Felix Mendelssohn in ... Hollywood (composer’s music in the film adaptation of “Midsummer Night’s Dream” by M. Reinhardt).
The article an-alyzes the film adaptation of Shakespeare’s comedy “Midsummer Night’s Dream” by M. Reinhardt (1935) in the context of the interaction of the visual aspects of the film and music. The features of Mendelssohn music adaptation by E. Korn-gold and particularities of dramatic rethinking his score for the play op. 61 are identified. The leitmotifs system is designated and circle used in the film works by Mendelssohn is disclosed. Having written at the age of 17 the overture to the comedy by W. Shakespeare “Midsummer Night’s Dream” op.21, F. Mendelssohn entered the history of musi-cal art as the creator of the genre of concert program overture. The main features of the new genre were a special intimacy and consonance with the idea of a syn-thetic work realized by romantics in program symphony. After 17 years, Men-delssohn performed a stage experience of interaction between music and theater, creating an orchestra îđ. 61, which, in addition to the overture, included thirteen orchestral and choral movements. Bright, almost visible musical images for a long time connected the Mendelssohn creation with the dramatic and musical theater and, later, with the cinema. One of the most significant pages in the history of the drama theater is the production of the “Midsummer Night’s Dream” with the F. Mendelssohn’s music by the outstanding Austrian director M. Reinhardt, performed in 1905 in the New Theater in Berlin. Embodied with the ideas of Gesamtkunstwerk, M. Reinhardt connected on-stage the amazing voluminous scenery, the fantastic costumes, the light tricks, the possibilities of modern engineering (the revolving stage), the achievements of the modern perfumery industry (the scenery was sprayed from with coniferous water) and the F. Mendelssohn’ music. Throughout his life, M. Reinhardt performed thirteen sets of comedies and made the eponymous film (1935) for the Warner Brothers studio. An integral part of the film was the F. Mendelssohn’s music adapted by the famous composer E. Korngold. Foreign researchers point to the author’s orches-tration with the expansion of the instruments (harp, saxophones, pianoforte, vibra-phone, percussion), textural changes, cuts in musical works to match the image, the addition of the leitmotifs, the addition of noise effects (wind, water), the inter-action of music and the spoken word. F. Mendelssohn instructs to perform Scherzo (No. 1 of the 61st opus) between the first and second acts of the play. In the movie, where you do not need to waste time changing the scenery, this particular music work is missing. In the episode of the film, corresponding to the second act of the play by W. Shakespeare, also did not enter No. 3 Song with the choir and No. 4 Melodrama of the 61st opus. Instead, E. Korngold introduces a large number of adapted Mendelssohn music. The film begins with an overture with a corresponding title. However, in con-trast to F. Mendelssohn, who used the concert Overture op. 21 without changes in the music for the play, E. Korngold created a concise “overture to the film” from the main themes of the 61st opus. Thus, using the material of the overture, Noc-turne, the second part of Intermezzo, Scherzo, the Wedding March, E. Korngold “restored” the traditional exposition of the overture and did what Mendelssohn did not deem necessary to do in music to play. Among the rearrangements of F. Mendelssohn’s music of the 61st opus, the most significant is use of Nocturne in the middle of the Oberon’s monologue. According to the idea of F. Mendelssohn, the music of Nocturne serves as a link between the III and IV act and unites the couple falling asleep in the forest in love. The subsequent awakening and healing of Titania occurs to the music of No. 8 Melodrama. In the film No. 8 is missing, Oberon’s monologue is extremely short-ened. It is “replaced” by the music of Nocturne, which ceases to be an illustration to the painting “sleeping in the forest” and is revealed as a manifestation of the demiurgic will of the king of elves. Thus, the dramaturgy of the play reconsiders. Oberon “saves” Titania not by awakening from sleep, but, on the contrary, by plunging into sleep, into a magical healing space. The film “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by M. Reinhardt is interesting to-day by the complex interaction of a rich visual plan and a detailed musical score. The film implemented the principle of specific programming, against which pro-tested F. Mendelson and which was in demand in Hollywood in the 1930s. Fol-lowing this principle, E. Korngold created a system of leitmotifs accompanying the characters of the film and landmark situations, and adapted the Mendelssohn music in accordance with the cinematographic tasks. However, this is done by the hand of the master, easily and ingeniously, as if with the permission of the light humor of the Shakespearean comedy.