Special of the Week; WNET Opera Theater: Myshkin
- Series
- Special of the Week
- Episode
- WNET Opera Theater: Myshkin
- Producing Organization
- WNET (Television station : New York, N.Y.)
- WTIU (Television station : Bloomington, Ind.)
- Indiana University, Bloomington. School of Music
- AAPB ID
- cpb-aacip/516-2j6833ns8f
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- Description
- Episode Description
- Myshkin, an opera written specially for television by Indiana Universitys composer-in-residence, John Eaton, is a co-production of the Indiana University School of Music and Indiana Universitys public television station, WTIU. Produced during the past two years by members of the schools faculty, staff and student body and funded by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Myshkin is the first of WNET Opera Theaters effort to inspire public television stations around the country to prepare opera programs for national distribution. Eatons work, based on Dostoyevskys novel, The Idiot, is an opera scored for chamber orchestra, tuned in quarter tones, and electronic instruments. In his prepared remarks that serve as the programs introduction, Eaton notes that the operas title is derived from the novels central character, Prince Myshkin. I have elected to present several episodes as they might have occurred in the mind of Myshkin. He, himself, is not seen. Everything you are about to see and experience unfolds through Myshkins eyes and mind. The composer goes on to say that the operas two musical forms, electronic instrument and orchestra, intermingles as Myshkin, who is an epileptic, slips in and out of rationality. The music dominates and shapes the drama. The opera begins, in the words of its composer, with a simple electronic tone and white light (which) represent the very pure and nave state of Myshkins mind. The Prince, out of touch with reality, is attended by a Swiss physician, Dr. Schneider, whose face and examining light gradually come into focus as Myshkin himself gradually begins to recover. During a period of convalescence, the Prince meets Marie, a peasant girl who sings a history of her sorrows and dreams. By relating to her troubles, Myshkin is able to overcome his own and is ready now to return to Russia and the social world, where he observes the aristocrat Totsky, General Yepanchin, and the Generals young secretary, Ganya, as they plot to marry off the beautiful Nastasia. Ganya will receive 75,000 rubles as a dowry if he consents to marry Nastasia, seduced by Totsky years before and currently an obstacle in the aristocrats plan to marry the General eldest daughter. Their plan collapses when the merchant, Rogozhin, desperately in love with Nastasia, outbids everyone as he drunkenly offers 100,000 rubles for her hand. Bitter with these proposals (she calls herself a piece of bric-a-brac no man would marry but for moneys sake), Nastasia accepts Myshkins pure and forgiving love and offers hers in return. But, suddenly, she changes her mind and rejects the Prince. She takes Rogozhins money, defiantly burns it in the fireplace, and runs off with him. The scene changes. General Yepanchin, during a party at his house, announces the engagement of his youngest daughter, Aglaya, to the Prince. While Aglaya sings a ballad to her beloved, Myshkins mind becomes clouded with images of Nastasia. As they party wears on, he becomes more and more confused: he hears his friends Lebedev and General Ivolgin singing drunkenly; knocks over a priceless vase; and, finally, falls into an epileptic fit that focuses on the distorted images of Nastasia and Aglaya. The two women meet and argue over who has the rights to the Prince. Nastasia changes her mind once more and orders Rogozhin out of her life: she has decided to marry Myshkin. But it is not to be. In her wedding gown on the way to church, Nastasia encounters the rejected merchant, who kills her with a knife. The Prince suffers a relapse, retreating into idiocy once more. The Myshkin cast of 17 students and one faculty member received high praise from Eaton. It was literally staggering, says the composer, to see how quickly this cast assimilated a new musical language, particularly their ability to accurately and expressively sing micro-tonal intervals after only a few weeks of coaching. With their unfailing enthusiasm they brought the characters of my opera to life. While the production of television opera is not something new for Indiana University (there have been 20 presentations, dating back to the 1954 performance of Mozarts The Magic Flute) , Myshkin is the first opera that the school has done specifically for television and not initially for the stage. It is also their first effort in color. Myshkin, an opera by John Eaton with libretto by Patrick Creagh, is based on Dostoyevskys novel, The Idiot. Co-produced by the Indiana University School of Music and Indiana University public television station WTIU, the opera was made possible by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
- Series Description
- Special of the Week consists of many episodes produced in the 1970s.
- Broadcast Date
- 1973-04-23
- Asset type
- Episode
- Genres
- Drama
- Topics
- Music
- Performing Arts
- Media type
- other
- Credits
-
-
Composer: Eaton, John
Coordinating Producer: Griffiths, David
Costume Designer: Nomikos, Andreas
Director: Seltz, Herbert
Director: Allen, Ross
Executive Producer: Adler, Herman Peter
Music Director: Waite, John Reeves
Performer: Dorminy, Larry
Performer: Lockard, Barbara
Performer: Havranek, Roger
Performer: Oberholtzer, William
Performer: Pedersen, Judith
Performer: Missling, Darwin
Performer: Isaacs, Gregory
Performer: Reeder, William
Performer: Neely, James Bert
Performer: Rogers, Georgia
Performer: Garrott, Alice
Performer: Todhunter, Susan
Performer: Anderson, Linda
Performer: Bills, John
Performer: Swedish, Anne
Performer: Nakas, Vytas
Performer: Irwin, Stanley
Performer: Hartwell, William
Producer: Seltz, Herbert
Producing Organization: WNET (Television station : New York, N.Y.)
Producing Organization: WTIU (Television station : Bloomington, Ind.)
Producing Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington. School of Music
Production Manager: Erdman, David
Scenic Designer: Nomikos, Andreas
Stage Director: Allen, Ross
Writer: Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 1821-1881
Writer: Adler, Barry
Writer: Creagh, Patrick
- AAPB Contributor Holdings
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- Citations
- Chicago: “Special of the Week; WNET Opera Theater: Myshkin,” 1973-04-23, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 25, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-516-2j6833ns8f.
- MLA: “Special of the Week; WNET Opera Theater: Myshkin.” 1973-04-23. American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. March 25, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-516-2j6833ns8f>.
- APA: Special of the Week; WNET Opera Theater: Myshkin. Boston, MA: American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-516-2j6833ns8f