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Staging <em>Lolita</em> (and ‘Saving’ Humbert): Nabokov, Shchedrin and the Art of Adaptation

2016; Maney Publishing; Volume: 94; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5699/slaveasteurorev2.94.4.0601

2222-4327

Bryan Karetnyk,

Vladimir Nabokov Literary Studies

This article examines Rodion Shchedrin's operatic adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita. Analysing Shchedrin's methods of textual, dramaturgical and musical adaptation, the article demonstrates the extent to which Shchedrin's opera is preoccupied with the text and textures of Nabokov's novel. It also examines Shchedrin's treatment of the aesthetic-moral dichotomy at the heart of Nabokov's work, revealing this through a consideration of the work's compositional strategies to be Shchedrin's primary artistic concern.