Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0004680, Tue, 11 Jan 2000 11:16:18 -0800

Subject
Re: Nabokov/Onegin/LO-pera (fwd)
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EDITOR's NOTE. Below, Byron Nilsson <byron@banilsson.com> and Jeff Edmunds
provide information on the opera LOLITA.
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The LOLITA opera is
by composer Rodion Shchedrin (b. Moscow, 1932, now resident in Munich),
who is best known for his adaptation of music from "Carmen" as a ballet
suite for his wife, Maya Plissetskaya. He also wrote an opera based on
"Dead Souls," which premiered in 1977; LOLITA, as you correctly recalled,
first was performed in Stockholm in 1994, where it was conducted by
Mstislav Rostropovich. Shchedrin also has written four piano concertos,
four concertos for orchestra (the first, subtitled "Naughty Limericks,"
uses as its melodic subject a ditty known to most Russians as the tune to
a ribald verse), a set of 24 preludes and fugues for piano, and music to
many films. During the late 50s and early 60s, he was praised by Soviet
authorities as the sort of "modernist" they wanted in their midst; this
naturally provoked suspicion from those in the U.S. and Europe who confuse
music with politics, and the result is that his music is little known
outside of Russia. Over there, however, he's probably the most successful
composer of his generation. I have yet to track down a recording or any
other information about his LOLITA opera, however.

-- Byron Nilsson
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From jhe@psulias.psu.edu Tue Jan 11 11:12:34 2000
Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2000 13:46:52 -0500
From: Jeff Edmunds <jhe@psulias.psu.edu>
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@UCSBVM.UCSB.EDU>
Subject: Lolita opera

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From: Jeff Edmunds <jhe@psulias.psu.edu>:

The information below on the Lolita opera is from Dieter E. Zimmer's list
"Nabokov on Stage," available in the bibliographies and indexes section of
ZEMBLA:

Lolita
Opera

Composer: Rodion Schedrin (Russia)
Libretto: Rodion Schedrin
Swedish translation: Lasse Zilliacus
Production: Kungliga Teatern (Royal Opera), Stockholm (in
Swedish)
Premiere: December 14, 1994; seven further performances in
December, 1994 and January, 1995. Director: Ann-Margret
Pettersson. Conductor: Mstislav Rostropovich. Stage design: John
Conklin. Lolita: Lisa Gustafsson (soprano); Humbert Humbert:
Per-Arne Wahlgren; Quilty: Björn Haugan.