The article is devoted to the study of the specifics of ballroom orchestras of the first half of the 19th century ‒ European musical groups specializing in the performance of light and dance music. public entertainment. The social changes taking place in European society led to the emergence of public forms of musical entertainment (public balls, promenade concerts) and served as an impetus for the spread of a new practice of performances by commercial orchestras performing light music. The article studies the features of ballroom orchestral performance in Vienna, Paris, London, St. Petersburg, Copenhagen, and other European cities, represented by the groups of J. Lanner and I. Strauss (father), F. Musard, L.-A. Julien, H.-C. Lumbyu and others. The specifics of the performance repertoire, the traditions of performance practice (focus on commercial success in combination with the desire to popularize classical music) are revealed. The distinctive features of orchestras are studied: the uniqueness of the line-ups, ensuring the full sound of the orchestra in the open air, the wide use of solo timbres, mobility and use of multi-instrumentalist performers, the use of rare and new instruments, as well as noise and stage effects. The study of the peculiarities of the practice of ballroom orchestras of the first half of the 19th century allows us to draw a conclusion about their special role in the process of forming new instruments, new techniques and methods of orchestral performance.

The article examines the significance of A. V. Shiryaev’s media works for preserving the creative heritage of Russian ballet art, character dance, and the development of the national ballet school. It traces the genesis of A. V. Shiryaev’s media works, proposes their genre and technical-technological differentiation, and examines the goals and objectives of his media creativity. The article highlights A. V. Shiryaev’s distinctive aesthetic, which combines elements of both ballet art and media art, and identifies the features of his individual style. The main directions of the scientific discussion related to the discovery of the A. V. Shiryaev video archive are highlighted. The theoretical significance of the study lies in the comprehension of previously unaccounted aspects of the artistic and historical process of the 1900‒ 1910 period. The work creates the preconditions for the development of the problem of the intersection of ballet and cinema art, expanding the understanding of the early stage of the formation of cinema, the history of media art, dance art, and ballet pedagogy.

The article uses two manuals from the first half of the 19th century as an example: Auguste Andrade’s “New Method of Singing and Vocalization Adopted at the Paris Conservatory” (1837) and Alexander Varlamov’s “Complete School of Singing” (1840). The discussion focuses on the pedagogical principles and guidelines of the authors of these manuals, which allow us to talk about the similarities and differences in the teaching systems they built. The reason for their comparative study in terms of singing theory was a commentary to A. Varlamov's “School”, in which he wrote about borrowing ideas from O. Andrade. The main objective of this article is to establish the scope and nature of these borrowings, highlighting “our own” in the domestic work and revealing the nature of “foreign” in it. A comparative analysis of the texts, set in the atmosphere of a bygone era that developed knowledge about the art of singing, allows us to find not only theoretical parallels, but also to understand their historical role in the overall process of development of the vocal school.

The article is devoted to the composer’s work of the outstanding film director and actor Charles Spencer Chaplin. This aspect of his work is the least studied, especially in Russian-language musicology. The material for the study was: Chaplin’s “Autobiography” published in Russian (Chaplin C. S. “About myself and my work”), as well as various Internet sources and articles published in English on his personal website. The basis of the analysis were films with Chaplin’s music and the notes of his film music published on the Internet. The discussion focuses on the complex talent of the film director, actor and composer. The final conclusion is the multi-level nature of genius. It was embodied in the creation of films on the visual, plastic, film dramaturgic, choreographic, sound and composer levels, which serve as the basis for the author’s counterpoint, representing Chaplin's universalism. The conclusion of the article is that Chaplin created an organic synthesis of sound and gesture in his films, in the context of which he managed to present the music for the film in a structureforming and semantic context, through the creation of a system of sound markersleitmotifs.

This article is based on letters from Ferruccio Busoni to his wife, Gerda Sjöstrand, written in 1902 and never before published in Russian translation. The Preliminary Notes provide a brief description of these documents and outline the biographical context of their creation. The turn of the 19th and 20th centuries was a time for Busoni to establish himself on the European concert stage and achieve creative maturity in the field of composition. The most important events of the year under review, reflected in the correspondence offered to the reader's attention, were: the continuation of work on the opera "Brautwahl" based on Hoffmann's novella, the first steps in realizing the idea of a monumental Piano Concerto, and preparations for a series of concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra dedicated to new and rarely performed music. The publication is provided with line-by-line clarifying footnotes and, where necessary, supplemented with Comments.

The article is dedicated to analyse a wide range of directorial approaches to staging classic Russian operas. The focus is on A. P. Borodin’s opera Prince Igor, which was staged at the Mariinsky Theatre from 1988 to 2001. The author identifies the reasons why the opera underwent three different productions over a decade. The article highlights a range of creative challenges that necessitated revisiting and reworking the opera's stage presentation. It also demonstrates the connection between this issue and the overall artistic process taking place at the Mariinsky Theatre during those years.

The article explores the evolution of the concept of “representation” in the context of visual art. It examines various models of representation – from ancient mimesis to the semiotic conception articulated within structuralist and postmodernist theory. At the center of the study is Ernst Gombrich’s essay Meditations on a Hobby Horse, where representation is understood not as imitation of external appearance, but as functional substitution, comparable to religious and magical images that serve as standins. This perspective resonates with Carlo Ginzburg’s conception of representation as metonymic substitution in historical and cult practices. The article also draws a parallel with Ferdinand de Saussure’s theory of the sign and its further development in the works of Rosalind Krauss, who interprets collage as a metalanguage of the visual. As a result, representation appears not as a transparent mediator between image and reality, but as an autonomous structure subject to artistic and philosophical reflection. The article proposes to regard representation as a key tool for analyzing contemporary art.

The article is based on a comparative analysis of the history of creation, technical characteristics and formation of interest from performers of two electronic instruments – theremin and Martenot waves. Similar history of the emergence of these instruments, entrenched in performing practice, allows us to compare their characteristics and modifications and trace their penetration into performing practice. The final conclusion from the article is that the interest in the instrument of Martenot waves from composers was due, on the one hand, to the development in the context of new technologies of electronic instruments, as well as to the bright timbre, dynamic and intonation nuances laid down in it by its inventor. The presence of a keyboard made this instrument a part of traditional performing practice and this favorably distinguished it from its contemporary – theremin.

The article is devoted to identifying the composition and artistic content of Yuri Butusov's performance "Hamlet", staged at the Lensoviet Theatre. The research method, developed by the author and tested in three monographs, consists in the reconstruction and analysis of the performance. The performance was reconstructed with parallel identification of cross-cutting themes. One of them is the theme of Hamlet, the other is the theme of the world around him. In addition to them, a subtheme of open theatrical game or a theme of the theater was discovered, which in the course of the performance adjoins one or another theme. It was established that when correlating the named themes, the dramatic action of the performance is formed, in the process of which the artistic content of the performance is formed. It is shown that the composition of the performance consists of associatively connected episodes, that is, Butusov's "Hamlet", according to the typology proposed by Markov, is a performance of the poetic type of theater. It is revealed that the artistic content of the stage whole consists, first of all, in the disproportion of the forces of dramatic action: the vulnerable, sensitive Hamlet-boy, as he is presented in the performance; and the surrounding reality, permeated with lies, treachery and violence.

The article examines the state and problems of the modern transformation of pop art terms, the relationship of new terms with classical ones; analyzes the problems of terminology in the genres of cabaret, variety, and on stage in general. The author examines the meaningfulness of new, recently emerged terms, suggests rethinking outdated ones, gives his definition and justification of modern terms in pop art.

This article examines the specific features of the musical and dramatic interpretation of the bayadère Zoloé in the opéra-ballet Le Dieu et la bayadère ou La Courtisane amoureuse by D.-F.-E. Auber and E. Scribe (Paris, 1830). The fact that the main heroine's role was danced rather than sung introduced a new and unusual distribution of dramatic focus for an operatic audience. Although Zoloé’s part lacked parity with the vocal roles of other characters and relied solely on dance and pantomime, it carried significant dramatic and emotional weight. For the first time, a dancing bayadère was placed at the center of a musical stage work—thanks to the orchestra’s expressive power, the innovative choreography of Filippo Taglioni, and the talent of his daughter Marie Taglioni, for whom the role was created. While theatre critics found Scribe’s libretto insufficiently dramatic, they unanimously agreed that Taglioni’s choreographic mastery eclipsed the libretto’s shortcomings. Although Zoloé was not the first bayadère to appear on the stage of the Paris Opéra, her role marked a turning point in the development of European Romantic ballet.