I regard the people as a great being, inspired by a single idea. This is my problem. I strove to solve it in this opera.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The composer views the people as a unified entity driven by a single idea in his opera.
- In plain terms
- He tried to show the people as one big group with a shared goal in his opera.
- What can you take from it?
- Opera can express collective identity.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How do you represent groups in art?
- Can art capture a shared national idea?
Another view
Treating people as a single being can simplify individual differences.
More from Modest Mussorgsky
In poetry there are two giants, rough Homer and fine Shakespere. In music likewise we have two giants, Beethoven, the thinker, and the superthinker Berlioz.
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Permalink to quote #4 My music must be an artistic reproduction of human speech in all its finest shades. That is, the sounds of human speech, as the external manifestations of thou…
Permalink to quote #1
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