Anna Karenina

Description

There are several themes in the score of Anna Karenina:sometimes appearing alone, often intersecting, their paths running alongside for a while. Those paths are shared by the characters in the story as they walk towards or away from convention, pretence, happiness, guilt, love, fun, and even truth. In a very important sense, the musical motifs do not represent the characters themselves I prefer to think of them as spirits, perhaps demons, unseen, signposting the way, or simply bearing witness to the events. Most of the action, in our version of Tolstoys novel, takes place in an abandoned theatre, upon or around a stage a symbol of the make-believe life of the Russian aristocracy at the end of the 19th century. Having convention and pretence confined within the boundaries of an old theatre, hints of course to another life, one that must exist somewhere outside the confines of that stage. The music of Anna Karenina is perched between those two worlds. For the curious: track 8: Beroza (Birch) is a very old Russian folk song: of its many versions, the one I used talks of a young woman deceiving an older husband. for track 19 At the Opera I used Tolstoy s own words from Anna Karenina, Part II, Chapter XI Dario Marianelli - 13th August 2012 There are several themes in the score of Anna Karenina:sometimes appearing alone, often intersecting, their paths running alongside for a while. Those paths are shared by the characters in the story as they walk towards or away from convention, pretence, happiness, guilt, love, fun, and even truth. In a very important sense, the musical motifs do not represent the characters themselves I prefer to think of them as spirits, perhaps demons, unseen, signposting the way, or simply bearing witness to the events. Most of the action, in our version of Tolstoys novel, takes place in an abandoned theatre, upon or around a stage a symbol of the make-believe life of the Russian aristocracy at the end of the 19th century. Having convention and pretence confined within the boundaries of an old theatre, hints of course to another life, one that must exist somewhere outside the confines of that stage. The music of Anna Karenina is perched between those two worlds. For the curious: track 8: Beroza (Birch) is a very old Russian folk song: of its many versions, the one I used talks of a young woman deceiving an older husband. for track 19 At the Opera I used Tolstoy s own words from Anna Karenina, Part II, Chapter XI --DARIO MARIANELLI 13th August 2012 Review: Best Novel of All Times - It is the best novel, perhaps the first novel of all times. Leo Tolstoy was the first inventor of the genre, as I understand. It was masterful, the plot always thickeniing and thininging, convoluted yet readable, a lot of excitement about what would happen to Anna, it was a tragic novel. It is totally classical, in the sense that anyone nowadays can read it and identify with everything in it, because even if it is posted in the 1900s, the writing is universal and current. It is truest my favorite book of all time. Review: Anna Karenina Soundtrack - I fell in love with the music from this movie, which I think drives the action and emotion of the film beautifully. The disc has terrific fidelity, and though it must be admitted that how music strikes one is strictly subjective, there are places in this soundtrack that send shivers down my back, I find it so striking. I've played it over and over and bought a couple of extra copies for friends. And I've been to see the film three times, much due to the music.