Man of Music

Man of Music

1952 · 105 min · ★ 4.7 · History, Music

The young composer Mikhail Glinka performs his new work at a soiree at earl Vielgorsky's house. However, the public is accustomed to Western music, and reacts coldly to the creation of the composer. This makes him very sad, but soon he decides to go learn the art of music in Italy. After returning from Italy, he is full of desire to write national Russian opera. Vasily Zhukovsky proposes a subject: a feat of Ivan Susanin. Tsar Nicholas I change the name of the opera to A Life for the Tsar and assigns a librettist - Baron Rosen. Acquaintance with the future co-author shocked Glinka: Rosen speaks Russian with a noticeable German accent. The premiere was successful, but Glinka was still not entirely happy with the libretto: "False words were written by Rosen". When Nicholas I learned that Ruslan and Lyudmila was written on Pushkin's subject, he sees it as sedition. The bitter experience of the composer brighten his supporters.

Directed by Grigori Aleksandrov · Written by Natalya Trenyova

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Cast

Boris Smirnov Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka
Lev Durasov Alexander Pushkin
Vladimir Savelyev Marshal Karl Ivanovich
Lyubov Orlova Ludmilla Ivanovna Glinka
Yuri Lyubimov Alexander Dargomishky
Nikolay Korshunov Ivanov, tenor
Sergei Kurilov Karl Brullov
Mikhail Nazvanov Czar Nikolai I
Konstantin Nassonov Vasili Andreyevich Zhukovsky
Berta Vinogradova Giuditta Pasta
Sviatoslav Richter Franz Liszt
Georgiy Vitsin Nikolai V. Gogol

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