entourage accompanying the action.
One of the main milestones in the development of theatrical and decorative art in Kyrgyzstan is closely associated with the names of Toropov and Sydyqbaev. The former made sketches for the decoration in such a way that they had an "exhibition" appearance and independent artistic value, which was clarified and supplemented already on stage.
The sketches eloquently spoke not only of the finds and losses on the path of difficult searches but also of the creative direction, successes, and failures of the Kyrgyz Drama Theater at that time. It is known that scenography, without embellishments and concealment, shows how well the master understood the creative program of the playwright and director, delved into the essence and direction of the idea of the performance.
It can be said that in full accordance with the logic and mood of the plays, Toropov designed performances: in the heroic-epic plan—"The Grain of Immortality" (1964); in the purely dramatic plan, plausibly, tragically—"Face to Face" (1961); "Mother's Field" (1964) and "Vassa Zheleznova" (1968); in the tragic—"King Lear" (1963); in the lyrical—"Jamilya" (1963); in the historically life-accurate plan—"Woe from Wit" (1966).
In general, the best of his performances are characterized by directorial vision, a sense of the stage, the ability to subordinate the secondary to the main—what ultimately is the key to revealing the ideological and artistic meaning of the dramatic work.
The truth is: good scenography not only creates a worthy environment for the actors' performance and a certain mood on stage but also serves as a peculiar criterion for evaluating the entire dramatic work—how deep its undercurrents are, which provided the artist with material for creating the visual image of the performance, for unexpected turns and full use of plastic means, for expressing the main theatrical idea. On the other hand, scenography always reflects the tendency of the theater's repertoire and directorial policy.
It is clear that scenography will never become a high art if the artist fails to capture and understand the main ideological direction of the work.
In the photo: G.I. Belkin. Sketches of the decoration for the play “Energetic People”, V. Shukshin, 1975
The best works of Toropov are distinguished by a natural plastic solution. For example, in the performance "Face to Face," very simple visual means were used, but they were employed very skillfully, concisely, and expressively. The rotating machine, transforming into the interior of a house, then becoming a cave where the deserter Ismail hides, then turning into mountainous terrain, serves as the semantic center of the performance, around which all the events on stage unfold.
The day in the mountainous region looks gloomy and gray, even the early snow, soft and white, cannot beautify the landscape. An anxious music sounds, which now and then is drowned out by the whistling of the cold wind. People come to the stage alone and in groups. They are heading toward the elevation under which the cave where Ismail hides is located. They shout for him to come out, and he crawls out of his shameful lair.
Myrzakul angrily demands that the deserter surrender, but Ismail raises his rifle, a shot rings out, and Myrzakul falls. Then Seyde, his wife, slowly and majestically approaches the killer with a child in her arms. The machine depicting the hilly elevation rotates with the stage circle, not only elongating the sorrowful path of the heroine to her husband but also emphasizing her calm determination. She is no longer a passive woman; she is a true patriot who has understood what has happened to her husband.
All the villagers are frozen, while Seyde slowly but confidently approaches Ismail. Here they meet face to face...
This scene, accompanied by an expressive visual series, speaks of the artist's undeniable ability to think compositionally and express his thoughts with minimal means.
In the sketches for the performance "Jamilya," the main visual image becomes the road, which stretches diagonally from bottom to top. It seems that this road corresponds perfectly to the lyrical mood of the performance and the inner aspirations of the main character.
A generalized monumental image is created by Toropov in the performance "Mother's Field," where the ordinary-earthy and elevated-symbolic are closely intertwined, finding that golden mean of figurative conditionality, which became one of the keys to revealing the deep meaning of the well-known Aitmatov story, on which the play was based. The scene represented a field, changing depending on the development of the action through light and color: it was golden-yellow—ripe wheat, then bright red—tulips.
The multilayered design was suggested by the very literary basis of "Mother's Field." The events in the story unfold very widely and deeply—in space and time. They are saturated with endless transitions and are felt as either a narrative—memories of the mother, or as the past, or as the present of the heroes, and they are shown both exaltedly and ordinarily.
"Mother's Field" is the very performance where decorations are given one of the leading roles in the staging components. Without them, the entire mood of the performance would lose its significance and impact on the audience. It is worth noting in passing that the decorations have a certain illustrative quality; however, they represent one of the best examples in the history of Kyrgyz scenography of the 1960s.
It is noteworthy that in the performance "King Lear," the artist did without palaces, castles, and magnificent halls suggested by Shakespeare in the notes, and limited himself to a strict stone platform—a symbol of the atmosphere of harsh medieval times, which allowed director Dzh. Abdykadyrov to maintain the expressiveness of the staging. The black velvet, through the play of light, transformed into the lead-gray sky of England, against which the characters of the play appeared more vividly and weightily.
A light white colonnade in the performance "Woe from Wit" significantly determines the time and place of action. The costumes, expressive in form and color, are executed strictly in the style of the 18th century. The single element of decoration for the entire performance, around which the other scenes were composed, was used by the artist in "Anna Karenina" and "Optimistic Tragedy."
Meanwhile, "Love Yarrow" by Trenev (1967) is designed as a single podium, draped in brick-red material and serving as the place of action, with curtains of the same color on the sides. The rotation of the circle in this case was not only and not simply a condition for changing the action. Using the possibilities of light, the artist creates a certain mood, and the rotations of the circle give the performance dynamics that correspond to the revolutionary pathos.
The design of the performance "Vassa Zheleznova" is distinguished by great life authenticity. Toropov, with the help of color and light, advantageous planning of the stage space, creates an atmosphere that foreshadows the inevitable demise of the old world, achieving high emotional saturation. The precision in recreating the characteristics of color and everyday life characterized his decorations for the performance "Forgotten by All" based on N. Hikmet's play (1969).
In the photo: Sketch of the decoration for the play “Gentlemen Glemba”, M. Krleža, 1976
A peculiar, noticeable phenomenon in Kyrgyz Soviet theatrical and decorative art of the 1960s is the creativity of Makhen Sydyqbaev. He invariably participates in republican, inter-republican, and all-union exhibitions, appearing not only as a theater artist but also as a painter.
Much has been written about Sydyqbaev—the theater artist and painter—but all differently. However, despite the abundance of writings, critics agree on one point—he, the scenographer, has a fortunate beginning to his creative fate: in 1964, immediately after graduating from the Moscow Art Institute named after V.I. Surikov, he became the chief artist at the republican Russian Drama Theater named after N.K. Krupskaya.
By that time, the names of Shtoffer, Galchenko, Arefyev, Toropov, and Moldakhmatov were already widely known in Kyrgyzstan. The First Republican Exhibition of Theater and Cinema Artists convincingly reflected their contribution to the formation and development of Kyrgyz scenography.
However, the same exhibition noted how stable the average level of performance decoration still was, how often faceless and stereotypical the interiors, and how petty the domestic entourage of the powerless space of the stage. But it was at that time that the performance "The Great Magician" based on A. Gubarev's play (1964) appeared, designed by M. Sydyqbaev, which became a pleasant surprise not only for the Russian theater but for the entire theatrical community of the republic.
It became clear that a talented artist with a good pictorial gift had entered scenography, mastering drawing and stage form, able to convey the spirit of dramaturgy both in sketches and in decorations.
The theater audience saw with satisfaction the desire to make the performance without excessive detailing, unworthy illustration, domestic and naturalistic details, which plagued the performances of Russian drama, "... lowering the level of culture of this theater," where Sydyqbaev began his creative path. Thus, two understandings of scenography were opposed to each other: the display of life-like plausibility and the struggle for the true liveliness of the decorations.
Work in the Russian theater largely determined the direction of the artist's creative search. Designing various performances, he clearly understood that theater begins with literature, and it is necessary to seek the deep meaning of the contact between the stage and dramaturgy.
Sydyqbaev sought to bring the decorations closer to the action without losing the poetics of decorative art. Decoration, he believed, is not only the place of action, not just a background, not just the overall external image of the performance, but a peculiar interpretation of the characters' traits, the conditions for the actors' actions, one of the most important components of theatrical action that the director uses to reveal the idea of the play.
In the artist's opinion, the decoration, becoming one of the expressive means of the performance's leitmotif, should provide freedom of action for the director and actors for a correct reading and understanding of the essence of dramatic works. This principle of decoration found its vivid expression in the performance "My Little Topol" based on Ch. Aitmatov's work.
It should be noted that although there were differences between the sketches and their realization (in the sketches, the mountains and the highway are only outlined, somewhere; like a little light, the image of Asel shines—pure, yet unattainable love, which Ilyas longed for), the visual image of the performance is presented by the road against the backdrop of mountain ridges, painted very abstractly. With the change of action, the perspective of the road changes, and over time, both the lighting and the color of the road change. The road in M. Sydyqbaev's decorations is the road of life.
While working on performances with Kyrgyz themes, the artist rejected the stylization of national motifs and excessive theatricality. The image of the new performance in the sketches was resolved as concisely as possible. "The authenticity of the place of action is intentionally dulled in the name of the lyrical atmosphere of the performance."
The details found by the artist, unobtrusively conveying the mood of the dramatic work, helped the decorations express the essence of its literary foundation. The audience in the darkness first saw the lights of headlights, then a truck that crashed into a telegraph pole, and further, around the bend of the road, a room with modest furnishings.
And this is by no means an illustration of that episode in the story when Ilyas, not listening to Asel's advice to go and repent, instantly disappears. And the gate of Asel's house and the lonely topol—all subtly convey the mood of the heroine, who decided to reconcile with her situation.
"My Little Topol," undoubtedly, became a landmark performance for the Russian theater, and the artist's work was a new word in Kyrgyz scenographic art.
In the photo: A. Moldakhmatov. Sketch of the decoration for the opera “Lakmé”, L. Delibes, 1956
The next performance that Sydyqbaev designed was "My Poor Marat" by A. Arbuzov (1965). Here, the artist clearly showed that he could not only read the playwright's intention but also accurately express the idea of his work: it is precisely the interaction of a person with time, which lies at the heart of the play, that allowed the creation of decorations that evoke the expectation of something new, good.
Character and specificity of the visible environment are present in the decorations executed by Sydyqbaev for the performances: "104 Pages About Love" by E. Radzinsky (1965), "Wedding for All Europe" by A. Arkanov and G. Gorin (1966), "Children of Their Father" by V. Lavrenev (1966), "The Trickster" by V. Rozov (1966), "Unforgettable Days" by B. Omuraliev (1966).
Long-awaited, but, however, a significant creative challenge for the artist was the encounter with the dramatic works of A.P. Chekhov. The decoration of "Three Sisters" (1966) was resolved in a generalized tender white color scheme (white window, white doors, white crumpled tulle).
Previous works on Chekhov's performances suffered from an overload of domestic details, which, the artist thought, distracted the audience from the main thing—the unspoken transparency of the delicate creative palette of the writer, the elusiveness of his quiet sadness, the poetic and intimate nature of the depicted world.
The core symbols of time, which are projected onto the tulle and change depending on the movement of life on stage, are central to the visual image of the performance. Accordingly, the other details change, revealing the inner meaning of the work.
For example, in the first act, the tulle takes on a lilac color, and lilacs appear on it—a symbol of spring. All this serves as the background for the Prozorov family's guest house. In the second act, using the same technique, a winter landscape with flying snow is born, against which a house stands in semi-darkness. The third act is resolved in a red-blue palette, and the last—in the orange-golden color of autumn.
The performance "Duel" based on the play by Kyrgyz playwright M. Baidzhiev (1967) was designed by Sydyqbaev twice: the first time in the Russian theater, and the second time in the Kyrgyz theater. The first production was marked by domesticity, with many unnecessary details, while the second clearly shows the artist's desire for generalization with minimal scenographic details.
On stage is the shore of Issyk-Kul with a pier-machine and a sky whose color changes depending on the mood of the action. Such a succinct solution brings the characters to the forefront, which very accurately corresponds to the dramatic intention.
"Three Sisters" by Chekhov, "Unforgettable Days" by Omuraliev, "Gray Horse" by Sadibakassov (1971), and "Mother Courage..." by Brecht (1979, fig. 267), staged in the 1970s, referred the artist both to the classics and forced him to work in the field of contemporary themes.
In both "Mother Courage..." and "Duel," he is persistent in organizing a large-scale, tense stage space, bold in searching for a significant visual image of the performance. But did the plasticity develop alongside scenography?
It also gained monumentality and generalization. The need for scenographers to express the universal human experience in their own language is evident. And therefore, in Brecht's dramaturgy, which was so difficult to implant in the republic, grotesque images in the spirit of Callot are marked by the stamp of local color, while "My Little Topol" is placed in a pulsating, changing space—the space of the universe.
Perhaps today it is still difficult to fully assess the positive shifts that occurred in Kyrgyz scenography in the 1960s. But the impulse it gave to the development of art, culture, and the awareness of the value of artistic decoration of performances is evident. As is the fact that over the years, the need for renewal of the artistic language has grown.
In the 1970s, due to the departure of such recognized masters as Arefyev, Moldakhmatov, and Toropov from theaters, a certain decline in the development of theatrical and decorative art in Kyrgyzstan was observed. The chief artist of the USSR GABT, N.N. Zolotarev, was invited to the republic, who designed the performances "Mother's Field" by K. Moldobasanov (1975), "Macbeth" by K. Molchanov (1979), "Tomiris" by U. Musaev (1982). These productions were well received by both audiences and critics.
However, in other theaters, the situation was not as favorable. In the Russian theater, directors changed frequently, which naturally lowered the overall level of the theatrical collective's work and negatively affected scenography. The Kyrgyz Drama Theater's collective was also "ailing."
In the photo: A. Moldakhmatov. Sketch of the decoration for the opera “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”, N. Rimsky-Korsakov, 1964
Performances in the Osh Uzbek and Naryn Musical Drama Theaters were designed at a level no higher than amateur. The searches of the Osh Kyrgyz Drama Theater were contradictory.
The creative process is always an overcoming. The theatrical art of the republic, in its development, overcame clichés, rigidity, domesticity, excessive enthusiasm for folk poetry, and primitivism in the thinking of the creators of stage images of performances.
As the creative practice of theatrical collectives shows, the level of theatrical and decorative art depends not only on the professionalism, artistic intuition, and aspirations of the scenographer but also—significantly—on the level of dramaturgy, directing, and the culture of all those involved in creating performances.
All this has been well understood by M. Sydyqbaev, and perhaps that is why his most significant works in the 1970s were the performances "Gray Horse" by Sh. Sadibakassov and "Mother Courage..." by B. Brecht. In both cases, the artist, based on significant dramaturgical material and themes, searched long and hard for stage equivalents.
He not only wrote sketches, in which there was a persistent search for color images and ways to reveal the ideological content of the performances, but also executed models in several versions.
"Gray Horse" is a work about the past of the Kyrgyz people, in which the struggle between good and evil is conveyed through the confrontations of the people with their enemies. Sydyqbaev removes the theatrical curtains and transforms the stage into the fortress of the Kyrgyz Khan Janibek. Thus, the stage becomes a single machine with sloping ramps reminiscent of the place of execution.
For more than ten years, the performance has not left the stage of this theater, and the audience watches it with unflagging interest. For the Kyrgyz theater, this is a rare case where both the playwright, director, artist, and acting ensemble worked in unison.
The production of "Mother Courage..." required the theatrical collective to use means of expression that would visually showcase Brecht's ideas while being accessible to the perception of a wide range of Kyrgyz audiences. Until now, some believed that the complexity of Brecht's symbolism was beyond the capabilities of the Kyrgyz theater and that "...there is no tradition of approaching Brecht—recent or long-standing—in the Kyrgyz theater."
However, the encounter with the work of this renowned author proved that for a truly creative collective, there are no inaccessible playwrights. On the contrary, "...the performance 'Mother Courage and Her Children' is marked by immediacy and freshness of perspective... in the Kyrgyz Academic Drama Theater, and, as a special success, this performance was noted at the festival of dramatic art of the GDR in the Soviet Union."
This play is multi-episodic and covers events occurring in different countries of Europe during the Thirty Years' War, but the problem posed in it remains relevant to this day: the questions of war and peace concern both us, and the anti-war meaning of the production was immediately emphasized by the artist.
Three versions of the scenographic solution of the performance were prepared by the artist. The first—with a map of Europe across the entire stage, blackened by the smoke of war, with bullet and shrapnel holes. In the second version, emphasis was placed on the works of the genius engraver and draftsman Jacques Callot, whose life was closely linked to one of the most complicated periods in European history. The continuous chain of wars, the most notable of which was the Thirty Years' War (1620-1648), changed the political map of the civilized world. Some great powers lost their former significance, others, on the contrary, broke out of national isolation and entered the broad international arena.
However, the use of Callot's satire by the scenographer did not resonate, and Sydyqbaev proposed a third option: on the ruins of Europe hangs the crucified, mutilated Jesus Christ, and beneath him and on the sides of the stage—three cannons aimed at the audience. Shells of various calibers hang and lie on the ground, but the characters pay no attention to them.
The outer ring of the stage circle marks the road along which the cart of Mother Courage drags. The central circle is a cross, concealing a double meaning: religious symbolism and a crossroads where the woman meets different people. On the front stage, a painting by the anti-fascist artist P. Picasso was reproduced, symbolizing the unity of people of different skin colors in the struggle for peace.
If in this version the artist rejected Callot's satire directly, then in depicting the actual portrait of the time, in the details of the overall composition, he followed its spirit, its anti-war ideas.
Sydyqbaev is characterized by a concrete approach to decoration, individuality of solutions, and effectiveness in revealing the leitmotif of the themes of the performances.
"The unity with the idea of the performance, its visual expression is also distinguished in the work of artist M. Sydyqbaev 'Aesop' (1971). The stage is embraced by a low white colonnade in a semicircle. And in the depth, against the background of a neutral backdrop, a huge copper disk of rough stamping is suspended. In this contrast—two worlds, two cultural traditions, in it already lies the confrontation between Aesop and Xanthus. And in this reconstructed stage environment, the democratic nature of Aesop becomes especially evident, whom S. Jumadylov plays as a person who accumulates the creative, artistic forces of the people, bringing into Xanthus's world the dangerous, explosive wisdom of slaves. He seems to have emerged from the dense crowd, possessing traits of a storyteller, a self-taught philosopher, the independence of intellect, free in the right to judge life. His fables—like this disk, slightly crumpled, bearing traces of hammer and fire—contain something seemingly simpler than in the sophistries of Xanthus, but in reality—more enduring, solid. Thus, the actor's interpretation is supported by the artist, and from this, the image of the hero becomes both larger and clearer."
In the photo: Sketch of the decoration for the play “Mother Courage and Her Children”, B. Brecht, 1979
The performance "In the Lists Not Mentioned" based on the well-known story by B. Vasilyev (1976) is characterized by a complex directorial-scenographic solution. In working on this performance, Belkin discovered for himself previously unknown facets of visual directing in exploring the relationships between the characters of the play and time.
In this performance, he seemed to play theater within theater. Regarding the specifics of the artist's work in theater, the well-known Soviet scenographer V. Levintal wrote: "For me, the main thing in work is analysis. First of all, I must understand the idea of the work and peel it like a cabbage or an onion, uncover the structure, reveal all the layers laid down by the author and time. Only then can I accurately design the piece, not approximately... The performance must... be played together with the director, the author, and the actors. But to play my part, I must clearly see how the plot and the characters of the play develop, the pattern of the relationships between the characters, what the author reminded us of and how it resonates with today. Only by clarifying all this do I begin to visualize it."
By style, Levintal and Belkin are diverse artists: the former is openly spectacular and luxurious, while the latter is ascetic. If Levintal, working in musical theater, remains indifferent to music, then Belkin, working in drama, loves music, especially jazz classics. However, they are united by the fact that they see the visual image of the performance as a whole, without getting carried away by small finds; they are united by the fact that they do not like approximations in solutions and quotes from fashionable design techniques.
Belkin perfectly feels the relationship between the plasticity and volume of objects in the stage space. He successfully uses the texture of real things to reveal the meaning of the performance. Thus, in the performance "In the Lists Not Mentioned," the yellowed photograph of the deceased son, dimly lit by a lamp, "sounds" with all the power of the overture to it.
By introducing a phonograph, camouflage netting, and twisted metal into circulation, the artist remains true to stage convention. For him, the compositional center and main element of scenography has always remained the human hero. Through him, he addresses the "playful" possibilities of objects and conditional signs, which enter into a single visual complex along with the actors.
To emphasize the conditionality of the presence of natural objects, the artist highlights them; likewise, with the help of light, he emphasizes the truthfulness of conditional techniques. In creating a series of imagery related to the Brest Fortress, Belkin proceeded from the fact that Pluzhnikov appears in it at night, and the action of the performance unfolds at night or in the darkness of the basement.
As such, there is no fortress on stage, but the stage space is organized in such a way that its confinement is constantly felt. This is achieved through the plasticity of the movements of the heroes and the richest palette of light, which creates the symbolism of the patriotic struggle of Soviet people against the German-fascist invaders.
The line of expressing the meaning of decoration through the actor is emphasized in the performance "Provincial Anecdotes" by A. Vampilov (1978). After the curtain rises, the stage remains empty for a while. The audience's gaze lingers on the wittily hyperbolized paradoxes in the decorations, and in their hearts, a feeling of anticipation for something special arises. Thus, a certain atmosphere is created for the actors' performance.
In contrast, the performance "The Tale of the Clown and the Gray City" ("City Without Love," 1978) is resolved based on the aspirations of the characters: a gray sky, uniformly planted gray houses on gray poles, gray musicians dressed in gray blowing into pipes behind a gray fence.
Only the cheerful Clown brightens this gray, dull world with a smile, a bright thought, and before the audience's eyes, everything transforms: the trees don green attire, and the city becomes a real garden.
In Belkin's creative biography, there were also failures, which, perhaps, are not even failures, because the artist proposed quite acceptable options for the visual image of a particular performance, but there was no common language with the director. The performances "The End" by M. Shatrov (1975) and "The Minor" by D. Fonvizin (1975) were not successful.
The tone of the political drama in the first performance was set by a poster on which red color flowed like lava onto black, constantly narrowing it down, and the word "End" sounded like a scream, looking like the tongue of flame breaking out from within the black. But the director did not understand the artist, who believed that the actors and decorations should enhance and emphasize each other's expressiveness, and ultimately the expressiveness of the entire production, and adapted the scenography to the already constructed directorial mise-en-scènes.
In "The Minor," the designer creates the mood even before the action begins: next to the yokes on the nails hang wigs that the actors put on when they appear on stage, and then tidy up the interior. Behind the curtain, a cattle yard with all its ugly attributes is visible—the image of Russia of Skotinin. But the director and the artist did not agree in their thoughts, and the performance was doomed to failure.
The artist managed to reveal the measure of the ideal and the mundane in "Monologue on Marriage" by E. Radzinsky (1979), in "The Flea" by Mayakovsky (1979), emphasizing the persistence of ancient negative phenomena in our days...
In the photo: A. M. Toropov. Sketch of the decoration for the play “King Lear”, W. Shakespeare, 1963
Belkin is a master who sensitively captures not only the living current of thoughts of the dramatic work but also the pulse of our rapid time; otherwise, he would not be so precise in the scenographic reflection of social phenomena and the characters of individual people.
The capital audience became acquainted with the young but promising artist-scenographer Yuldash Nurmatov during the tours of the Osh Kyrgyz Drama Theater in Frunze. This was in May 1983. At that time, performances of "Richard III" by Shakespeare, "The Gray Dog Running Along the Edge of the Sea" by Aitmatov, "The Little Prince" by Exupéry, "Djanımırza" by Kuttubayev and Malikov, and "The Tricksters" by Abdykdyrov were being staged with his design.
Critics immediately noted that an interesting artist had come to Kyrgyz scenography, with a unique vision of the world and a sensitive attitude towards the literary source, who also possesses broad artistic thinking. His program consisted of creating such an image of the performance through which the audience, with the help of directorial mise-en-scènes and the actors' performances, would not only understand the playwright's main idea but also become empathetic to everything happening on stage.
Nurmatov passed a serious creative exam, and it must be noted, he passed it with dignity, with great creative success, in the production of the performance "The Gray Dog..." The decoration, resolved in a gray-blue palette, consists of a kayak-boat that stretches from the depths of the stage to the audience row.
The kayak is the framework within which the life and work of the characters of the play are mounted. Executed in a monumental manner, the performance at the same time attracts with its interest in each character. The strength of the scenography in it is such that the decorations "work" to reveal the dramaturgical intention.
Nurmatov's first independent work was the performance "The Little Prince" (1981), in the design of which symbolism was widely used. And this is justified, as the artist faced the task of visually revealing the pure and fairy-tale world of a child while preserving the philosophical depth of the work.
In the decorations for the performance, gauze of different colors was used. It should be emphasized that color plays a special meaningful role in this production; it is one of the most important components of the stage design of "The Little Prince," as is the gauze itself, which transforms into a garden, then into different planets. In this performance, as in all subsequent ones, the artist placed special importance on the characters' clothing, expressing in it the traits of the characters.
The decoration of "Grandma's Tale" based on M. Abakirov's story (1981) is also very interesting; the place of action is made as a children's play area. In the background, there was a stylized mountain in green and white-blue tones, made as if by the hands of children. The background for it was a blue sky with a colorful rainbow, which, having descended to the ground, becomes a path...
And the performance "Djanıl-Myrza" (1981) is designed by the artist in the spirit of domestic drama: the action takes place in a large yurt. It seems that in terms of figurative structure, the scenography of this performance is close to the decoration of "The Gray Dog...": there the world of the heroes is limited by the space of the kayak, while in this case—by the yurt, in which a person is born, lives, and fights against evil. The openings of the yurt somewhat resemble clouds behind which swans fly, symbolizing unattainable freedom.
A whole series of young artists has come to scenography in Kyrgyzstan. These include A. Konushbaev, I. Kapitanov, M. Sharafutdinov, and M. Akhmadjanov, who instill great hopes that soon new works will appear in the theatrical and decorative art of the republic, developing and deepening the best traditions of the stage artists of our republic.