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CREES Noon Lecture. Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky and Its Afterlives

Kevin Bartig, professor of musicology, Michigan State University
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
12:00-1:20 PM
Room 555 Weiser Hall Map
In 1938, the Russian director Sergei Eisenstein finished his first sound film, Alexander Nevsky, a historical epic that casts a thirteenth-century Russian victory over invading Teutonic Knights as an allegory of contemporary Soviet strength in the face of Nazi warmongering. Now a classic of Soviet cinema, the film also boasts what has become one of the best-known musical scores in cinematic history. Composed by Sergei Prokofiev, the score has appeared in a striking number of formats beyond the film, from simple piano arrangements to a full-length cantata for orchestra and chorus. These versions have taken the music far beyond the film’s international circulation, sparking critical debates that are a significant but largely unknown aspect of the film’s legacy.

This presentation follows Prokofiev’s music for Alexander Nevsky from its inception through the present day, considering both the music’s genesis as well as the surprisingly varied ways it has engaged listeners over the past nine decades, from its beginnings as state propaganda in the 1930s to showpiece for high-fidelity recording in the 1950s to open-air concert favorite in the post-Soviet 1990s.

Kevin Bartig is Professor of Musicology at Michigan State University. His research focuses on music in Eastern Europe during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and his published work has contributed to music, film, Slavic, and theater studies. His first book, Composing for the Red Screen: Prokofiev and Soviet Film (Oxford University Press, 2013), draws on research in Russian archives to examine Sergei Prokofiev’s collaborations with leading figures in the early history of cinema. He further explores these creative figures’ encounters with Soviet censorship and the reception of their work during the Cold War and beyond in his second book, Sergei Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky (Oxford University Press, 2017). Bartig’s most recent book is the edited volume Three Loves for Three Oranges: Gozzi, Meyerhold, Prokofiev (Indiana University Press, 2021), which examines key modernist developments in twentieth-century Russian theatre and opera. The volume received the 2022 American Society for Theatre Research Translation Prize.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.
Building: Weiser Hall
Event Type: Lecture / Discussion
Tags: eastern europe, europe, music, russia, soviet union
Source: Happening @ Michigan from Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, School of Music, Theatre & Dance, International Institute

International Institute Programming

The International Institute’s centers sponsor numerous conferences, lectures, exhibits, and cultural performances throughout the year. These events are designed to educate the university community and the public about global issues and inspire discussion and dialogue. 

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