Myth, Fairy Tale and History: An Archaeology of the National Spirit in the Operas of ‘The Five’ (‘The Mighty Handful’)

Abstract

If we accept that Stanisław Moniuszko’s The Haunted Manor and Halka helped to shape Polish identity and patriotic attitudes, any assessment of the Mighty Handful’s role in forming Russian consciousness must recognise that Russia produced many more such operas and that their message was more explicit, since it was not constrained by censorship used to denationalise conquered peoples. Their paradox lay in artistic innovation achieved through an ideologically retrospective stance: archaicising language and subjects from Russia’s past. This approach entered the contemporary debate over Russia’s future, ultimately resolved by entrenching a feudal social order, tsarist autocracy and distance from progressive Western ideas.

The operas constitute an archaeology of Russian national consciousness. Its strata comprise cultural archetypes expressed through fairy tale; myths reconstructing prehistoric tribal organisation; legends about statehood in ancient Rus’; and historical images of dynastic transition— the decline of the Riurikid dynasty and advent of the House of Romanov. Acting as an ideological and artistic co-operative, the composers seldom addressed periods or subjects beyond the Russian cultural sphere. Their works preserve an Eurasian mentality opposed to the Westernising reforms of Peter I and contributed to the imperial policy of both Soviet and Putin’s Russia.

Before cinema, the composite medium of opera—music’s emotional force intensifying intellectual and visual content—was a compelling means of bringing ideas into social circulation. These composers thereby perpetuated elements of the national consciousness through which Russians perceive themselves, their surroundings and the Poles. Their works can thus illuminate our neighbours’ perspective on shared problems.