“Wait, do not drive horses...”: peculiarities of animals’ functioning in opera performances
Objectives. In the semiotic science coordinate system on the artistic codes specificity and communicative theory, the question about the peculiarities of using and functioning in opera performance of animals as one of the visual components of theatrical-musical text is being discussed. One of the fundamental provisions of the “open list of various artistic languages” semiotics, used for the artistic encoding of the world, is taken into account (Yu. Lotman). This “open list” is supplemented by elements of the very life (non-artistic sphere). Such an expansion of the artistic resource is provoked by the linguistic specificity of the opera, which involves the simultaneous use of musical, verbal, visual and plastic codes. Therefore, the aim of this research is to find out the specifics of the use and functioning of such non-artistic components in the opera, as animals. Results. “Animal element” appearing in opera performance is explained not by the genre “genesis” of the work, not by historical or ethnographic authenticity. The use of animal is motivated solely by the stage director’s concept. As a result, an additional information channel that activates theatrical communication is automatically installed. After all, appearing of animals on the stage as a decorative component traditionally causes public interest. Animals will always be a surprise, and their presence on the stage will require artistic and communicative explanation for the spectators. However, the use of animals as an additional linguistic component in the structure of the opera text increases some communicative risks. The current of the spectacle can be disturbed by their unpredictable behavior. An element borrowed from the non-artistic sphere draws attention of the public, becomes independent on the stage, functions not according to the stage rules, but according to the laws of “animal existence”. Automatically all other part text, artistically encoded, repels an alien element, makes it superfluous and “fake”. Natural thing becomes inorganic one. The theatrical tradition considers animals, also as children, are representatives of one “communicative risk group”; not only because of the possibility of losing control over the scenic situation, but also because the naturalness of their behavior contrasts with the frank “unnatural” actors’ existence, especially in the opera performance. Despite the communicative risks, modern opera directors actively use animals in their productions. Their decisions have different explanations. For example, the director O. Titel explains active use of animals in his opera productions by the need for breaking of communicative stereotypes. In this way, a conceptual approach to understanding the nature of the opera, its ideological essence is realized: opera is the artistic space in which all the components of the world are coordinated and harmonized. In order to detect this “world harmony”, the director is ready to go on a broadcast risk – a risk, which is possible with the use of children and animals. In a communicative relation, animal in the structure of opera text violates the translation process, provoking the emergence of a disorientation effect. The sender, that is, the stage director of the performance, predicts the appearance of such an effect. This “a conscious obstacle”, which is included in the translated text, must disrupt the perception process, and can be classified as “defamiliarization”. The using of the disorientation component is conditioned not by the text of the opera libretto or the decorative functions, but by that what is traditionally called the “stage director’s concept”. Depending on the concept, animals perform in the structure of musical and theatrical text various communicative and artistic functions. First, animals traditionally (and nowadays) function as decorative design (decorative function). In the historical perspective, this visual and scenic resource replenishes by the elements, the emergence of which in non-artistic sphere is associated with the development of science and technology, the emergence of new information technologies. These are mainly different vehicles and mechanisms: bicycles, motorcycles, tractors, cars, monitors etc. In other cases, a non-artistic element included in the structure (namely, the animal) performs an intertextual function, that is, it reorients the information seeker to another artistic text (for example, verbal). Such switching helps the public to understand the stage director’s concept, makes effective theater communication. The next “special” function, which animals can perform, when they become an integral part of the modern opera performance, is a metaphorical one. Animals in the appropriate scenic context contribute to visual trope creation, artistically valuable and polysemantic in content. Conclusions. Consequently, the “animal” component, borrowed from the non-artistic sphere, enriches the linguistic resource of opera art. It, like any other, performs its special functions in the structure of the opera: decorative, code-disorientating, intertextual and metaphorical. These functions are determined based on the examples analysis from the current staging practice, in which simultaneously with the successful using of the “animal” component, violations of a theatrical communication are observed.