Sphere of cultureSphere of culture2713-301XSamara State Institute of Culture10904610.48164/2713-301X_2022_7_49Research ArticleShostakovich’s unfinished opera <i>The Gamblers</i>: an artist’s unfinished concept and approaches to the reconstruction of the wholeKrishtalyukOlga A.<p>Ph.D. in Art Studies, Associate Professor at the Department of Music Theory and History</p>olgakrishtalyuk@yandex.ruSamara State Institute of Culture280620223149602806202228062022Copyright © 2022, Krishtalyuk O.A.2022<p>The article deals with the issue of reconstructing Shostakovichs unfinished opera <em>The Gamblers</em>. An increasing number of recent productions of <em>The Gamblers</em> shows not only the interest for this masterpiece but also the vast artistic potential inherent to the very fact that the opera is incomplete, which itself opens a range of possibilities to complete it. Three types of the reconstruction of <em>The Gamblers</em> are considered: 1) the completion of Act One by the conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky; 2) the complete reconstruction of an entire opera (Acts Two and Three) by Krzysztof Meyer; 3) the staged version of the opera by Yuri Aleksandrov (director) and Yuri Dimitrin (scriptwriter).</p>D.D. ShostakovichN.V. Gogol’s The Gamblersoperareconstruction of an unfinished artworkstaged reconstructionД.Д. ШостаковичИгроки Н.В. Гоголяоперареконструкция незавершенного произведениярежиссерская реконструкция[Digonskaya, O. (2008) Nezavershënnye opery Shostakovicha (po neizvestnym avtografam): dissertaciya … kandidata iskusstvovedeniya [Shostakovich’s Unfinished Operas (after the Unknown Autographs): Thesis of Ph.D. in Art Studies]. St. Petersburg. (In Russian).][Meyer, K. (1998) Shostakovich. Zhizn’. Tvorchestvo. Vremya [Shostakovich. Life. Oeuvre. Time]. St. Petersburg: DSCH; Kompozitor. (In Russian)][Akopyan, L.O. (2004) Shostakovich: opyt fenomenologii tvorchestva [Shostakovich. An Experience of the Creative Process Phenomenology]. St. Petersburg: Dmitry Bulanin. (In Russian).][Miroshnichenko, S. (2013). P’esy Gogolya v komicheskoj opere. «Zhenit’ba» Grechaninova, «Igroki» Shostakovicha: dissertaciya … kandidata iskusstvovedeniya [Gogol’s Plays in Comic Operas: Grechaninov’s The Marriage and Shostakovich’s The Gamblers: Thesis of Ph.D. in Art Studies]. Moscow. (In Russian).][Bogdanova, A. (2007) «Igroki»: konteksty [The Contexts of The Gamblers]. Shostakovichu posvyashhaetsya. K 100-letiyu so dnya rozhdeniya kompozitora [Dedicated to Shostakovich. On the Composer’s Centennial]. Moscow: Kompozitor, 354-369. (In Russian).][Khentova, S. (1986) Shostakovich. Zhizn’ i tvorchestvo: monografiya [Shostakovich’s Life and Oeuvre. A Monograph], Vol. 2. Leningrad. (In Russian).][Akopyan, L.O. (ed.) (2016) D.D. Shostakovich: pro et contra: D.D. Shostakovich v ocenkax sovremennikov, kompozitorov, publicistov, issledovatelej, pisatelej. Antologiya [D.D. Shostakovich: Pro et Contra: D.D. Shostakovich in the Assessments of Contemporaries, Composers, Publicists, Researchers, Writers. An anthology]. St. Petersburg: Publishing House of Russia’s Christian Academy of Humanities. (In Russian).][Abdokov, Yu.B. (2020) Nikolaj Pejko. «Vospolnivshi tajnu svoyu…» [Nikolai Peyko. “Having Filled Up the Mystery of His…”]. Moscow: Publishing House of the Moscow Patriarchy of Russia’s Orthodox Church. (In Russian).][Lotman, Yu.M. (2014) Besedy o russkoj kul’ture: byt i tradicii russkogo dvoryanstva (XVIII – nachalo XIX veka) [Conversations about the Russian Culture: Traditions and Everyday Life of the Russian Noble Class (between the 18th and the Beginning of the 19th Centuries)]. St. Petersburg: Azbuka. (In Russian).][Taruskin, R. (2000) Shostakovich i my [Shostakovich and Us]. Shostakovich: mezhdu mgnoveniem i vechnost’yu. Dokumenty. Materialy. Stat’i. [Shostakovich: Between the Instantaneous and the Eternal. Documents. Materials. Articles]. St. Petersburg: Kompozitor, 789-828 (In Russian).]