Main entry:

Gourinovitch, Oxana, author.

Title & Author:

Raising the curtain : operatic modernism and the Soviet nations / Oxana Gourinovitch.

Edition:

First edition.

Publication:

Leipzig : Spector Books, 2024.

Description:

337 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), plans, portraits ; 29 cm

Notes:
Originally presented as the author's thesis (PhD--Berlin) under the title: National theatre : architecture of modernism as nation building.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 312-321) and index.
Prelude -- A well-organised performance -- Who plans the planning? -- A new canon -- The periphery is the new centre -- On stage : Vilnius -- A very Soviet occupation -- Rokiškis girl and Pushta boy -- Urban mount -- On stage : Minsk -- A nativity scene -- The new house for the muses -- They did not believe in women architects -- Behind the scenes : Lithuania -- Generation XXX -- The Vilnius question -- Kaunas answers -- Engineers of traditions -- "The credo of the generation" -- Behind the scenes : Belarus -- Life, elevated by death -- Peripheral vision -- National formula -- The phoenix -- Atlantes and Caryatids -- A new house for old muses, or the "retro-problem" of Belorussian Modernism -- The curtain falls -- Lithuania : knights of architecture -- Belarus : the re-Soviet Republic

Summary:

The book revolves around two modernist opera theatres - designed by two leading female architects - that stand on the Soviet periphery, in Lithuania and Belarus: the Opera and Ballet Theatre in Vilnius (1962 - 74) by Nijole Bučiūtė and the Comic Opera in Minsk (1973 - 81) by Oxana Tkachuk. The book reconstructs the history of how each theatre was commissioned, planned, and built; it also uses their contextualization as a means to examine the contemporary political and cultural events that had been unfolding on the stages of the Republics prior to and at the time of the theatres' creation. The book looks at how modernist architecture co-created and conveyed the self-imaginaries of the "new nations" of Belarus and Lithuania. By addressing the long-neglected processes of nation-building within the Soviet Union and the way built environments were involved in this, it helps comprehend the forces that propelled the Soviet Union towards its collapse, while placing architecture's entanglement with them centre stage. Oxana Gourinovitch, PhD TU Berlin, is an architectural historian, architect, and curator. The publication is based on her PhD thesis, which was awarded the Tiburtius Prize in 2021. The publication is supported in part by the Graham Foundation's publishing grant.

ISBN:

9783959058025 paperback
3959058020

Subject:

Bučiūtė, Nijolė.
Tkachuk, O. F. (Oksana Fedorovna), 1933-2025.
Lietuvos nacionalinis operos ir baleto teatras History 20th century.
Belaruski dzi︠a︡rz︠h︡aŭny akadėmichny muzychny tėatr History 20th century.
Theater architecture Baltic States History 20th century.
Theater architecture Lithuania Vilnius History 20th century.
Theater architecture Belarus Minsk History 20th century.
Women architects Soviet Union.
Architecture, Modern 20th century.
Architecture des théâtres Pays baltes Histoire 20e siècle.
Architecture 20e siècle.
Architecture des théâtres Lituanie Vilnious Histoire 20e siècle.
Architecture des théâtres Biélorussie Minsk Histoire 20e siècle.
Femmes architectes URSS.

Added entries:

Operatic modernism and the Soviet nations

Holdings:

Location: Library main 320913
Call No.: 320913
Copy: 1
Status: Available