Time and space in the stage-production decisions of choral scenes of musical performances
The article is devoted to the definition of the role and functionality of the choir in the space-time model of a musical performance, depending on the director’s vision of scenic interpretation of a literary source. There are analyzed composition levels of performance space, its timing, temporhythm of stage production on the example of modern musical productions of the musical "My Fair Lady" by Frederick Loewe. The aim of the research is to reveal the dramatic fullness of the choral scenes in the context of the director’s intention, which anticipates the conceptual idea of an integral space-time model of the play. Thus, the object of our research is the director’s vision of the space-time coordinates of the play, and the object is its stage embodiment in the choral scenes of the theatrical production. Results. Artistic space is not a constant magnitude of the play, it varies and depends on a multitude of components. One of them, of course, is the stage, moreover, according to some concepts, and the auditorium, which allows us to talk about the theater as a single artistic space in which a certain product of theatrical creativity is created and perceived. The scenery, lighting, actors, with their actions and reincarnations, the idea of general variability, which is laid in theatricality, leads to the fact that on the stage numerous instant changes in space are created, which, of course, impresses the viewer. The space in the theater closely interacts with time. Sometimes, due to spatial dimensions, time becomes, as it were, "visible and perceptible". Most often this happens when the artistic space changes (changing scenery, characters, etc.). Interacting, time and space create a certain tempo-rhythm of the performance, to which all actions and movements on the stage are subordinated, thanks to which artistic unity and unique style of production are achieved. The impact of spectacular forms on the viewer prompts an active director’s search for an unusual connection of sound, word, light, colour, the action of the real and conditional. A special role in the plays of this type is played by the choral component, the functionality of which is extremely diverse and directly depends on the priority of the director’s choice. The study of the choral component in the genre of the musical made it possible to discover its propensity to transform the mental structure of the play, which entails not only its genre modulations, but also makes adjustments to compositional form-building principles. The temporal and event series, chosen by the author of the play, largely turns out to be revised, reconstructed. The director, accepting the play as the basis of the future production, often does not change, but only in a different way evaluates the circumstances proposed by the writer. They, depending on the director’s production decision, regroup: numbers can be reduced or combined, eliminated or introduced as additional episodes to enhance emotional imagery. It is possible to change the sequence of performance of numbers, transfer of musical material from choral sonority to orchestral, etc. In other words, such a regrouping and reassessment of literary facts, dictated by the super-task of the performance, determines the composition of the production. Thanks to the scenic transposition, the literary primary source "comes to life" in the present time of the theatrical performance, acquiring new qualities-full life-likeness, concentration, saturation of artistic time and its particular features, that spectators become not only witnesses but also, as it were, accomplices in the formation of thoughts, feelings, actions of heroes. Conclusions. The analysis of the performances revealed that it is often mass (choral) scenes that become the bearer of the tempo-rhythm of the performance, the basis for the temporary characteristics of the artistic whole-the entire production. The appeal of the directors to the choral sound allows us to consider the choir as a source of complex influence on the viewer, and the richness of the drama of the choral scenes - as new, expressive-visual techniques that allow us to show our artistic face in search of a space-time equivalent to what would distinguish the theatrical performance from literary basis. However, we emphasize that the diversity of artistic means is based on a stable combination of unconditional time and conventional space, or rather, on the continuity of the space-time coordinates of the theatrical performance. This is the reason for the artistic expressiveness of the existence of literary heroes on the stage. The proposed problems of studying the choral component of a musical performance in musical and theatrical genres are productive in the further development of the problems of interaction between the components of the musical theater of the 20th and 21st centuries.