A new translation of Ilya Ehrenburg's satirical novel The Extraordinary Adventures of Julio Jurenito and His Disciples made by Caterina Ciccotti has just been released in Italy by MERIDIANO ZERO as Le straordinarie avventure di Julio Jurenito.
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Sergei Prokofiev, a biography, by Igor Vishnevetsky (2009, NF)
Rights sold: Russia - Molodaya Gvardia, World English - GLAGOSLAV
“A classical composer is a mad person composing music, which is not clear to his own generation”, the brilliant Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev, whose 120th birth anniversary will be marked on April 23rd, used to say. However, the date itself is Prokofiev’s imagination, as the author of his biography that was published in 2009 in the Life of Remarkable People series, Igor Vishnevetsky, who is a poet, a prose-writer and a culturologist, says.
Read more..."Officially, we celebrate Prokofiev’s birthday, which is the product of his imagination, on April 23rd, while according to the official documents, it should be celebrated on April 27th. Igor Vishnevetsky said in an interview with the Voice of Russia."
One of the old myths was that Sergei Prokofiev was a person, who was seriously interested in nothing at all in his life, except music and his literary work. Let’s add chess to that list too. Meanwhile, Prokofiev kept well abreast of politics. And, which you might find surprising enough, though he was a representative of the avant-garde trend in music and a composer who was committed to radical left views regarding the art, as a politician, he was not a left-winger. Shortly after the 1917 revolution in Russia, Prokofiev left it and settled at first in the USA and then in France. Altogether, he spent 18 years abroad. True, parallel with his performances in America, Japan and Europe, he visited Russia with concerts 3 times. Saying that avangardism implies left-wing politics, Igor Vishnevetsky presents the following proofs.
"Prokofiev’s position on the 1917 to 18 events in Russia was clear-cut. He strongly disapproved of what occurred in Russia and regarded the revolutionary events in the country as a catastrophe of cosmic proportions. In an interview with an American newspaper he said that he was strongly positive about the intervention in the Russian Civil War. The knowledge of the above-mentioned destroys the customary image of Prokofiev and at the same time throws light on the circumstances he was guided by when he returned to Russia. Besides, what he said in the interview provides us food to understand why he wrote such music - that very music he wrote after his return to Russia."
The terms for the return of Sergei Prokofiev to Russia were, firstly, his expressing official regret for the interview to the foreign press during the Civil War and of course , his promise not to do anything of the kind in the future. Prokofiev was sure that he would be more in place and more popular at home. And he proved to be right. The great pianist and the brilliant performer of Prokofiev’s works, Svyatoslav Richter, describing Sergei Prokofiev who returned to Russia in 1936 to begin a new life there, says: “Once I saw him walking on the Arbat Street, and there was a challenging force in him.”
The “new life” of Sergei Prokofiev, the laureate of several Stalin prizes, was not cloudless in Russia. There’re still some blank spots in his biography. Of course, his 8 operas, including “War and Peace”, based on Leo Tolstoy’s novel, are well known. His 8 ballets, including “Romeo and Juliet” that was staged many times are well known as well. All his 7 symphonies and all his 9 instrumental concerts, and also his cantatas and numerous chamber pieces are often performed today. “And still, there’s something in Prokofiev’s biography we know nothing about”, Igor Vishnevetsky says.
(с) text: VOR
Table of contents
Part I. FACING THE EAST. 1891-1927
1. Childhood in Ukraine: the Scythian Wakes Up (1891-1905)
2. The 'enfant terrible' in St.Petersburg Conservatory of Music and After It (1905-1917)
3. Beginning of Odissey, or Road Towards the Sun (1918-1921)
4. Years of Wanderings. Art as Magic (1922-1927)
Part II. BETWEEN TWO WORLDS. 1927-1945
1. Between the Land of Bolsheviks and Eurasia (1927-1930)
2. Russian Parisian at Home and Abroad (1931-1935)
3. Experimenting within Limits: Prokofiev and Soviet Music (1936-1940)
4. The War (1941-1945)
Part III. IN CAPTIVITY. (1946-1953)
1. After-War Euphoria (1946-1947)
2. Catastrophe: 1948
3. Years of Isolation (1949-1953)
4. Epilogue: After Prokofiev
Appendix I. Chronological table of Sergei Prokofiev's life and art.
Appendix II. Bibliography. -
TIERRA ADELANTE! a novel by Andrei Kofman
Rights sold: Russia - SOFIA
Winner of the DREAM BOOK National Literary Award (2006, Russia)
A breathtaking story of Spanish colonization of the Americas. Adventure novel for children and young adults by Andrei Kofman
It was in the first part of XVIth century. A new continent was already discovered, and people began to call Europe THE OLD WORLD as opposed to a NEW one, which to many seemed to be full of mysteries and enchantment, a promised land of unimaginable wonders capable to fulfill any human desire. Precisely in search of these miracles Spanish noble marquise Don Alonso de Santillana and his anecdotic crew composed exclusively of whitebeards and cripples sale towards the New Lands. An aged romantic crackpot, a knight errant and passionate lover of chivalry novels, Don Alonso winds up his rich Sevillian estate, and uses all his dough to fit up a ship and to organize an expedition to a New Continent. He and his crew are consolidated by overwhelming belief in miracles of the New World, while all reasonable-minded inhabitants of Seville make merry over their craze.
Don Alonso de Santillana proved to have more luck than his compatriot Don Quixote. Together with his brave crew he managed to discover a multitude of never before explored islands and countries. More important of all, with their very own eyes they saw all the marvels of the world: the giants, who turned out to be wild but quite peaceful folk, the beautiful female warriors, amazons, whom Don Alonso's personal barber revealed all the secrets of Old World beauty and cosmetic culture. On their journey the travelers run into a race of dog-headed people, saw live headless people, sea sirens, dragons etc. Finally they made it to their destination and bathed in the magical water of the Spring of the Eternal Youth, recovering their young age and beauty. Unfortunately, they were the last ones who had an opportunity to enjoy the miracle: a local Indian who showed them to the Spring destroyed it in order not to share this marvel with cruel conquistadores.
Each of Don Alonso's companions finds the most desired, and each one of them is compensated deservedly. Rejuvenated marquise finds his Dame, and only these two are permitted to pass through the gates of the Earthly Heaven. Captain Sancho, a passionate sea wolf, chooses to stay forever on his ship. And Padre Galindo, a monk, lives a long and fruitful life and writes down a chronicle of their miraculous journey.
TERRA ADELANTE! by Andrei Kofman is an adventure novel following the best traditions of the genre. His book features a richness of detail, while it's tonality and rhythmical pattern are close to a modern young reader. Informational "inserts" into a novel's narrative body (as author himself claims, these might be omitted while reading) represent the most interesting and sometimes unexpected historical facts and explanations. For example, Kofman explains the origins of $ symbol and what connection it bears to a national coat-of-arms of Spanish Kingdom, or describes the evolution of geographical maps and why Middle Age navigators were always finding not what they were looking for. Author gives a detailed account of real conquistador's expeditions in search of magical creatures and their discoveries.
For example, did you know that
- the longest river in the world was named by Spanish conquistadors Amazon River after a mythical ancient nation of all-female warriors?
- the name California was taken by Spanish conquistadors from XVI-century popular chivalric romance ‘Espladián’s Adventures’?
- the Fountain of Youth, a legendary spring that reputedly restores the youth of anyone who drinks of its waters, is said to be located in Florida, and stories of the fountain are dating back to Spanish conquest time?