Ideology and musical theater in the era of Stalinism
A study of the production of M.I. Glinka’s Ivan Susanin on the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre in 1939, examining the problem of staging and interpretation of Russian musical classics and the influence of Soviet ideology on art. The author touches upon the issue of artist’s relationship to the authorities and considers Stalin’s personal interference in the creative processes of musical theatre, analysing the issues of aesthetics and artistic techniques during the Soviet era.