The Opera "The Dawns Here Are Quiet" by Kirill Vladimirovich Molchanov as a Lyrical-Documentary Interpretation of War

Mei JIEWEN ORCID: 0009-0000-5861-9314 PhD in Art History Postgraduate student; Institute of Types of Art (Musical Art); M.M. IPPOLITOV-IVANOV State Music and Pedagogical Institute 121357, Russia, Moscow, Fili-Davydkovo district, Initiativnaya str., 6, room 1, sq. 149 912876563@qq.com Other publications by this author

Kirill Vladimirovich Molchanov (1922-1982) holds a special place in the history of Soviet music as a composer for whom art was not just a craft, but a form of life service. He was born in Moscow in 1922 into a musical family, which in many ways predetermined his creative path. At an early age, the future composer found himself immersed in the world of sounds and artistic expression, absorbing the best traditions of the Russian music school.

In 1949, Molchanov graduated from the Moscow Conservatory with a composition class from Professor A. Alexandrov. His thesis, the opera "The Stone Flower" based on P. Bazhov's fairy tales, became a vivid example of the synthesis of folk poetics and modern musical language. This opera was staged on the stage of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theater, which immediately brought the composer among the young, but already recognized authors.

Molchanov combined his activities not only with composing, but also with organizational work: in 1951-1956, he served as secretary of the Board of the USSR Union of Composers. Later, in 1973-1975, he became director of the Bolshoi Theatre, which indicated a high level of trust in its artistic and administrative authority ^[12].

Along with his opera and symphonic heritage, lyrical and popular songs such as "There are so many golden Lights", "You can't hide from people in the village", "Here come the soldiers", "Heart, be Silent" and others brought him national love. These works were performed by artists of both academic and pop genres, which speaks to the breadth of his audience and the universality of the musical language.

Conductor Fuat Mansurov also spoke about the scale of Molchanov's personality, emphasizing: "He was never indifferent. Everything he did, he did according to the highest class" ^[12]. These words confirm not only the composer's highest professionalism, but also his principled attitude towards sincerity, emotional involvement and artistic honesty.

One of the most striking works in the composer's work was the opera "And the Dawns are Quiet here", written in 1973 based on the novel of the same name by Boris Vasiliev. This essay became a kind of culmination of his treatment of the theme of war, tragic and heroic at the same time. Moreover, the composer himself used the music he had previously written for the film of the same name, partially including it in the opera score ^[1].

From the very first steps in his composing career, Molchanov demonstrated a desire for a synthesis of lyricism and drama, a search for expressive musical means to convey complex human feelings. His work is distinguished by its humanistic orientation: the composer has always focused on human fate, the inner struggle of the individual, and the moral guidelines of the time. As B. Mukosey rightly notes, "everything he did, he did according to the highest class" ^[12].

Molchanov's main area of interest was musical theater. It was in this genre that he was able to reveal himself as an artist capable of combining tradition and innovation, psychology and epic breadth, modern themes and eternal questions of existence. His operas cover a wide range of subjects, from adaptations of classics to dramatic stories about the fate of ordinary people. The composer paid special attention to military subjects, understanding it not only as a chronicle of exploits, but also as a space of tragic reflection on the price of human life.

Molchanov's orchestral writing also deserves special attention. In his scores, the orchestra performs not just an accompanying, but an expressive and psychological function. He creates an atmosphere, enhances drama, and draws images of war with sounds: drumming imitates shooting, brass fanfares announce the offensive, and lyrical episodes of the orchestra represent memories, dreams, and losses ^[6].

It should be emphasized that Molchanov strove for maximum expressiveness with minimal means. This is especially evident in his tendency to replace traditional arias with vocal monologues, embedding memories, internal dialogues, and intonations of spoken speech into the fabric of the opera. This approach creates the effect of presence, intimacy, and involvement of the listener in what is happening on stage.

Compared to other Soviet composers, his approach to the theme of war stands out for its subtlety and psychology. The opera "The Unknown Soldier", as noted in O. Zhar'skaya's research, approaches in genre nature to a funeral oratorio or requiem. The focus is not on heroic victory, but on inner fortitude, willingness to sacrifice, pain, and the immortality of memory ^[6].

Military themes in Soviet culture became one of the central areas of artistic understanding of the 20th century, especially during the Great Patriotic War and after it. The art of that time served not only an aesthetic, but also a mobilization and ideological function: it inspired, strengthened the spirit, and formed the image of an enemy and a hero. "When there is a war, the muses fall silent" — this ancient formula was decisively refuted by the work of Soviet composers, writers, and directors who worked in conditions of acute shortage of time, resources, and security, but with great inner uplift ^[10].

The military theme has become a kind of moral category in Soviet culture. It meant not just a set of historical events, but the experience of national heroism, suffering, tragedy and victory. That is why the aesthetic task was not only to reflect, but to transform reality, to experience it artistically with a high "emotional temperature" ^[2].

During the war years, music sounded not only from the stage, but also in the trenches — it "embraced the trench life of a soldier," inspiring him and serving as a support in the most difficult trials ^[3]. Songs like "Blue Handkerchief" or "Katusha" became informal anthems, reminders of home and Homeland. However, the desire to create a major musical and dramatic form, in particular opera, capable of expressing the scale of historical tragedy, has become much more significant.

K. V. Molchanov is one of those composers who took the military theme as a personal and creative mission. Of his eight operas, four are dedicated to the Great Patriotic War: Romeo, Juliet and the Darkness (1963), The Unknown Soldier (1967), The Russian Woman (1969) and The Dawns Are Quiet Here (1973). The composer himself emphasized: "For me, the main theme of creativity is the struggle against war, against fascism."

A special place in his work is occupied by the opera "The Unknown Soldier", staged at the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR in 1967. It was originally called The Brest Fortress and was written based on the novel of the same name by S. S. Smirnov. However, already at the stage of preparation for the production, at the suggestion of Molchanov himself, it received a more generalized name. As B. A. Pokrovsky, the director of the play, emphasized, the characters in the production did not have names — they became symbols, "people with a capital letter", embodying the image of a Soviet warrior, defender of the Motherland ^[4].

This symbolization and universalization of heroism are characteristic of Molchanov's entire aesthetic. In the opera "And the dawns are Quiet here", staged in 1973 in Frunze, the composer combined a realistic narrative with the emotional intensity of cinema. He resorts to "surges" — techniques typical of cinema, which allows him to enhance the inner drama of the characters. The musical fabric is saturated with memories, fragments of memory, and montage dramaturgy, which allows us to reveal the emotional experiences of the war heroines ^[10].

The plot of the opera is a tragic story of female anti—aircraft gunners who died while performing a combat mission. Despite the genre, there is no pathetic rhetoric in the work. On the contrary, intimate lyrics, human warmth, subtle psychological penetration reign here. The composer shows the war through the eyes of women, emphasizing the fragility, vulnerability and at the same time the incredible inner strength of the heroines. According to researchers, it is the emotional sincerity and personal experience of a composer who has gone through the war that become the source of the authentic sound of his music ^[5].

One of the characteristic features of Molchanov's author's style is the use of collage and polystylistic techniques. In the opera "The Dawns are Quiet Here", he organically combines author's music with folklore and popular song intonations, the sound of gramophone recordings, quotations from the works of Isaac Dunaevsky and Handel ^[8]. At the same time, such inclusions do not look mechanically inserted: they become dramaturgically motivated elements of the musical space, emphasizing the historical context and enhancing the emotional impact.

The composer works masterfully with vocal parts. His heroines – Rita, Zhenya, Sonya, Lisa – receive individual musical characteristics. For example, the image of Zhenya Komelkova is revealed through a simple urban waltz and a song based on K. Simonov's poems "Wait for Me", which gives the heroine both naive purity and tragic doom ^[9]. Lisa Brichkina sounds in long, melodious phrases close to a folk song, and Sonya Gurvich – in a romance with the intonations of Blok and Handel, which emphasizes her poetry and sublimity ^[24].

K. Molchanov works with the military theme not as a material for glorifying heroism, but as a space of memory, pain and personal tragedy. This is clearly seen in the change of focus: his characters are not a "feat", but a man in a war. So, in "The Unknown Soldier" he abandons the names of the characters — instead they use symbolic designations: Commander, Commissar, Woman, Boy. Thus, the opera becomes not a story about specific events, but a musical memorial dedicated to all the nameless heroes ^[10].

A similar intonation is preserved in the opera "And the dawns here are Quiet", written on the basis of the novel of the same name by B. Vasiliev. Here, as the author of the study emphasizes, Molchanov uses cinematic techniques, fragmented "montage dramaturgy", "influx" of memories, and nonlinear narrative techniques to bring the sound closer to the inner speech and memory of the heroines ^[23].

This is the main feature of Molchanov's approach: he humanizes the opera about the war, making it a space for personal, intimate confession. His operas don't accuse or exalt — they testify. This testimony does not require pathos, because its power lies in sincerity ^[16].

As I.V. Serebryakova rightly notes, "the theater is able to show the characters in close-up, to penetrate into their inner world" ^[14]. This is exactly what Kirill Molchanov strives for in the opera "And the dawns here are Quiet", presenting not just an episode of battle, but a drama of sacrifice, personal achievement and memory.

Thus, Molchanov not only continues the tradition of opera on a military theme, founded in the 1940s by Kabalevsky, Prokofiev or Dzerzhinsky, but he reformats the very structure of the narrative. He replaces documentality with an artistic reconstruction of the inner world, focusing not on the chronicle, but on experience, not on historical fact, but on human memory, in which war lives not as a victory, but as a wound.

This understanding of the military theme is also connected with changes in society. By the 1960s and 1970s, from the generation of victors to the generation of descendants, the task passed not only to remember, but also to understand the war. Molchanov offers just such an understanding — not an external one, but an internal one, not a rhetorical one, but an emotional one.

Music in military conditions serves not only as an aesthetic, but also as an educational tool. K. Molchanov organically develops this idea, turning the opera "And the Dawns here are Quiet" into an emotionally saturated form of cultural memory. The fact that Eugene's romance from this opera is still included in the official programs of military concerts indicates the solid integration of his music into the modern patriotic canon ^[22].

Kirill Molchanov's opera opens behind the stage with the chorale "Dawn in the Sky...", in which the choir, as the voice of memory, intones the motives of separation, incompleteness, loss. Melodic simplicity, measured movement and the absence of a dramatic climax give the introduction the character of an epigraph to a tragedy, a musical leitmotif of an unlived life. Thus, the composer immediately means not pathos, but lyrical reflection, contrasting an individual tragedy with a large-scale heroic narrative. (Fig. 1)

Figure 1. The opening bars of the chorus behind the stage "There are dawns in the sky..." (Andante) as a musical epigraph to K.V. Molchanov's opera "And the dawns here are quiet"

In this fragment, the scientific novelty stated in the work is especially clearly realized: Molchanov forms the lyrical and documentary language of opera, in which musical material becomes a way of emotional testimony, and the choir becomes a collective memory carrier, and not just a dramatic character.

The main character of the opera is Sergeant Fedot Yevgrafych Vaskov, an image that has absorbed national ideas about a simple Russian soldier. His part is based on the intonations of spoken speech and folklore song structures, in particular, on melodies close to the genre of "kolomiyki" ^[9]. Vaskov is a man tragically split into "two wars": an external one related to combat losses, and an internal, deeply personal one — the loss of his son, the betrayal of a loved one. This duality is revealed in a vocal-dramatic monologue, which is a confession-experience devoid of operatic pathos, but saturated with psychological truth ^[9].

Vaskov's stage image does not develop linearly, but through a montage structure in which memories, self-references, and dialogues with other characters alternate, creating the effect of movie frames. This refers to Molchanov's general aesthetic, in which opera approaches cinema as an art of memory. That is why the final scene with the monologue "four girls were ..." is perceived as a curse, prayer and oath at the same time, reflecting the tragic resilience of the Russian people.

The episode of Vaskov's vocal part ("Flowers ... hmm...") illustrates one of K.V. Molchanov's key expressive means — speech dramaturgy, in which the musical fabric is closely intertwined with lively intonation. The rejection of aryan expressiveness in favor of conversational plasticity, the emphasis on intonational fractures within a single phrase, and sharp dynamic contrasts allow the composer to show the psychological mobility of the character, his transition from reflection to command. Thus, Vaskov's musical language does not act as an operatic convention, but as the authentic sound of a man of war. (Fig.2)

Figure 2. Fragment of Vaskov's vocal part ("Flowers ... hmm...") from K.V. Molchanov's opera "And the dawns here are quiet"

The composer pays special attention to female images — five anti-aircraft girls, each of whom has not only an individual musical theme (leitmotif), but also a pronounced socio-cultural role. Rita Osyanina, for example, is shown as the archetype of mother and wife, a figure bearing the mark of the national female code of sacrifice. Her tragic line is reinforced by the presence of the motive of motherhood and silent power.

One of the culminating moments of the opera, Rita's vocal monologue with the appeal "We don't need to be pitied...", is an example of how Molchanov consciously rethinks the traditional aryan structure in favor of a confessional recitative. Built on trioles and laconic chord accompaniment, this episode brings the opera closer to the genre of musical requiem. The smoothness of the melody, the vocal intonation and the emphasized pause between phrases create the atmosphere of the last word, which sounds not like a heroic declaration, but like the farewell testament of a generation. (Fig.3)

Thus, Molchanov offers a new form of musical utterance about the war: not pretentious and ceremonial, but intimate and personal, in which the opera becomes an act of testimony, not a production.

Figure 3. An episode of Rita's vocal utterance "We don't need to be pitied..." as an example of a lyric-documentary intonation structure in K.V. Molchanov's opera "And the dawns here are Quiet"

Zhenya Komelkova is a contrasting character, brisk, free—spirited, playing the role of "her boyfriend." However, it is her romance based on Konstantin Simonov's poems "Wait for Me..." that becomes the musical axis of memory and hope, emphasizing the fragility of life and the power of love. Lizaveta Brichkina, on the other hand, is quiet and folklore—naive, while Sonya Gurvich is intelligent and poetic. This "palette of characters" shows the diversity of female faces of war, united by the idea of duty and perseverance. Their images are not just characters, but symbols of the cultural code of the generation.

One of the most expressive stage moments of K.V. Molchanov's opera "And the dawns here are Quiet" is the episode in which Zhenya Komelkova, kicking off her boots, climbs onto the table and begins to perform cancan. The musical fabric of the episode is stylized to match the characteristic rhythm and harmony of French cabaret: fast tempo, chord bursts, abrupt melodic movements in the upper register and expressive syncopation instantly refer to the genre. (Fig.4)

The music literally "jumps up" with the heroine: vertical chords in the piano, bright ostinate figures, accents on weak parts — all this creates the effect of a dance challenge, a daring movement that contrasts with the overall tragic intonation of the opera.

However, this scene is not an entertainment insert. On the contrary, it plays an important characterological and symbolic role. Zhenya appears not just funny or eccentric — at this moment, her inner struggle is revealed: through hooliganism and ridicule, she wins back the space of life, freedom, and her own independent feminine energy. Dance becomes a way of resisting fear, an attempt to keep life in its familiar, peaceful, almost carefree forms — even in the form of cancan.

It is also an important point in the musical drama of opera. The composer deliberately contrasts the motor plasticity of the dance with the subsequent restrained, tragic development of the action. Thus, Eugene's cancan turns out to be not just an insert, but a contrasting psychological outburst, after which the tragedy acquires even greater depth. Molchanov resorts to the technique of polystylistics, emphasizing that the heroine is still full of life — and this is what makes her death especially acute.

Figure 4. Eugene's dance (cancan) as a musical and scenic characterization of a character in K.V. Molchanov's opera "And the dawns here are Quiet"

In the episode with Eugene dancing on the table (cancan), K.V. Molchanov resorts to expressive polystylistics, introducing stylized elements of French cabaret into the musical fabric of the opera. The dance, built on chord pulsation and syncopated rhythm, turns out to be not just a stage trick, but a means of revealing the character of the heroine, her love of life, inner audacity and resistance to fear. It is through this musical "exaggeration" that the composer shows the fragility of a world in which the heroine is still laughing while death is already looming over her.

Tang Jianping's opera is based on the same story by Boris Vasiliev as Molchanov's opera. However, in the interpretation of Eugene's character, the emphasis is shifted towards romantic drama and personal passion, expressed through intimate monologues, emotional dialogues and imaginative, almost cinematic design of scenes.

So in Tang Jianping's opera, Eugene sings in a love line with the colonel, which Molchanov completely excludes.

Lyrical phrases are often repeated: "Eugene, my little girl", "I can't be with you, but I love you", "let the beard scratch my face", "you are always in my heart" — all this turns the heroine into an emotionally intense, but less collective image.

The motif of the song "Katyusha" is used as a symbol of heroism and memory, but it is embedded in the lyrics, not the drama of the victim, as in Molchanov.

In the finale, Eugene tragically dies, leading the enemy to a cliff — but the finale is based on romantic and symbolic sound, not on inner perseverance and duty.

A comparison with Tang Jianping's opera, staged at the Chinese National Center for Performing Arts in 2015, reveals an important facet in K. Molchanov's approach. If in the Chinese version the central image of Zhenya acquires a romantic dimension, saturated with emotional lyrics ("my little girl", "I love you, but I can't be with you"), then in Molchanov she remains a figure of national heroism, collective memory and sacrificial feat. In this sense, Molchanov's artistic solution is much closer to the requiem genre than to a romantic opera.

A comparison of the Russian and Chinese opera versions shows that it is in Molchanov's opera that a new form of musical heroization appears, in which intimacy, inner breakdown and restrained speech become expressions of historical pain. This confirms our hypothesis about the lyric-documentary model of opera, in contrast to the more traditional love drama in Tang Jianping's version.

Secondary roles are also important, such as Kiryanova— the "guardian angel" of the squad, the silent defender and the figure of hidden resistance. Her dramatic function is to contain chaos and preserve community, which is especially evident in the scene where she does not reveal the secret of Rita risking her life for the sake of a child ^[19].

The aesthetics of the performance, built according to the principles of the installation theater, is subordinated to the task of approaching documentality. The set design is concise, the make—up is minimal, the costumes are exact replicas of military uniforms, and the stage plasticity is devoid of operatic mannerisms. All this contributes to the full effect of presence, which, according to the author, makes the opera accessible to the mass audience, but not simplified ^[20].

Vaskov's final remark ("There were four girls… Let the generations know") It becomes the culmination of an artistic statement in an opera. The hero's cry, followed by a tragically restrained recitative, turns into an appeal to the future, into a musical form of memory. The repeated phrase "let the generations know" sounds in unison with chord pressure, approaching a musical funeral march, which turns this episode into a kind of requiem for the entire generation who went to war. Through this finale, the conceptual novelty of the opera is realized.: it becomes not only a stage act, but also a lyrical and documentary model of historical consciousness, in which artistic sound becomes a way of storing and transmitting memory. (fig.6)

Figure 5. Vaskov's final monologue "There were four girls..." as a musical appeal to descendants in K.V. Molchanov's opera

From an artistic point of view, "The Dawns Here are Quiet" is not just an opera about the war. This is an opera about memory, about the female faces of heroism, about losses that do not become loud tragedies, but burn in silence, in short monologues, in musical lines. This is the artistic power of Molchanov's work — he does not celebrate the feat, but relives it musically. It is precisely this approach that is the subject of scientific novelty: opera implements not just a patriotic program, but creates a genre-hybrid form of artistic reconstruction of trauma, in which theater, music and historical memory are combined.

Thus, Kirill Molchanov's work "The Dawns Here are Quiet" can be interpreted as a requiem opera in which each character, regardless of the scale of the role, is the voice of the era, part of a collective portrait encoded in intonation, intonation, movement and silence. In this sense, opera does not lose its relevance and continues to be a form of communication between generations, a way of conveying not dates, but feelings, not chronicles, but pain, which makes it an exceptional phenomenon in the musical culture of the Soviet era.

The scientific novelty of the research lies in the interpretation of K.V. Molchanov's opera "And the dawns here are Quiet" as a lyrical and documentary musical statement about the war. For the first time, it is shown that the opera implements a unique model of musical heroization, in which intimacy, speech intonation and inner drama replace the traditional aryan structure and pathos. A comparative analysis with the Chinese version of the opera revealed the specifics of the Russian approach to artistic memory and female heroism.

The analysis of K.V. Molchanov's opera "And the dawns here are Quiet" allows us to conclude that the composer has a fundamentally different approach to the embodiment of the military theme in musical and scenic art. Unlike the pathetic and victorious opera models typical of the post-war period, Molchanov creates a lyrical and documentary statement in which the tragic truth of the war is conveyed through intimate confession, fragments of memory, speech intonations and contrasting polystylistics.

Special attention was paid to the musical characteristics of the images: Vaskov appears as a carrier of double emotionality — a commander and a father, a witness and a participant in the tragedy; female images — Eugene, Rita, Sonya and others — are revealed through lyrical, sometimes folklore-colored episodes. Eugene's dance (cancan) and the choral intro "Dawn in the sky..." serve not only as expressive scenes, but also as structural frameworks that unite the past and present, life and memory.