Soviet Opera as an Instrument of Cultural Policy: Infrastructural Aspect (1917–1991)

The study aims to determine and evaluate the results of the cultural policy of the Soviet state aimed at developing opera art in terms of creating and improving its material, technical and organizational infrastructure. The results of scientific research by historians of Soviet culture and encyclopedic publications are used. The methodological basis is the institutional approach, which includes empirical methods, statistical analysis, historical-genetic and diachronic methods. The system of creative process management in the field of opera art formed in the USSR is characterized. Data on the numberof opera houses and higher music educational institutions put into operation are presented. The role of creative associations and unions in the development and popularization of opera art in the USSR is considered. The practice of publishing and distributing musical literature, conducting scientific art studies, as well as organizing creative competitions and festivals is traced. The importance of music education for training professional performers is assessed, and scientific and methodological aspects of the development of Soviet opera art are analyzed. It is established that the main achievement of the Soviet cultural policy in the area under study was the quantitative and qualitative transformation of the opera infrastructure. It is emphasized that the geographical distribution of theaters covered not only historical centers (Moscow, Leningrad), but also regions that had not previously been involved in the sphere of institutionalized musical creativity. The significance of the personnel policy is indicated, which was aimed at overcoming the “creative deficit” in opera performance and implied, first of all, efforts to train composers, performers and teachers. It is noted that these efforts resulted in the professionalization of the musical environment even in regions with no pre-revolutionary traditions of opera performance. It is revealed that the Union of Composers of the USSR, which had a solid material and technical base, acted as an institutional core for the modernization of the infrastructure of Soviet opera art. The dual nature of the effectiveness of the activity under study is pointed out: directive management and centralization of resources ensured unprecedented coverage of the territory of the USSR by opera institutes, but strict ideological censorship and repertoire planning limited the stylistic diversity of the genre, making it an instrument of propaganda. The author concludes that the transformation of the opera infrastructure carried out in the Soviet period was one of the components of the cultural integration of the peoples of the USSR.