Modern Expression and Folk Tradition in the Theatrical Art of Anatol Petryts'kyi [Volume: 3(1984), pp. 385-396]

THE THEATRICAL ART OF ANATOL' PETRYTS'KYI
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recognizable and true to life. The use of tactile materials in the costume
design supports this notion. In his deliberate effort to make the characters
identifiable and approachable to the viewer, Petryts'kyi also incorporates
the name of each character on each design. Perpetuating the humorous
quality of the opera, he purposely creates incongruity and a touch of the
primitive naivete of simple folk by varying the letters of their names as if
they were haphazardly and awkwardly cut out from printed pages. This
method indicates that he has not discarded the tradition acquired from
icon painting in which the lettering identifies the personage being depicted,
but that he is also taking advantage of the Cubist and Futurist device of
collage. In considering the stage set for Viy, Petryts'kyi's efforts can be seen
as an initial attempt to incorporate new methods of theatrical rendering on
the Ukrainian operatic stage. The objective of the performance required a
display of dynamism, gaiety and temperamentalism, which, in turn,
necessitated a quick change of episodes.~1 This resulted in what was said
to have been the "spirit and mind... of Ukraine's musical culture." 1 In
order to facilitate the transfer of settings and to create the effect of a
motley crowd on the stage, Petryts'kyi incorporated the use of projectors
into his design.
In general, throughout the 1920s, Petryts'kyi never abandoned the
cultural traditions inherent in his native land when working for the theatre.
He explored the past not as mere legend or fantasy, but treated it as actual
factual happenings that needed to be brought to the fore in proper historical
perspective. This was significant in that, for Petryts'kyi, "the past proved
to be a tie with contemporaneity."12 But Petryts'kyi was not a mere
retrospectivist. He drew upon tradition as source material and extracted
basic elements from it. He found a great opportunity to display his careful
historical studies in the 1926 production of Borodin's Prince Ihor. Here his
designs came alive in the display of romantic adventure associated with the
princely era in Kiev Rus'. The costumes, though stylized, became indications
of the authentic dress of the period. In addition, the rendering of folkloric
elements in the "skomorokhy"'3 and in the characters of "Skula" and
"Yaroshka," created for the viewer a leit-motif of casual humor and amusement which broke with the heavy pathos of the underlying epic theme-the
story of Ihor's siege.
As in previous works, Petryts'kyi employed a twofold direction in
designing his costumes: for the characters who represented the lighter side
of the opera, the costumes were conceived in terms of simple, Constructivist
elements. The dress of the characters was executed by means of abstract
decor, and the figures placed in occult symmetry, emphasizing a considerable
degree of angularity. Other more serious characters were treated with overbearing heavy forms, usually facing frontward suggesting a down-to-earth
ponderousness and vertically. For the decor of the opera, Petryts'kyi also
exposed two different milieux. On the one hand, Byzantium was exemplified