The Star And Death Of Joaquin Murieta

The Star And Death Of Joaquin Murieta (Russian: Звезда и смерть Хоакина Мурьеты) - rock opera by Alexei Rybnikov and Pavel Grushko. One of the first rock operas in the USSR, created on the initiative of director Mark Zakharov on the basis of the dramatic cantata of the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda "The Shining and Death of Joaquin Murieta, a Chilean robber who was meanly murdered in California on July 23, 1853."

The performance took place on the stage of the Lenkom Theater for 17 seasons and was shown 1050 times.

Plot
Mark Zakharov has long been recommended to deliver an ideally catchy performance. The choice of plot was influenced: firstly, Pinochet’s military coup in Chile, and secondly, the death of the famous Chilean poet Pablo Neruda.

The choice fell on the cantata of Neruda "The Radiance and Death of Joaquin Murieta...". Pavel Grushko took up the translation.

On the recommendation of Yuri Entin, the teacher of the Moscow Conservatory Alexey Rybnikov was involved in writing the music. The storyline seemed interesting to him, and he agreed to write music for a future performance.

Pre-premiere shows caused a storm of negative criticism among officials from the Department of Culture. According to the memoirs of Alexei Rybnikov, the play was banned for 11 times before being given permission.

In May 1976, the premiere took place in Lenkom. The performance was a resounding success and became very popular.

In 1978, the first disc “The Star and Death of Joaquin Murieta” was released - the main parts were performed by: Star, Teresa - Zhanna Rozhdestvenskaya; Joaquin Murieta, Death - Gennady Trofimov.

1853 year. The booth shark calls passers-by to the fair booth, where the head of the famous robber Joaquin Murieta is exposed in a cage.

The action is transferred to the year 1850. The newspaper boys are screaming the news: California has a gold rush. Drawn by a distant mirage, crowds of people flock to the port of Valparaiso from all over the country, eager to go to the fertile land, where they live hearty and warm. Customs officer Adalberto Reyes requires a bunch of all kinds of certificates from Juan Three-fingered, but it is not difficult for a former miner to get a zealous servant to sail along with everyone in California to mine gold. Three-fingered accompanies Joaquin Murieta, in which he is for the uncle and guide. This young man is kneading a leader, he now explains to a former customs officer. Together with Joaquin, he still shared the poor fate, the poor bread and the poor cuffs.

While traveling by sea, horseback rider Joaquin Murieta lassoed the peasant woman Teresa. Immediately on the ship, their wedding takes place.

While on the deck there is an exuberant revel and rude fun is like a blind death call, from the porthole of the cabin you can hear the love dialogue of the newlyweds, absorbed in their happiness.

San Francisco panorama of 1850. In the tavern "Zavarukha" there was almost a clash of Hispanics who came to work, including Reyes and Three-fingered, with rangers in Texas hats armed with revolvers - but this time everything goes without bloodshed.

Blond greyhounds from California, as they call themselves, launch attacks on prospector villages. In one of these raids, the thugs, breaking into the house of Murieta, rape and kill Teresa. Returning from the mine, Joaquin swears over his wife’s lifeless body to avenge her and punish the killers. From this day, Joaquin becomes a robber.

Murieta, galloping on the horse of vengeance, keeps the whole district in fear, executes reprisals against white gringos, creating lawlessness and profiting from crimes. Reyes and Three-fingered, like some other Chileans, decide to join the formidable robber, to pay retribution for the brothers spilled blood. Around the Joaquin gathers a squad of avengers.

Murieta brings roses to his late wife, and the Greyhounds ambush the cemetery. Joaquin was unarmed, they shot him, and then, so as not to rise, they cut off his head.

Carrier calls passers-by to the fair booth, where Joaquin's head is exposed in a cage. Men decide to steal a head from a booth and bury them on Teresa’s grave.

The funeral procession moves, Three-fingered and Reyes bear the head of Murieta. The head of the robber regrets that the whole truth about him will not reach the descendants. He did much evil, although he did good deeds, but the inescapable longing for his murdered wife drove him to the earth, and his honor shone with a star.

In 1982, director Vladimir Grammatikov made a feature film on rock opera. The main roles were played by Andrey Kharitonov (Joaquin), Alyona Belyak (Teresa) and Alexander Filippenko (Death). The vocal parts of Joaquin and Death were performed by Gennady Trofimov. The vocal parts of the star and Theresa were performed by Jeanne Rozhdestvenskaya. Several works for the film were recorded by the rock group Integral Bari Alibasova, the musicians played the role of rangers in the film adaptation of the rock opera. "The Star and Death of Joaquin Murieta" was the first Russian musical to be embodied in all three forms accepted in world practice - a music album, a play and a feature film.

In 2008, it was announced that a new version of the rock opera would be staged by the theater of Alexei Rybnikov. As Alexei Rybnikov stated in an interview with Rossiiskaya Gazeta, he had long been interested in the idea of ​​creating an updated version of the musical, especially since (as the composer said): “Now there are many opportunities for Star and Death to sound in that version in which it was conceived. But at all rehearsals, I fought for the rock opera to remain a live performance. Because, otherwise, music can crush a human personality. And I did not want the heroes and their destinies to dissolve in the sound of 50 kilowatts.”

Although the composer was offered to rebuild the rock opera under the "spite of the day", no changes were made to the plot. For the role of Joaquin, the singer Dmitry Koldun was approved, for the role of Teresa - Svetlana Svetikova, for the role of Death - Igor Sandler, who starred in the film adaptation of the rock opera as a ranger, and for the role of Lada (Diana) - Irina Pegova.

On November 19, 2008, a press conference on the rock opera "The Star and Death of Joaquin Murieta" was held. At a meeting with numerous journalists on November 19, the composer Alexei Rybnikov, the author of the poetic libretto poet Pavel Grushko, the set designer of the new play, the artist Theodor Tezhik, the director Alexander Rykhlov, the author of the arrangements, rock musician Dmitry Chetvergov, the main actors Svetlana Svetikova (Teresa), Dmitry Koldun (Joaquin), Igor Sandler (Death).

A miniature of the new version of the rock opera was held at the Moscow International House of Music on November 28, 2013.

June 9, 2014 in the theater of Alexei Rybnikov, the premiere of a new version of a rock opera called “Joaquin Murieta. Love and death".

The text of the poems of the libretto was written by Julius Kim. In contrast to the performance of the 1970s, the basis was the real story of Joaquin Murieta and folk legends enveloping this controversial figure from the time of the California gold rush of the 1850s. Julius Kim explained the reason for creating the new version: “Rybnikov and I restored the historical truth. In the legendary performance of the 70s, the heroes of the action were Chileans. The true participants in the history of Joaquin are Mexicans (after all, Joaquin is a historical person, and not just a hero of a legend, and his homeland is Mexico).”

Cast

 * Joaquin Murieta - Alexander Abdulov
 * Teresa - Lyubov Matyushina
 * Two roles: Death and the Head of the Rangers - Nikolai Karachentsov
 * Lada (Diana) - Lyudmila Solodenko
 * Joaquin Murieta - Pavel Zibrov
 * Rosita - Maria Savina, Eugene Blagov, Alexander Akmanov
 * Death - Nikolai Drozdovsky
 * The owner of the brothel - Svetlana Milovanova
 * The organ grinder - Leonid Sivets