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Opera “The Fate of a Man” by Ivan Dzerzhinsky

60 years ago, in 1959, Ivan Dzerzhinsky wrote a piano version of the opera “The Fate of a Man”, the third work by the composer based on the works by M.A.Sholokhov.

In one of the interviews I.I.Dzerzhinsky said: “The lively, full-blooded images by Mikhail Sholokhov have always excited me deeply… As soon as the short story “The Fate of a Man” by Mikhail Sholokhov appeared on the pages of the newspaper “Pravda” (December 31, 1956, and January 1, 1957, – L.K.), his hero Andrey Sokolov had become my great friend. Together with me, he lived and worked, we did not part day or night. I “heard” the stories of Sokolov, clearly saw him. Then the idea was born to create an opera based on this work”.

In 1961, the opera “The Fate of a Man” was almost simultaneously staged at the USSR State Order of Lenin Academic Bolshoi Theatre, the Leningrad State Academic Order of Lenin Theatre of Opera and Ballet named after S.M.Kirov, and the Kiev Opera and Ballet Theatre named after T.Shevchenko. The premieres of the productions were timed to the opening of the XXII CPSU Congress.

In the Museum-Reserve collection there is a letter of I.I.Dzerzhinsky to M.A.Sholokhov of October 12, 1973, which reads: “I wish you had heard my latest operas –“The Quiet Don” (the second part based on books 3 and 4) and “The Fate of a Man”. If you decide to go to Leningrad, let me know beforehand, I will see to performing them for your arrival”.

The picture from the Museum collection shows the scene “In the Destroyed Church” from the first part of the opera “The Fate of a Man”. The State Academic Bolshoi Theatre, 1970.

Lyudmila Kochetova