On April 2, the Lyric Theatre @ Illinois presents the highly anticipated academic world premiere of Black Square. An absurdist fable commemorating the October Revolution, Black Square is, as described by its creators, “a tragicomic love story that mixes intellectual traditions of Russian avant-garde and the fast pacing of an action thriller.” Danielle Sekel, Outreach and Programming Coordinator at REEEC, and Dimitri Glaros, REEEC undergraduate outreach assistant and music composition student, sat down with key members of the creative team, librettist Igor Konyukhov and composer Ilya Demutsky, to delve into the genesis, evolution, and current staging of this exciting new production. Read more about their conversation here and find a full video of their interview below.
The beginnings of Black Square trace back to 2014, when librettist Igor Konyukhov was approached with an idea to do a restaging of the 1913 Russian Futurist opera Victory Over the Sun. After some research, he quickly realized this would be impossible, explaining that the 1913 opera existed best as not a theatrical piece, but rather as a manifestation of an artistic expression of the time. Konyukhov explains, “the initial inspiration was not to recreate Victory Over the Sun, but rather to reimagine it and consider what it may look like as a modern opera.” While researching composers to commission for this project, Konyukhov came across a piece by Ilya Demutsky, and later came to connect with Olga Maslova, decorated costume designer and assistant professor of theatre at the University of Illinois. From there, the rest was history.
Demutsky’s musical compositions serve as a vibrant canvas, marrying tradition with innovation. Departing from the experimentalism of its predecessor, Black Square embraces a more lyrical and melodic approach, starkly juxtaposed with a gradual disintegration of language and form inherent in Konyukhov’s libretto. He mirrors Konyukhov’s desire to create an entirely new work, born out of and inspired by some ideas and threads taken from Victory Over the Sun: “I don’t actually like to do recreations—it’s too scientific of a process, in my opinion. I’m an emotional person, and I like to get my emotions from the text. And this text gave me the emotions to work with that allowed us to create something new.” As Konyukhov added on, “It’s a bit of an infusion between old and new.”
The opera’s text and music both evolve and devolve over the course of the performance. Konyukhov reflected on how creators of Victory Over the Sun were prophetic in a sense—they were trying to break away from the residuals of romanticism. “They were trying to get rid of the sorrows and the emotions, and just live a happy life where everything is predictable. That was their prediction for the next 100 years.” In this project, he wanted to explore this world of oversimplification, to investigate what lies within and beyond the breakdown of language.
When asked what the creators hope audiences take from Black Square, Demutsky responded that he “likes when people allow themselves to just enjoy the show. Of course, everyone has their own thoughts about what is going on, but it all comes back to emotion. Our materials are such that everyone will take something from the performance, and there are parallels between the opera and the world for audience members to uncover and contemplate.” Konyukhov chimed in, “For me, from the very first day of working on this, I had two things that were my goal. First, I want people to leave and say, ‘What the hell was that?’ But beyond that, I also want them to think ‘That was so much fun.’ For me, this opera is a statement, but the statement ends in confusion. You don’t really understand the opera word-for-word, but you have a sense for it. Sense is the feeling, the intuition. It’s important to me to not give any answers, but rather to allow the audience members to go home and figure out what the performance means to them. All answers are right.”
This academic world premier comes after over a decade of work on the opera, and both Demutsky and Konyukhov described how the material came to be almost like a sentient being, living on its own and taking on a form of its own over the years. They look forward to seeing what it has grown into in this staging of the opera. They concluded by stressing the importance of the staging in uncovering the full meaning and significance of the work:
Konyukhov: It’s like whenever you write a script, they always tell you don’t only say it, but rather show it. The action itself can inform you in a different way beyond the text and the music.
Demutsky: And the action is very important here.
Konyukhov: So, you’ll have to come and see it!
Lyric Theatre’s Black Square opens on Tuesday, April 2, with additional performances on April 4 and 6 at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. For more information, please visit the Krannert site here: https://krannertcenter.com/events/black-square.