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Musical creativity of Prokofiev. School Encyclopedia. A new tune for an old fairy tale

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7 works by Prokofiev

Sergey Prokofiev is a composer, pianist and conductor, author of operas, ballets, symphonies and many other works, known and popular throughout the world and in our time. Read stories about seven important works by Prokofiev and listen to musical illustrations from Melodiya.

Opera "The Giant" (1900)

The musical abilities of the future classic of Russian music, Sergei Prokofiev, manifested themselves in early childhood, when at the age of five and a half years he composed his first piece for piano - Indian Gallop. The mother of the young composer Maria Grigorievna recorded it in notes, and Prokofiev recorded all his subsequent compositions on his own.

In the spring of 1900, inspired by the ballet The Sleeping Beauty by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, as well as the operas Faust by Charles Gounod and Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin, the 9-year-old Prokofiev composed his first opera, The Giant.

Despite the fact that, as Prokofiev himself recalled, his “ability to write down” “didn’t keep up with his thoughts,” in this naive children’s composition in the commedia dell’arte genre, the future professional’s serious approach to his work was already visible. The opera had, as it should be, an overture, each of the characters in the composition had its own exit aria - a kind of musical portrait. In one of the scenes, Prokofiev even used musical and stage polyphony - when the main characters are discussing a plan to fight the Giant, the Giant himself passes by and sings: "They want to kill me".

Hearing excerpts from The Giant, the famous composer and professor at the conservatory Sergei Taneyev recommended that the young man seriously take up music. And Prokofiev himself proudly included the opera in the first list of his compositions, which he compiled at the age of 11.

Opera "Giant"
Conductor - Mikhail Leontiev
The author of the restoration of the orchestral version is Sergey Sapozhnikov
Premiere at the Mikhailovsky Theater on May 23, 2010

First Piano Concerto (1911–1912)

Like many young authors, in the early period of his work, Sergei Prokofiev did not find the love and support of critics. In 1916, the newspapers wrote: “Prokofiev sits down at the piano and begins either to wipe the keys, or to try which of them sound higher or lower”. And about the first performance of Prokofiev's Scythian Suite, which was conducted by the author himself, the critics spoke as follows: “It is simply unbelievable that such a piece devoid of any sense could be performed at a serious concert ... These are some kind of impudent, impudent sounds that express nothing but endless boasting”.

However, no one doubted Prokofiev's performing talent: by that time he had managed to establish himself as a virtuoso pianist. Prokofiev performed, however, mostly his own compositions, among which the listeners especially remembered the First Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, which, thanks to the energetic “percussive” character and the bright, memorable motive of the first movement, received the unofficial nickname “On the Skull!”.

Piano Concerto No. 1 in D flat major, Op. 10 (1911–1912)
Vladimir Krainev, piano
Academic Symphony Orchestra MGF
Conductor - Dmitry Kitayenko
1976 recording
Sound engineer - Severin Pazukhin

1st Symphony (1916–1917)

Igor Grabar. Portrait of Sergei Prokofiev. 1941. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Zinaida Serebryakova. Portrait of Sergei Prokofiev. 1926. State Central Museum of Theatrical Art. Bakhrushina, Moscow

In defiance of conservative critics, wishing, as he himself wrote, to “tease the geese”, in the same 1916, the 25-year-old Prokofiev wrote an opus that was completely opposite in style - the First Symphony. She Prokofiev gave the author's subtitle "Classical".

The modest composition of the Haydn-style orchestra and classical musical forms hinted that if “Papa Haydn” had lived to see those days, he might well have written such a symphony, seasoning it with bold melodic turns and fresh harmonies. Created a hundred years ago "to spite everyone", Prokofiev's First Symphony still sounds fresh and is included in the repertoire of the world's best orchestras, and Gavotte, its third movement, has become one of the most popular classical pieces of the 20th century.

Prokofiev himself subsequently included this gavotte as an insert number in his ballet Romeo and Juliet. The composer also had a secret hope (he himself later admitted to this) that he would ultimately emerge victorious from the confrontation with the critics, especially if over time the First Symphony really becomes a classic. Which, in fact, happened.

Symphony No. 1 "Classical", in D major, Op. 25

Conductor - Evgeny Svetlanov
1977 recording

I. Allegro

III. Gavotte. Non troppo allegro

Fairy tale "Peter and the Wolf" (1936)

Until the end of his days, Prokofiev retained the immediacy of his worldview. Being partly a child at heart, he felt the children's inner world well and repeatedly wrote music for children: from the fairy tale "The Ugly Duckling" (1914) to the text of the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen to the suite "The Winter Fire" (1949), composed already in the last years of his life .

Prokofiev's first composition after returning to Russia in 1936 from a long emigration was the symphonic fairy tale for children "Peter and the Wolf", commissioned by Natalia Sats for the Central Children's Theatre. The young listeners fell in love with the fairy tale and remembered it thanks to the bright musical portraits of the characters, which are still familiar to many schoolchildren not only in Russia, but also abroad. For children, "Peter and the Wolf" performs an educational function: the fairy tale is a kind of guide to the instruments of a symphony orchestra. With this work, Prokofiev anticipated the English composer Benjamin Britten's guide to the symphony orchestra for young people (Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell), written almost ten years later and similar in concept.

"Peter and the Wolf", symphonic fairy tale for children, Op. 67
USSR State Academic Symphony Orchestra
Conductor - Evgeny Svetlanov
1970 recording

Ballet Romeo and Juliet (1935–1936)

The recognized masterpiece of the 20th century, many of which top the international charts of classical music - Sergei Prokofiev's ballet "Romeo and Juliet" - had a difficult fate. Two weeks before the scheduled premiere, the general meeting of the creative team of the Kirov Theater decided to cancel the performance in order to avoid, as everyone believed, a complete failure. It is possible that such moods in the artists were partly inspired by the article “Muddle instead of Music”, published in the Pravda newspaper in January 1936, which harshly criticized the theatrical music of Dmitri Shostakovich. Both the theatrical community and Prokofiev himself took the article as an attack on contemporary art in general and decided, as they say, not to ask for trouble. At that time, a cruel joke even spread in the theatrical environment: “There is no sadder story in the world than Prokofiev’s music in ballet!”

As a result, Romeo and Juliet did not premiere until two years later at the National Theater in Brno, Czechoslovakia. And the domestic public saw the production only in 1940, when the ballet was nevertheless staged at the Kirov Theater. And despite another bout of government struggle with the so-called "formalism", the ballet "Romeo and Juliet" by Sergei Prokofiev was even awarded the Stalin Prize.

Romeo and Juliet, ballet in four acts (9 scenes), Op. 64
Symphony Orchestra of the State Academic Bolshoi Theater of the USSR
Conductor - Gennady Rozhdestvensky
Recorded in 1959
Sound engineer - Alexander Grossman

Act I. Scene one. 3. The street wakes up

Act I. Scene two. 13. Dance of the Knights

Act I. Scene two. 15. Mercutio

Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of October (1936–1937)

In 1936, Sergei Prokofiev, an emigrant of the first post-revolutionary wave, a mature, successful and sought-after composer and pianist, returned to Soviet Russia. He was greatly impressed by the changes in the country, which had become completely different. The game according to the new rules required some adjustments in creativity. And Prokofiev created a number of works, at first glance, frankly "court" in nature: Cantata for the 20th anniversary of October (1937), written on the texts of the classics of Marxism-Leninism, the cantata "Toast", composed for the 60th anniversary of Stalin (1939), and cantata "Flourish, Mighty Land", dedicated already to the 30th anniversary of the October Revolution (1947). True, given Prokofiev's peculiar sense of humor, which now and then manifested itself in his musical language, music critics still cannot give an unambiguous answer to the question whether the composer wrote these works sincerely and seriously, or with a certain amount of irony. For example, in one of the parts of the cantata “On the 20th Anniversary of October”, which is called “The Crisis is Ripe,” the sopranos sing (or rather, squeak) in the highest register “The crisis is ripe!”, descending in semitones. This sound of a tense topic seems comical - and such ambiguous solutions are found in Prokofiev's "pro-Soviet" works at every turn.

Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of October for two mixed choirs, symphony and military orchestras, accordion and noise orchestra, Op. 74 (abbreviated version)

State Choir Chapel
Artistic director - Alexander Yurlov
Symphony Orchestra of the Moscow Philharmonic
Conductor - Kirill Kondrashin
1967 recording
Sound engineer - David Gaklin

Texts by Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin:

Introduction. A ghost haunts Europe, the ghost of communism

Philosophers

Revolution

Music for the film "Alexander Nevsky" (1938)

Composers of the first half of the 20th century had to do a lot for the first time, and the samples of new art they created are now considered textbooks. This fully applies to film music as well. Just seven years after the appearance of the first Soviet sound film (Putevka v zhizn', 1931), Sergei Prokofiev joined the ranks of the cinematographers. Among his works in the genre of film music stands out a large-scale symphonic score written for Sergei Eisenstein's film "Alexander Nevsky" (1938), later revised into a cantata under the same title (1939). Many of the images laid down by Prokofiev in this music (the mournful scene of the “dead field”, the attack of the Crusaders, soulless and mechanical in sound, the joyful counterattack of the Russian cavalry), are still a stylistic guide for film composers around the world to this day.

Alexander Nevsky, cantata for mezzo-soprano, choir and orchestra (to words by Vladimir Lugovsky and Sergei Prokofiev), Op. 78

Larisa Avdeeva, mezzo-soprano (Field of the Dead)
State Academic Choir of Russia named after A. A. Yurlov
Choirmaster - Alexander Yurlov
USSR State Academic Symphony Orchestra
Conductor - Evgeny Svetlanov
1966 recording
Sound engineer - Alexander Grossman

Song about Alexander Nevsky

Battle on the Ice

field of the dead

Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev (1891 - 1953), who went down in the history of Russian music as a great composer, innovator, master of musical theater, creator of a new musical language and subverter of old canons, has always remained a truly Russian artist.
M. Tarakanov notes that this is the main historical significance of Prokofiev, who continued the work in this direction and; his

"You can rightly be called the sun of Russian music."

At the same time, continuing to follow the path of A. Borodin and, in a sense, he brings to music an onslaught, dynamics, energy, filled with deep ideas and bright optimism.

Prokofiev Musical Theater

The continuous creative process of the composer's work in this direction is due to the development of musical stage dramaturgy in connection with three main lines (highlights L. Danko):

  • comedy-scherzo, marked by a connection with the traditions of the folk fair performance, fairy-tale parody performances (for example, the ballet "Jester", the opera "Love for Three Oranges");
  • conflict-dramatic, originating from the opera "The Gambler" - up to the opera "War and Peace";
  • lyric-comedy(opera The Duenna, ballet Cinderella).

The fourth line, connected with folk songs, was formed in the last years of the composer's life (the opera The Tale of a Real Man, the ballet The Tale of the Stone Flower.

Operas by S.S. Prokofiev

The theme of opera plots covers samples of Russian and European classical literature; time range from the Middle Ages up to the period of the Soviet Union. In addition to the completed ones, many operatic plans remained unrealized; some are cited by N. Lobachevskaya as an example:

  • “The Story of a Simple Thing” (based on the story by B. Lavreniev), which exists in the form of a short outline of the opera;
  • "Spender" (based on the play by N. Leskov), which is a lengthy presentation of the plot;
  • “Taimyr calls you” (based on the play by A. Galich and K. Isaev) - separate characters and scenes are developed here;
  • the ideas of the operas "Khan Buzai" and "Distant Seas" (the 1st picture has been preserved).

Among completed operas:

  • "Feast in the Time of Plague", born as a result of the composer's studies with Gliere;
  • Maddalena (1911, 2nd edition 1913) is a one-act lyric-dramatic opera;
  • The Gambler (1916, 2nd ed. 1927), where a type of conflict dramaturgy is born;
  • The Love for Three Oranges (1919), which comes from the dell arte tradition;
  • The Fiery Angel (1919-1927/1928, based on the novel of the same name by V. Bryusov), combines the features of a chamber lyric-psychological opera and social tragedy;
  • "Semyon Kotko" (1939), combining the features of a love drama, comedy, social tragedy;
  • Duenna (or Betrothal in a Monastery, 1946) synthesizes the genres of lyrical comedy and social satire;
  • "War and Peace" (1941-1952) - an opera dilogy based on the novel by L. Tolstoy;
  • The Tale of a Real Man (1948, 2nd edition 1960) is devoted to one of the most important problems of Soviet art: the national character during the Great Patriotic War.

Prokofiev in the musical texts of his works is a supporter of the rational use of musical expressive means; as a playwright, he updates the operatic genre by introducing elements of dramatic theater and cinema into it. Thus, M. Druskin described the specifics of Prokofiev’s montage dramaturgy: “Prokofiev’s dramaturgy is not a simple change of “frames”, not a kaleidoscope of alternating episodes, but a musical reincarnation of the principles of “slow”, then “fast” shooting, then “influx”, then “ big plan." Prokofiev's operas are also distinguished by the diversity of images and stage situations, the polarity in the reflection of reality.

Prokofiev's ballets

characteristic of the twentieth century. the tendency to symphonize raises the ballet genre not only to the rank of one of the leading ones, but also makes it a serious competitor to opera. In many ways, it (the trend) is associated with the name of S. Diaghilev, who commissioned almost all of Prokofiev's early ballets.

  • the composer continues and completes the ballet reform begun by bringing it to the pinnacle, where ballet turns from a choreographic performance into a musical theater;
  • of the three leading lines of the Soviet ballet theater (heroic-historical, classical, satirical), it is the classical, which has a lyric-psychological nature, that turns out to be fundamental for Prokofiev's ballets;
  • , the important role of the orchestra, a developed leitmotif system.
  • "Ala and Lolly" (1914), which is based on the Scythian story. His music is also known as the "Scythian Suite"; daring, sharp, bold "The Jester", or "The Tale of the Jester of the Seven Jesters Who Changed Jokes" (1915 - 1920), staged in Paris.
  • Ballets of the 20-30s: (Trapezoid, 1924; Steel Lope, 1925; Prodigal Son, 1928; On the Dnieper, 1930, in memory of S. Diaghilev).
  • Three ballets are masterpieces created upon returning to their homeland (Romeo and Juliet, 1935; Cinderella, 1940-1944; The Tale of the Stone Flower, 1948-1950).

Instrumental creativity of Prokofiev

Symphonies

  • No. 1 (1916 - 1917) "Classical", where the composer turns to the conflict-free type of symphonism of the pre-Beethoven period (Haydn's type of symphonism);
  • Nos. 2-4 (1924, 1928, 1930) - symphonies of the foreign period. Asafiev called Symphony No. 2 a symphony "made of iron and steel." Symphonies No. 3 and No. 4 - based on the opera "Fiery Angel" and the ballet "Prodigal Son";
  • Nos. 5-7 (1944, 1945 - 47, 1951 - 1952) - written in the late period. The heroic-epic symphony No. 5 reflected the spirit of wartime; Symphony No. 7, completed less than a year before the composer's death, is filled, nevertheless, with optimism and joy of life.
  • S. Slonimsky also refers to the symphonies the symphony-concert for cello b-moll (1950 - 1952).

Piano works by Prokofiev

"glassy" coloring, "exactly corresponding to Prokofiev's own non-legacy pianism" (L. Gakkel).

Kuchkist composers, on the other hand, to representatives of Western musical culture. So, the peppy tone of creativity, the harmony of music, the methods of harmonic development (organ points, parallelisms, etc.), rhythmic clarity, conciseness in the presentation of musical thought make him related to Grieg; ingenuity in the field of harmony - with Reger; the grace of tarantella rhythms - with Saint-Saens (notes L. Gakkel).

For Prokofiev, the clarity of musical ideas, the maximum simplicity and relief in their implementation are important. Hence - the desire for "transparency" of sound (typical of early works), where themes are often in the upper register, and as the dynamic tension grows, the number of sounding voices is reduced (so as not to overload the sonority). The general logic of development, as a rule, is determined by the movement of the melodic line.

Prokofiev's piano heritage includes 9 sonatas (No. 10 remained unfinished), 3 sonatinas, 5 concertos (No. 4 - for the left hand), many pieces, piano cycles ("Sarcasms", "Fleeting", "Tales of the Old Grandmother", vol. etc.), about 50 transcriptions (mostly of his own compositions).

Cantata-oratorio creativity

Prokofiev created 6 cantatas:

"Seven of them" 1917-18, "Cantata for the 20th anniversary of October" 1936-37, "Toast" 1939, "Alexander Nevsky" 1938-39, "Ballad about a boy who remained unknown" 1942-43, "Flourish, mighty land " 1947, oratorio "On guard of the world" 1950.

One of the first examples of a new approach to the genre of historical cantata is Prokofiev’s one-movement cantata “Seven of them”, written to the texts of Balmont’s “Calls of Antiquity”, Chaldean spells turned into verses to conjure seven monsters, anti-gods that interfere with life. In the cantata, Scythian tendencies are intertwined with constructivist ones, which is also characteristic of the Scythian Suite and Symphony No. 2; the sonorous techniques of choral writing are anticipated. The main expressive means is the ostinato technique, close, on the one hand, to ancient spells; on the other hand, coming from the music of modern times.

"Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of October" was born under the impression of the composer's return to his homeland and the desire to capture the epoch-making events of Soviet Russia. Its ideological essence: the Great October Socialist Revolution, victory, industrialization of the country, the Constitution. In terms of text, it contains fragments of the works of Marx, Stalin, Lenin. The work was rejected by the Arts Committee, as the idea of ​​translating these themes into music was regarded as blasphemy. The premiere took place only in 1966.

The widely known historical (heroic-patriotic) opus "Alexander Nevsky" is a monumental creation by Prokofiev, based on the musical material of the film of the same name (texts by the composer and V. Lugovsky). In 7 parts of the cantata ("Rus' under the Mongol yoke", "Song of Alexander Nevsky", "Crusaders in Pskov", "Get up, Russian people", "Battle on the Ice", "Dead Field", "Alexander's Entry into Pskov") close interaction between the dramatic principles of epic composition and cinematographic montage:

  1. epic - in bringing to the fore the people as the main character, a generalized interpretation of the image of Alexander Nevsky, characterized by a song about him;
  2. the montage principle is clearly manifested in the scene of the battle on the ice by connecting new musical material, due to the dynamics of the visual range. At the same time, it operates at the level of forms - in a sequence of independent sections, while sometimes internal structures are formed, sometimes - development does not obey the logic of any of the typical forms.

The general dynamics of the evolution of S. Prokofiev's style is marked by a gradually increasing inclination towards melodicity in comparison with motor skills and scherzo, which were of leading importance in the early period of creativity, which, however, was not always associated with the evolution of the composer's work, but was determined by the country in which and when he lives.

Along with other innovators (C. Debussy, B. Bartok,), in his work he determined new ways of developing the music of the twentieth century.

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Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev - the greatest children's composer of the 20th century

The 20th century is a difficult time, when terrible wars and great achievements of science took place, when the world plunged into apathy and rose again from the ashes.

A century when people lost and found art again, when new music was born, new painting, a new picture of the universe.

Much of what was valuable before was lost or lost its meaning, giving way to something new, not always better.

A century when classical melodies began to sound quieter, less bright for adults, but at the same time revealed their amazing potential for the younger generation. It can even be said that, in a certain sense, since the 20th century, the classics have lost something important for adults, but somehow sounded especially vivid for children.

This is guaranteed by the popularity of the melodies of Tchaikovsky and Mozart, the incessant excitement that arises around the animated creations of the Disney studio, whose works are valuable precisely for the very music that sounds for fairy-tale characters and those who are shown their stories on the screens.

There are many other examples, and the most significant is the music of Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev, a composer whose hard and hard work made him one of the most, if not the most recognizable, cited, performed composers of the 20th century.

Of course, Prokofiev did a lot for the "adult" music of his time, but what he did as a children's composer is unimaginably more valuable.

Prokofiev attached particular importance to the pianoforte

Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev is a prominent figure among the musicians of the twentieth century. He was the most famous composer of the Soviet Union and at the same time became one of the most important musicians in the whole world.

He created music, simple and complex, in some ways very close to the bygone "golden age" of the classics, and in some ways unimaginably distant, even dissonant, he was always looking for something new, developing, making his sound like nothing else.

For this, Prokofiev was loved, idolized, admired, full houses always gathered at his concerts. And at the same time, at times he was so new and self-willed that they did not understand him, so much so that once at one of the concerts half the audience got up and left, and another time the composer was almost declared an enemy of the Soviet people.

But still he was, he created, he amazed and delighted. He delighted adults and children, created, like Mozart, like Strauss and Bach, something new that no one before him could come up with. Prokofiev became for Soviet music what he had become for Russian music just a century earlier.

“The composer, like the poet, sculptor, painter, is called to serve the person and the people. It should beautify human life and protect it. First of all, he is obliged to be a citizen in his art, to sing of human life and lead a person to a brighter future,” - thus, echoing Glinka in his own words, Prokofiev saw his role.

As a children's composer, Prokofiev was not only inventive, melodic, poetic, bright, they say that he was able, keeping a piece of childhood in his own heart, to create music that was understandable and pleasant to the children's heart, as well as to those who still remembered how it was to be a child .

About the Three Orange Princesses

Throughout his life, Prokofiev worked on form, style, manner of performance, on rhythm and melody, on his famous polyphonic patterning and dissonant harmony.

All this time he created both children's music and adult music. One of Prokofiev's first children's works was the opera in ten scenes, The Love for Three Oranges. Based on the fairy tale of the same name by Carlo Gozzi, this work was light and cheerful, as if inspired by the traditional sound of the mischievous Italian theater.

The work told about princes and kings, good magicians and evil witches, about enchanted curses and how important it is not to become discouraged.

The Love for Three Oranges was a reflection of Prokofiev's youthful talent, striving to combine his nascent style with fresh memories of a carefree childhood.

A new tune for an old fairy tale

No less significant, but more mature and, perhaps, more striking, much more famous work by Prokofiev was Cinderella.

This ballet, dynamic, marked by elements of beautiful music of romanticism, which the author had mastered and supplemented by that time, was like a breath of fresh air when clouds were gathering over the world.

“Cinderella” came out in 1945, when the fire of the great war subsided in the world, it seemed to call to be reborn, to reject darkness from the heart and smile at the new life. Its harmonious and gentle sound, the inspiring motif of Charles Perrault's light fairy tale and the excellent staging gave the old story a new, life-affirming start.

“... I am especially glad that I saw you in a role that, along with many other images of world fiction, expresses the wonderful and victorious power of a childish, obedient to circumstances and true to oneself purity ... That power is dear to me in its menacing contrast to that, also age-old, deceitful and cowardly , kowtowing court element, the current forms of which I do not like to madness ... "

This is how Boris Pasternak wrote to Galina Ulanova about her role in the ballet Cinderella, thus making a compliment not only to the performer of the role, but also to its creator.

Ural tales

Prokofiev was not only a composer, but also an excellent pianist.

The last children's work of Sergei Sergeyevich came out after his death, they say that even on the fateful day he worked on orchestrating the numbers of the Stone Flower.

Sonorous and unlike anything, but for some reason very close to many, evoking a feeling of contact with something mysterious and beautiful, the melodies of this work gave musical life to the no less unusual and unlike anything Ural tales of P.P. Bazhov.

The music of Prokofiev, which he did not hear on stage, and the fabulous, reserved motifs of The Malachite Box, The Mountain Master, The Stone Flower became the basis of a truly unique ballet that reveals not only the amazing facets of musical art, but also the world of hidden legends of the Ural Mountains , which has become accessible and close to young listeners, and listeners who have preserved the youth of the spirit.

Prokofiev himself said that his children's music contains a lot of things that are important and bright for him.

The smells and sounds of childhood, the wandering of the moon across the plains and the cry of a rooster, something close and dear to the dawn of life - that's what Prokofiev put into his children's music, because it turned out to be understandable to him and to mature people, but, like him, preserved in heart a piece of childhood. Therefore, it became close to the children, whose world Prokofiev always sought to understand and feel.

About pioneers and gray predators

Of particular importance among the works of Prokofiev is the work "Peter and the Wolf". This work, where each character is performed by a separate musical instrument, specially written by the maestro for children, absorbed all the best that Sergei Sergeevich sought to perpetuate in music for his most sensitive audience.

A simple and instructive story about friendship, mutual assistance, knowledge of the world, about how everything works around and how a worthy person should behave, appears through Prokofiev's elegant and very lively music, complemented by the voice of a reader effectively interacting with various musical instruments in this symphonic tale .

The premiere of the work took place in 1936, one might say, by creating a fairy tale for children about a young pioneer, Prokofiev demonstrated that he had returned to his homeland forever.

An important role of the reader in the first version of "Peter and the Wolf" was played by Natalia Sats, who not only possessed an excellent performing talent, but was also the world's first woman opera director.

In the future, Prokofiev's work, which gained worldwide fame, became close and understandable to the children of the whole Earth, was repeatedly reprinted, embodied on the stage, on screens, on the radio.

"Peter and the Wolf" was embodied as a Disney cartoon, thanks to which the slightly modified Soviet pioneer became on a par with world-famous fairy-tale characters, to whom the studio gave the best animated birth.

Jazz, blues, rock variations of the symphonic fairy tale were released, in 1978 rock idol David Bowie played the role of the reciter of "Peter and the Wolf", and a short cartoon based on Prokofiev's fairy tale won the Golden Knight of the Oscar just recently - in 2007.

Of particular importance is the pedagogical value of "Petya and the Wolf" - a symphonic tale is used, like many of Prokofiev's works, to teach young musicians in specialized schools, but, in addition, the story of the adventures of a brave and kind pioneer almost from its very appearance has become an element of a general education school music programs.

For many years, Prokofiev's fairy tale has been helping to reveal to children the mystery of music, the right taste for symphonic classics, the idea of ​​morality, of universal human values.

In a simple and accessible form, Prokofiev managed to embody important and necessary things, for other ways of demonstrating which sometimes great efforts are spent and thick book volumes are written.

The most children's music

Prokofiev spent the last years of his life outside the city, but continued to work despite a strict medical regime.

In addition to Cinderella and The Stone Flower, there are many more works by Prokofiev written for children. Piano piece, soft and nostalgic "Tales of the Old Grandmother".

Mischievous and dynamic, similar in its daring to The Love for Three Oranges, is the ballet The Tale of the Fool Who Outwitted Seven Fools. Serious and wise "realistic" suite "Winter fire" on the verses of S. Marshak about the life of the pioneers.

Sparkling patter song "Chatterbox", inspired by the poems of Agnia Barto. Prokofiev created for children, as if for himself, with great pleasure.

But among the works of the children's composer Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev, there is one that is, perhaps, of greater value than The Stone Flower or Cinderella. The piano cycle "Children's Music" - 12 pieces, telling in the author's inimitable light and gentle manner about the everyday life of children's days and those special moments that are so sharp, bright and unexpectedly able to turn these everyday life into a fairy tale, adventure or just a memory for life.

The piano cycle "Children's Music" has become a real treasure for teachers teaching children how to play the keys. Prokofiev himself, a brilliant pianist, managed to create something that is fully accessible only to children, intended for children who want to hear music extracted with their own hands from behind the black cover of the piano.

He made "Children's Music" fully meet not only the possibilities, but also the needs of a young pianist who is studying the secrets of sound. The piano cycle combines smoothness and sharpness, transitions of rhythms and harmonies, the ability to use either the simplest or complex keyboard shortcuts in such a way that the young virtuoso can learn and, while learning, smile at his excellent results.

"Children's Music" - heartfelt, bright, filled with crystal purity and tenderness, unusualness and fabulousness, became Prokofiev's gift to novice pianists and their teachers, who received an easy and convenient means to keep their student's attention and develop abilities.

Prokofiev Sergey Sergeevich was born on April 11 (23), 1891 in the village of Sontsovka, Yekaterinoslav province. The love of music was instilled in the boy by his mother, who was a good pianist, often played the son of Chopin and Beethoven. Prokofiev received his primary education at home.

From an early age, Sergei Sergeevich became interested in music and already at the age of five he composed his first work - a small piece "Indian Gallop" for piano. In 1902, composer S. Taneyev heard Prokofiev's works. He was so impressed with the boy's abilities that he asked R. Gliere to give Sergei lessons in composition theory.

Education at the conservatory. World tours

In 1903 Prokofiev entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Among the teachers of Sergei Sergeevich were such famous musicians as N. Rimsky-Korsakov, J. Vitola, A. Lyadova, A. Esipova, N. Cherepnina. In 1909 Prokofiev graduated from the conservatory as a composer, in 1914 as a pianist, and in 1917 as an organist. During this period, Sergei Sergeevich created the operas Maddalena and The Gambler.

For the first time Prokofiev, whose biography was already known in the musical environment of St. Petersburg, performed with his works in 1908. After graduating from the conservatory, since 1918, Sergei Sergeevich toured a lot, visited Japan, the USA, London, Paris. In 1927, Prokofiev created the opera "Fiery Angel". In 1932, he recorded his Third Concerto in London.

Mature creativity

In 1936, Sergei Sergeevich moved to Moscow, began teaching at the conservatory. In 1938 he completed work on the ballet Romeo and Juliet. During the Great Patriotic War, he created the ballet "Cinderella", the opera "War and Peace", music for the films "Ivan the Terrible" and "Alexander Nevsky".

In 1944, the composer received the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR. In 1947 - the title of People's Artist of the RSFSR.

In 1948, Prokofiev completed work on the opera The Tale of a Real Man.

Last years

In 1948, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks issued a resolution in which Prokofiev was sharply criticized for "formalism." In 1949, at the First Congress of the Union of Composers of the USSR, Asafiev, Khrennikov and Yarustovsky spoke with condemnation of the opera The Tale of a Real Man.

Since 1949, Prokofiev practically did not leave his dacha, continuing to actively create. The composer created the ballet "The Tale of the Stone Flower", the symphony-concert "Guarding the World".

The life of the composer Prokofiev ended on March 5, 1953. The great musician died of a hypertensive crisis in a communal apartment in Moscow. Prokofiev was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

Personal life

In 1919, Prokofiev met his first wife, the Spanish singer Lina Kodina. They married in 1923 and soon had two sons.

In 1948, Prokofiev married Mira Mendelssohn, a student at the Literary Institute, whom he met in 1938. Sergei Sergeevich did not file a divorce from Lina Kodina, since in the USSR marriages made abroad were considered invalid.

Other biography options

  • The future composer created the first operas at the age of nine.
  • One of Prokofiev's hobbies was playing chess. The great composer said that playing chess helped him create music.
  • The last work that Prokofiev managed to hear in the concert hall was his Seventh Symphony (1952).
  • Prokofiev died on the day of his death

Among the many memories of one of the great, uniquely original musicians of our era - Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev - one is especially interesting, told by himself at the beginning of a brief autobiography: “The entrance exam was quite impressive. A man with a beard was examining in front of me, who brought a romance without accompaniment as all his luggage. I entered, stooping under the weight of two folders containing four operas, two sonatas, a symphony, and quite a few piano pieces. "I like it!" - said Rimsky-Korsakov, who led the exam.

Prokofiev was then 13 years old! And if at this age one can "bend under the weight" of such creative baggage, then the composer's biography deserves attention, apparently, from the earliest years of his life. In the annals of Russian composers, we do not find cases of "wunderkind". Beginning with Glinka, however, and from pre-Glinka times, the craving for writing manifested itself in a more mature, youthful, and not in childhood, and at first was limited to piano pieces and romances. Prokofiev, on the other hand, placed opera claviers and the score of a symphony on the examination table; he behaved independently, confidently; he judged music resolutely, as they say, "with full knowledge of the subject", he had more than enough self-esteem.

The biography of this peculiar person began in the provincial wilderness, in Sontsovka - not far from Yekaterinoslav, where his father was the manager of the estate. Here, under the guidance of a mother, a good pianist, music lessons began when the future author of The Love for Three Oranges was not yet five years old. Prokofiev began to invent and compose music around the same time, and he never left this occupation again. It was an organic need of every day of his life. The definition of "composer" was for Prokofiev as natural as "man".

Two operas - "The Giant" and "On the Deserted Islands", composed and even recorded by Prokofiev at the age of 9-10, of course, cannot be taken into account when considering his creative path, they are childishly naive. But they can serve as evidence of talent, perseverance, an indicator of striving for some kind of scale.

The eleven-year-old composer was introduced to S. I. Taneyev. A great musician and a strict teacher recognized the undoubted talent of the boy and recommended that he seriously study music. The next chapter of Prokofiev's biography is completely unusual: during the summer months of 1902 and 1903, Taneyev's student R. M. Glier studied composition with Seryozha Prokofiev. The result of the first summer is a four-movement symphony, the second summer is the opera "Feast in the Time of Plague". It was, as Prokofiev recalled many years later, "a real opera, with vocal parts, an orchestral score and an overture in sonata form."

At the age of 13, Prokofiev, as you know, embarked on the path of professional music lessons already within the walls of the St. Petersburg Conservatory.

Studying with A. K. Lyadov, N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov in composition and with A. A. Winkler and A. Esipova in piano, S. Prokofiev did not confine himself to class assignments. He wrote a lot, not always coordinating how and what to write with academic rules. Even then, the creative self-will so typical of Prokofiev, the source of many conflicts with "recognized authorities", the source of a purely individual, Prokofiev's manner of writing, had an effect.

In December 1908, the seventeen-year-old Prokofiev performed for the first time in a public concert. Among other piano pieces, he played "Obsession", in which one can hear typically Prokofiev's sharply dissonant harmony, springy rhythm, deliberately dryish, daring motorism. Criticism reacted instantly: "The young author, who has not yet completed his artistic education, belonging to the extreme direction of the modernists, goes much further in his courage than the modern French." Label stuck: "extreme modernist." Recall that by the end of the first decade of the century, modernism blossomed magnificently and gave more and more new shoots. Therefore, Prokofiev had quite a lot of "definitions", which often sounded like abusive nicknames. Prokofiev did not find a common language with the conservative "bosses" and teachers. The closest he met only with N. N. Cherepnin, who taught conducting. In the same years, Prokofiev struck up a friendship with N. Ya. Myaskovsky, a respectable musician ten years older than him.

Young Prokofiev becomes a frequent guest of the "Evenings of Contemporary Music", where all kinds of novelties were performed. Prokofiev was the first Russian performer of the piano pieces by Arnold Schoenberg, who at that time had not yet created his own dodecaphonic system, but wrote quite “sharply”.

Judging by the dedication written by Prokofiev on the score of the symphonic picture “Dreams”: “To the author who began with Dreams (i.e., Scriabin), Prokofiev did not escape the passion that captured the vast majority of young musicians. But according to Prokofiev, this passion only slipped, leaving no noticeable trace. By his nature, Prokofiev - a clear, decisive, businesslike, athletic type of person, least of all resembled a composer who is close to Scriabin's refinement, dreaminess, or - in another way - ecstasy.

Already in the "March" for piano, which is part of the cycle "Ten Pieces" (1914), one can hear the elastic, strong-willed, catchy manner typical of Prokofiev of subsequent decades, which is close to Mayakovsky's writing style of those years.

The two piano concertos that followed one after the other (1912, 1913) are evidence of the composer's creative maturity. They are different: in the First, the desire to shock at all costs, to stun the audience makes itself felt; The second concerto is much more poetic. Prokofiev himself wrote about his concertos: "Reproaches for the pursuit of external brilliance and for some "football" of the First Concerto led to a search for greater depth of content in the Second."

The audience and the overwhelming majority of critics greeted Prokofiev's appearance on the St. Petersburg concert stage with a friendly hiss. In the feuilleton of the Petersburg Newspaper, they wrote that "Prokofiev sits down at the piano and begins either to wipe the keys, or to try which of them sound higher or lower."

By 1914, Prokofiev "finished" with the conservatory in both specialties - composer and pianist.

As a reward, his parents offered him a trip abroad. He chose London. The opera and ballet troupe of Sergei Diaghilev toured there, the repertoire of which was of great interest to Prokofiev. In London, he was captured by Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe and two of Stravinsky's ballets, The Firebird and Petrushka.

In conversations with Diaghilev, the first, still unclear outlines of a ballet on a Russian prehistoric theme arise. The initiative belonged to Diaghilev, and it was undoubtedly "The Rite of Spring" that prompted him to these thoughts.

Upon returning to Russia, Prokofiev gets to work. As often happened in the history of ballet theatre, a weak dramatic foundation, even in the presence of excellent music, does not lead to success. So it was with Prokofiev's idea of ​​the ballet "Ala and Lolly", the libretto to which was composed by the poet Sergei Gorodetsky. Stravinsky's influences are clearly felt in the music. This is understandable, given that the atmosphere of the Scythian "barbarity" of "Ala and Lollia" is the same as in "The Rite of Spring" and even some of the plot moves are very similar. And besides, the music of such gigantic impressive power as The Rite of Spring could not fail to capture the young Prokofiev. Somewhat later - between 1915 and 1920 - the ballet "The Tale of the Jester Who Outsmarted the Seven Jesters" appears. This time, Prokofiev writes the libretto himself, borrowing the plot from Russian fairy tales from A. Afanasyev's collection. The mischievous music of the Russian character was a success for the composer. The ballet turned out to be lively, replete with witty episodes and reminiscent of "buffoon games". In it, Prokofiev “had enough fun” with irony, grotesque, sarcasm - so typical for him.

Many contemporaries of the young Prokofiev and even researchers of his work saw in his music a “lyrical stream” that made its way through sharply satirical, grotesque, sarcastic images, through deliberately rough, heavy rhythms. And there are many of them, these lyrical, shy intonations in the piano cycles "Fleeting" and "Sarcasm", in the side theme of the first part of the Second Sonata, in romances based on poems by Balmont, Apukhtin, Akhmatova.

From here, threads will be drawn to "Tales of the Old Grandmother", "Romeo and Juliet", to the music of Natasha Rostova, to "Cinderella", to Pushkin's waltzes. Let us note that in these works strong feelings dominate, but shy, “afraid” of their outward expression. Prokofiev is ironic about the exaggerations of the romantic "world of agitated feelings." For such anti-romantic skepticism - among many other works - the romance "The Magician" based on Agnivtsev's poems is very indicative.

Prokofiev's anti-romantic tendencies are also reflected in his sympathy for prose, prose texts. Here we can talk about the influences of Mussorgsky, especially since Prokofiev often chooses the type of melody that is close to speech intonations. In this regard, his "Ugly Duckling" for voice and piano is very indicative, which can hardly be called a romance. Andersen's wise and kind fairy tale, instilling faith in goodness and light, attracted Prokofiev with its humanism.

One of the first performances of The Ugly Duckling was listened to by A. M. Gorky in a concert in which he read the first chapter of his Childhood. Enraptured by The Duck, Gorky surmised: “... but he wrote it about himself, about himself!”

In January 1916, Prokofiev had to go through an ordeal that made him remember the evening of the premiere of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. This was the first performance of the Scythian Suite, which he conducted himself. The audience loudly expressed its indignation at the "wild work". The reviewer of Theatrical List wrote: “It is simply unbelievable that such a play, devoid of any meaning, could be performed at a serious concert ... These are some kind of impudent, impudent sounds that express nothing but endless boasting.”

Prokofiev stoically endures this kind of critical appraisal and this kind of audience reaction. Being present at the public performances of D. Burliuk, V. Kamensky, V. Mayakovsky, he gets used to the idea that innovative trends in any art cannot but cause violent reactions from the public, which has its own, well-established tastes and considers any violation of them an encroachment on personality, dignity , propriety.

In the pre-revolutionary years, Prokofiev was busy working on the opera The Gambler based on a story by Dostoevsky. Here he comes even closer to Mussorgsky. The Gambler, for many reasons, will be postponed by Prokofiev for almost ten years; it will not premiere in Brussels until 1929.

While working on The Gambler, perhaps in opposition to the innovations generously scattered in the score, Prokofiev conceived a symphony built according to the strict canon of the classical examples of this genre. Thus, one of the most charming works of the young Prokofiev, his Classical Symphony, arises. Cheerful, bright, without a single “wrinkle on the brow” music, with only one theme touches another emotional sphere, dreamy lyrics, this is a melody of violins in an extremely high register that sounds at the beginning of the second part. The first performance of the Classical Symphony dedicated to B. V. Asafiev took place under the direction of the author after the revolution, in 1918. A. V. Lunacharsky was present at the concert.

In a conversation with him, Prokofiev expressed a desire to go on a long concert train abroad. Lunacharsky did not object. So, in 1918 Prokofiev went abroad.

At first, he gave concerts in Japan, and from there he went to the USA. In his memoirs, Prokofiev writes: “From Yokohama, with a wonderful stop in Honolulu, I moved to San Francisco. They did not immediately let me ashore there, knowing that “maximalists” ruled in Russia (as the Bolsheviks were called at that time in America) - a people not entirely understandable and, probably, dangerous. After spending three days on the island and questioning in detail ("Have you been in prison?" - "I was in jail." - "It's bad. Where is it?" - "Your island." - "Ah, you like to joke!"), I was allowed into the United States."

Three and a half years spent in the USA added to the list of Prokofiev's compositions the opera The Love for Three Oranges and several chamber works.

Leaving Russia, Prokofiev took with him the theatrical magazine "Love for Three Oranges", which printed the script of the fairy tale of the same name by the Italian playwright Carlo Gozzi, revised by V. Meyerhold. Based on it, Prokofiev wrote the libretto and music for the opera.

"The Love for Three Oranges" can be called an ironic tale, in which reality, fantasy, theatrical conventions are intertwined into a fascinating performance, endowed with a vivid stage form, akin to the Italian "commedia dell'arte". During the time - almost half a century - separating us from the premiere of "Love for Three Oranges", this opera has entered the repertoire of many theaters.

For the first time, after long ordeals, it was staged in Chicago at the end of 1921. Two weeks before the premiere of "Oranges" there, in Chicago, the first performance of the Third Piano Concerto took place. The solo part was played by the author. In this concerto, the “Russian spirit” reigns in the language, in images, either in a pipe-like sincere (introduction), or in a Koshcheev-style ominously fabulous, or sweeping, like the generous power of Russian youth. Of the five piano concertos (the Fourth and Fifth were written in the early 1930s), it is the Third that enjoys the greatest popularity to this day, perhaps also because of the voice of the piano "omnipotence" in it, which makes one recall the pathos of the concertos of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff . This feature of the concert was figuratively and vividly expressed by the poet Konstantin Balmont: "And the invincible Scythian beats the tambourine of the sun."

Having moved to Europe in early 1920, to Paris, Prokofiev renewed his ties with Diaghilev, but not for long. The meeting with Stravinsky turned into a quarrel, and this led to changes in the relationship with Diaghilev as well. An experienced impresario, a man with an excellent "scent", Diaghilev felt that Prokofiev could not count on success with that part of the public that some respectfully call "elite", others - more soberly - snobs. In short, she, the "elite", did not like the Violin Concerto, written long ago, but first performed in Paris in 1923, which, in her opinion, was not "spiced up" enough. And then Prokofiev, wanting to take revenge, so "peppered" the Second Symphony that it also recoiled from the "left side" of the hall. Prokofiev was not in the "Parisian key", not in favor. So, according to the logic of Diaghilev, there is nothing to know with him.

In the diplomatic world, in influential "salons", interest in the "country of the Bolsheviks" grew day by day. This did not pass Diaghilev's attention. After two years of coldness, Sergei Diaghilev turned in the old, friendly way to Prokofiev. It was about a ballet from ... Soviet life. I. Ehrenburg was supposed to be the author of the libretto. The final choice fell on G. Yakulov. The name of the ballet "Steel lope" was intriguing. Staged by the choreographer Leonid Myasin, "Steel Lope" neither in Paris nor in London, where it was shown during the tour of the Diaghilev troupe, was not successful and, strictly speaking, could not have it. The ballet, devoid of through action, consisted of separate, unrelated episodes: a train with bagmen, Commissars, toffees and cigarettes, an Orator. In the second (last) scene of the ballet on the stage, the ballet troupe demonstrated the movement of machines, machine tools, the hooting of steam hammers.

In 1927, Sergei Prokofiev made a major concert tour of the Soviet Union. He was fascinated by the Leningrad production of "Three Oranges", the welcome given to him as a composer and pianist in Moscow, Leningrad, Kharkov, Kyiv, Odessa. He seemed to breathe anew the air of his native land.

Of the works of the late 1920s, the most interesting are the Third Symphony (we will return to it later) and the ballet The Prodigal Son, staged in May 1929. Here Prokofiev again showed the power of his talent. The music of The Prodigal Son captures with its wise simplicity, warmth, and nobility of thematics. Contrasting scenes: the orgy of the feast and the morning after a wild night, and then the scene of the return of the hero of the ballet-parable to his father's shelter, full of sorrow and humility, make a strong impression. The ballet "The Prodigal Son" is the closest approach to the three ballets written by Prokofiev after returning to his homeland, ballets that increased his world fame.

Prokofiev had long dreamed of returning home. In the memoirs of one of his French friends, Sergei Sergeevich is quoted: “The air of a foreign land does not inspire me, because I am Russian and there is nothing more harmful for a person than living in exile, being in a spiritual climate that does not correspond to his race. I must again plunge into the atmosphere of my homeland, I must again see the real winter and spring, I must hear Russian speech, talk with people close to me. And this will give me what is so lacking here, because their songs are my songs.

In 1933, Sergei Prokofiev returned to his homeland. But the family has changed. In the sixteen post-revolutionary years, a new audience has grown up with its own beliefs, demands, and tastes. This was not the audience that Prokofiev remembered from his youth, and not the one he met abroad. An artistic, aesthetic culture has grown gigantically, bound by strong ties to a revolutionary worldview, which makes it possible to freely, truthfully perceive and interpret the phenomena of life in the same way, understanding where history is heading. Trying his hand in new conditions for him, Prokofiev accepts an offer to write music for the film Lieutenant Kizhe. This is where the musical wit inherent in Prokofev made itself felt! The era of the Pavlovian barracks drill, the gloomy whistling of flutes to the drum roll, jumping on the messenger courier with bulging eyes from zeal, was an era when both cutesy ladies-in-waiting and cooks sang a hundred times a day: “The dove dove groans, he groans day and night ... "Freedom for music! Besides the music is ironic. Prokofiev composed exactly the kind of music that was expected of him: sharp, extremely precise, instantly merging with the action, with the person, with the landscape. And "The Wedding of Kizhe", and "Troika", and the terrible drum roll, under which the "criminal Kizhe" was led to Siberia - all this sounded extremely expressive due to the grotesqueness, combining the terrible and the funny.

Thus began a new, most important stage in Prokofiev's creative biography. In the same year, 1933, he wrote music for the production of Egyptian Nights at the Moscow Chamber Theater and again proved that even in this genre, which seems to give the composer the most modest opportunities, works of high dignity can be created.

Prokofiev repeatedly refers to the genre of film music and music in the drama theater. His music for two films by Sergei Eisenstein, "Alexander Nevsky" and "Ivan the Terrible", left a particularly great impression. In the music for "Alexander Nevsky" (1938), Prokofiev continued the line of epic symphonism, coming from Borodin. Episodes such as "Rus' under the Mongol yoke", "Battle on the Ice", the chorus "Get up, Russian people" captivate with their realistic strength and strict monumentality. Not an illustration to a film frame, but a symphonic generalization of the theme, concretized on the screen, occupies the composer. Despite the fact that music is firmly connected with the image, it has an independent, very high value, as evidenced by the cantata "Alexander Nevsky" created on its basis for orchestra, choir and soloist.

The music for the film "Ivan the Terrible" (1942) was written in the same plan. Already after the death of Prokofiev, conductor A. Stasevich combined the most significant episodes of music into the oratorio "Ivan the Terrible" - a work of tremendous, amazing power.

The second half of the 1930s was marked by the composition of one of Prokofiev's best works, the ballet Romeo and Juliet. Staged in early 1940 by L. Lavrovsky on the stage of the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater. S. M. Kirov, he played a huge role in the history of world choreographic culture, being the first performance, by means of music, dance and pantomime, to fully embody the Shakespearean tragedy. G. Ulanova - Juliet, K. Sergeev - Romeo, R. Gerbek - Tybalt, A. Lopukhov - Mercutio are rightfully included in the number of the most outstanding performers of Shakespeare's roles. With his ballet, Prokofiev raised the level of ballet music to a level that, after Tchaikovsky, Glazunov and Stravinsky, it did not reach, which, in turn, set new tasks for every composer writing ballet music. The symphonic principles that define the style and essence of the music of Romeo and Juliet were further developed in two of Prokofiev's ballets, Cinderella (1944) and The Tale of the Stone Flower (1950).

One of the most poetic performances about the sad life of a stepdaughter, humiliated, ridiculed by an evil stepmother and her daughters Zlyuka and Krivlyaka, was born with Cinderella. In those distant years, when romances were written to the verses of Balmong, Apukhtin and Akhmatova, full of the charm of "The Old Grandmother's Tales", seeds were sown that sprouted in the score of "Cinderella" with music radiating waves of humanity and love of life. In each episode where Cinderella appears or where she is only “mentioned”, the music is filled with fragrant warmth and caress. Of everything written by Prokofiev, “Cinderella” is closest to the ballet dramaturgy of Tchaikovsky, who also thought about a ballet for this plot more than once ...

Prokofiev's last ballet is The Tale of the Stone Flower. Bazhov’s “Malachite Box” was filled with wonderful Russian music, generated by fantastic and real images of the ancient tales of the Ural stone cutters and the brightest of them is the image of the Copper Mountain of the hostess, either a beautiful woman, or an evil malachite lizard keeping the secret of a stone flower.

Next to the ballets, an important place in Prokofiev's creative biography is occupied by his operas. In this genre, the composer followed a difficult path. Starting with the one-act Maddalena, a bloody drama set against the backdrop of the opulent life of 15th-century Venice, he turns to his next opera, Dostoevsky's The Gambler, from him to Carlo Gozzi's already mentioned fairy tale The Love for Three Oranges, the first opera won lasting success. After the ironic, light and cheerful music of "Oranges", the composer suddenly plunges into the darkness of the Middle Ages in an opera based on the plot of V. Bryusov's story "The Fiery Angel", where eroticism, the horrors of the Inquisition alternate with frenzied divination and cabalism. The music, written under the influence of expressionist aesthetics, which was completely unusual for Prokofiev, was later used by him in the Third Symphony.

For many years Prokofiev did not turn to the operatic genre. And only in 1939 he became interested in the story of V. Kataev "I am the son of the working people." Based on it, he wrote the opera Semyon Kotko. Prokofiev spoke in a completely new language in many episodes of this opera, apparently restoring in his memory childhood impressions about Ukraine, about the songs that rang in Sontsovka, about the very atmosphere, saturated with fertile Ukrainian warmth. Is it not from here that the lyrical intonations in the duet dialogues of Semyon Kotko and his beloved Sofya Tkachenko arose, or the characteristics of Frosya and Mikolka pleasing with their touching naivety? With the inalienable merits of Semyon Kotko, Prokofiev's predilection for prosaism, for the colloquial manner of intonation, at first prevented Prokofiev's first opera with a modern plot from taking a place in the repertoire of our theaters. This manner will be even more pronounced in the last opera, The Tale of a Real Man (1948) based on the book by B. Polevoy.