The Imagosphere of Myroslav Skoryk's Opera Moses¹

The paper is dedicated to the eminent Ukrainian composer Myroslav Skoryk's opera Moses, which has been researched here from the standpoint of musical imagology for the first time. The methodology of the paper is based on the complex imagological concepts of Manfred S. Fischer and Jean-Marc Moura, in which they propose to analyse literary phenomena in national comparative contexts in terms of imagemes, imagothemes, and imagotypes. This triad in its totality makes up the imagosphere, that is, the world of artistic images which are both a cultural representation of a given national identity and its reflection in the artist's work. It has been found that one of the central images of Skoryk's opera and entire output is the national character of his music, which is defined by references to Ukrainian folksongs as well as the nation's operatic and choral tradition. The imagothemes of Skoryk's opera are related to a wide range of ‘eternal’ philosophical problems, such as good vs evil, faith vs its lack, human vs God, etc. By developing the ideas of Ivan Franko, the author of the opera's literary prototype, the composer presents a whole complex of ‘eternal’ themes, which he refers to the contemporary Ukrainian context: freedom and faith, liberation from centuries-long slavery and dependence, as well as the theme of the nation's spiritual leaders’ responsibilities and their relationship with the people. The main imagotypes of the opera: the God Jehovah, the prophet Moses, a lyrical young couple, and the Poet – correspond to the main qualities of Ukrainian mentality and national character, namely: patriotism, spirituality, piety, ‘cordocentrism’, and a lyrical-poetic worldview.