Kevin Wagenheim
Dr. Roundtree
Art 211
September
25, 2017
Opera Assignment (The Demon by Anton Rubinstein)
Anton Rubinstein’s opera The Demon is about a demon
spirit that hates god and everything that he has created. The opening scene is
the demon arguing with an angel about hate and god. Next, the demon sees
Tamara, who is to soon be married, and falls in love with her. After finding
out that Tamara’s husband is on the way, the demon causes him to stop his
journey, get attacked by an enemy, and die in battle. Tamara finds out about
this and goes crazy. She then goes to a church hiding cell to be alone and calm
down. The demon then reveals himself to her, and confesses his love. After
arguing she gives in, shares a kiss with him, and dies immediately after. The opera
ends with Tamara’s soul going to heaven.
In my opinion, I thought the opera was not too bad to watch.
Some parts were kind of long and stretched out, but I guess that is to be
expected. Although this was my first real opera I have fully watched, I am pretty
surprised I was able to follow along and understand it. As for the “mise en
scene”, the opera, even in 2003, didn't really have a background setting. There
were no rocks by the river in the second scene, or anything other than cloth to
decorate the stage. The setting was given to the audience in a synopsis of the
story before each act. Since there was no background setting, the opera was
heavy on costumes and lighting. When Tamara was first introduced in her group
of friends, it was clear who she was. The demon looked inhuman from make up,
and his clothes shiny and weird looking. The lighting also shaped the mood. For
example, when the prince was hurt in the attack, the lights all turned red, and
everyone knew something fatal happened. The stage had two balcony “layers”
stacked above the stage. This was kind of used for an effect to separate the
demon from the characters that
weren't supposed to be hearing him sing. So, when he was singing and trying to
tempt Tamara from within, the audience can see the demon singing on the top
layer, and see Tamara and her listening reactions on the bottom layer.
I was actually very surprised that I was able to watch a whole
opera and understand the whole entire story, who and what the characters are
saying, and their actions with just lyrics, costumes and lighting. I feel that
since I am so used to not watching live shows it would be tough to follow, but
it was actually really easy. Before each act, we were given a synopsis of what
we were about to watch. This made it a lot easier because I knew what to look
for when it was preformed. The beginning scene started with a storm and good
and bad spirits singing in the winds. They had a whole chorus on stage for this
and half were singing one thing and the other group another set of lyrics. This
scared me in the beginning because it was so hard to follow so many voices, and
the subtitles were obviously going crazy and not helping. However, if it were
not for the synopsis in the beginning, I would have no clue what was going on.
After the opera started it was nice to know things slowed down and were a bit
easier to follow.
The Demon was first shown in St. Petersburg, Russia in
1871. It was based on a poem that was originally banned, then unbanned in the
1860s (Warrack). So, I think there would have been a good amount of people in
the audience that disliked the opera, and may even have walked out. However, I
believe that since people kept preforming the play, some people had to have
enjoyed it. I haven't seen many operas, but it seems like it could have a
similar plot to other stories preformed. In my opinion, I thought it was weird
that the prince was killed off halfway through, but, it could also be a usual
thing in operas. Since there was no background or anything, the 2003 performance
I watched seems to have about the right amount technology that would've been
used back then (minus the lighting maybe). I would consider this opera
important since it seemed to give a visual to a poem that was just unbanned
recently before it was written and composed. I am sure it may of caused some
type of uproar. I believe if people today are still preforming, it must have
meant something special to Russian society.
As for the technology within the opera, everything was in the
lighting. During the pre-wedding celebration, the lighting had a nice calming
mood. During rough times, the lighting was sharp and dark. However, there were
no projections or anything like that. There was also no setting in the
background that changes. The stage only consisted of the two balconies above
the stage for the “layer” effect, and a background wall that came up and down.
The balconies were very effective since they kind of split dimensions. You can
see the demon taunting Tamara, while seeing her reaction. They also moved a
little bit. During the scene when Tamara’s soul is going to heaven, and the
demon and angel watch, the balconies move around for a floating effect. The background
wall also was attached to strings and can be pulled up and down. It was a nice
effect when the prince was stabbed and he was laying on the slanted wall, you
can see his whole body laying down as opposed to just his feet. There was also
a scene where the angel shut the demon out of her church, and the wall came up
in front of him to close him out. However, other than the two things on the
stage and the lighting, there wasn't really any crazy technology within the
opera. I think it could have been trying to stay close to the original
performance.
If I were a director for a video game, it would definitely be
tough to create this into a video game. The plot is mostly drama filled, and
there is only one scene with a battle, so an attack-heavy video game is
definitely not an option. There is also no protagonist that one could
consistently play as for the whole game. For example, if we had players play as
Tamara, they would not be doing much other than being in sorrow and talking
with the demon. So, my idea would be to have a third person adventure-style
game with a full map to create the setting. One would have tasks to complete in
order to move along in the story. Also, the player would change from character
to character depending on the scene. Since there is a lot of drama that needs
to be scene, when tasks are completed and checkpoints are reached, video clips
of the opera can be shown to really give the experience of the story.
To begin the game, a clip of the demon and angel arguing could
introduce the story and game. Then, the player could learn the controls during
the next scene and complete and easy task of getting water at the river. When
reached, video clips of the demon tempting her are shown. Next, the player can
be the prince. Here, they would deal with the mudslide and other things in the
forest on their journey. After a short video clip of him talking about Tamara,
the player would then get to fight against the enemy that attacked his group.
Next, a video clip of Tamara finding out about the prince’s death can be shown.
Players can then play as Tamara as she head out to the hiding cell to be alone.
There could be obstacles and temptations on the way that could be exaggerated
for the player’s experience. After this is the part of the story when the demon
tries to go to the holding cell and the angel tries to stop him. Here, we could
have players choose whether they want to play as the angel or demon, and have
them fight in an epic final-boss-level type fight (since they are spirits and
are allowed to be magical). Lastly, we watch the end of the opera when Tamara
is kissed, her death, and she goes to heaven.
To be honest, I did not mind watching the show. Since it was
taped in a theater, and the camera guy was clearly unprofessional, it was a
little tough to follow, but I managed to get through it. I was really
intimidated after the first scene with the singing winds. It seemed like I was
going to have a very hard time with the Russian dialog and following along with
the story. However, thanks to the synopsis’ and lighting, I was able to know
who was who and what was going on. It really is amazing how technology helps
one understand the story even if it is in a different language and sung. If I
read the synopsis’ before each act like it was given, even without subtitles, I
still would have known what was going on enough to follow the story. Knowing
the words just helped getting more into the story. Although my video game may
not be attractive to first-person shooter gamers, maybe an opera loving gamer
would take interest in playing the story preformed in Rubinstein’s The Demon.
Works Cited
Warrack, John. “Rubinstein,
The Demon.” Gramophone, Mark Allen
Group, 9 Jan. 2013, www.gramophone.co.uk/review/rubinstein-the-demon-0.
