Specifics of Television Opera as New Form of Old Genre
The article is devoted to the specific features of the television opera, which became wide-spread in the second half of the twentieth century. The interaction of the opera genre with cinema and television was original and diverse in the last century; television versions of musicals, operas, rock operas and operettas became stage chamber, but full of events and details. The television opera also get genre specifics thanks to the techniques used in film and television and giving the opera scenes expressive effects. Television operas of Robert Ashley, who was one of the composers, devoted to this genre, are considered in more detail. The research methods were a musicological analysis of the television operas’ scores, a textual analysis of vocal parts, an aesthetic assessment of video effects and staged details, as well as dramaturgy and development of the plot. The main conclusion of the study is the statement that the television opera, retaining its basic features of the classical genre, get a new form, expanding its artistic and aesthetic capabilities thanks to new means of communication. The opera expanded the arsenal of expressiveness due to the capabilities of television and cinema, including the use of such techniques as accelerated montage, ambient light, light and shade, different angles and defocusing of the camera, cross-fade, flow or collage of shots, large and panoramic plans, etc. Television, in turn, thanks to music, acquired the aesthetics of academic art and creative inspiration brought by the opera genre to the media. At the same time, television made it possible to introduce wide masses of people to true art and musical avant-garde. All of Ashley's experiments with the genres of video- and television opera, his interest in language and speech and his desire to use audiovisual means to express musical ideas, testify to the composer's trying to create an opera for television that would not only give maximum impressions to the viewer, but also transform him inside, serving as a rich spiritual food capable of replacing television fast food.