{"id":1939,"date":"2010-08-06T15:30:31","date_gmt":"2010-08-06T19:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/writingprogram\/?page_id=1939"},"modified":"2011-08-15T16:15:18","modified_gmt":"2011-08-15T20:15:18","slug":"collins","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/writingprogram\/journal\/past-issues\/issue-2\/collins\/","title":{"rendered":"Bulgakov&#8217;s &#8220;Moonlight Sonata&#8221;: The Thematic Functions of  Grand Opera and Lieder in &#8220;The Master and Margarita&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"rule\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/writingprogram\/journal\/past-issues\/issue-2\/collins\/from-the-writer\">John Collins<\/a><br \/>\n(WR 150, Paper 3)<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"pdf\"><a href=\"\/writingprogram\/files\/2010\/08\/Collins0910.pdf\">Download this essay<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<h4>Introduction<\/h4>\n<p>Several articles have connected Mikhail Bulgakov\u2019s many musical allusions to the actual composers and compositions, exploring how these references influence and inform his masterpiece, <em>The Master and Margarita<\/em>. David Lowe traces the narrative transformation of the Faust legend from Goethe through Gounod\u2019s opera to Bulgakov\u2019s novel. Ksana Blank and Nadine Natov both invoke the similar artistic methods of Bulgakov and Igor Stravinsky and relate the novel to Stravinsky\u2019s suite <em>L\u2019Historie du Soldat<\/em>, albeit with different conclusions. These sources are models for the analysis of musical influences on Bulgakov. However, their contributions illuminate interesting but minor aspects of the novel. I will attempt to analyze Bulgakov\u2019s allusions to Romantic European lyric music in their collective thematic functions at the heart of <em>The Master and Margarita<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>This analysis will have three argumentative threads. First, I will show how Bulgakov\u2019s allusions to Romantic lyric music define the politico-cultural environment of Moscow and its central moral conflict in the novel. His juxtaposition in the novel of two different genres and their respective composers is a metaphor for the opposing sides of this conflict: Grand Opera, represented principally by French composer Hector Berlioz, symbolizes the materialism and artistic corruption of Soviet cultural institutions; Lieder, represented by Austrian composer Franz Schubert, symbolizes the emotive individualism and intimacy of true artistic pursuit.<\/p>\n<p>Second, I will show how Bulgakov transcribes this external conflict into the mind of Ivan Bezdomny. In conjunction with Matt F. Oja and Riitta H. Pittman\u2019s compelling if unconventional psychological interpretations of <em>The Master and Margarita<\/em>, I will argue that Ivan\u2019s mental breakdown is his attempt to confront the central question of the novel, \u201cwhat is the moral course of action for an artist\u201d in Soviet Russia (Oja 151)? His \u201ctruly schizophrenic\u201d split into \u201ctwo Ivans,\u201d and eventually into Ivan and Master (142), represents the now internal conflict of opposing moral forces symbolized by Grand Opera and Lieder.<\/p>\n<p>Third, through examination of specific pieces of Grand Opera and Lieder, I will show Bulgakov\u2019s conflicting allusions also subtly share prominent themes and serve a common function through Ivan\u2019s madness. Specifically, Berlioz\u2019s opera <em>La Damnation de Faust<\/em> and Schubert\u2019s Lied cycle <em>Winterreise<\/em> explore themes of visions, distressed solitude, supernatural occurrences, and dreams and sleep. These themes are also Bulgakov\u2019s motifs for developing Ivan\u2019s schizophrenic episodes, so that Ivan\u2019s madness, ultimately the mechanism for resolving the two moral opposites previously characterized by Grand Opera and Lieder, has a direct relationship with actual pieces of Grand Opera and Lieder. Thus, Bulgakov\u2019s allusions to Grand Opera and Lieder function dually as symbolic reflections of the source <em>and<\/em> resolution of the central moral question in <em>The Master and Margarita<\/em>.<\/p>\n<h4>Grand Opera and Lieder Thematically Opposed<\/h4>\n<p>Before analyzing the complex roles of Bulgakov\u2019s allusions to Grand Opera and Lieder, it is necessary to define the musical genres as context for the argument. I adopt definitions from Grove Music Online: Grand Opera is \u201cFrench opera of the Romantic period, sung throughout, generally in five acts, grandiose in conception and impressively staged\u201d (Bartlet, M., Elizabeth, C.); Romantic Lieder is \u201cthe German vernacular song developed into an art form in which musical ideas suggested by words were embodied in the setting of those words for voice and piano\u201d (Boker-heil, Norbert, et al.). These definitions are minimal, but identify basic characteristics. As my paper progresses, the musical and social qualities of Grand Opera and Lieder will be further explored in their applications in <em>The Master and Margarita<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Grand Opera\u2019s contaminated role in France during the early Romantic era mirrors the descriptions of Soviet artistic institutions in Bulgakov\u2019s novel. Jane F. Fulcher details the political relationship between Grand Opera and the French government in her book <em>The Nation\u2019s Image<\/em>, revealing that \u201can official Commission, representative of the state, designed to protect its interests\u201d oversaw all executive decisions at the Paris Opera House, \u201ca fact that was to be decisive for the development of the repertoire\u201d (55). This political contamination of the arts can be seen explicitly in the bureaucratic censorship of Bulgakov\u2019s MASSOLIT: The novel opens as Berlioz, the chairman of this organization, rejects a poem he commissioned to champion Soviet atheism because he deems that it does not effectively adhere to that political agenda (Bulgakov 4\u20135). Fulcher mentions a second element of contamination, that Grand Opera \u201cwas now a matter of national symbolism as well as of financial interest\u201d (63). The dominant financial motives in France correlate to the material purpose of Bulgakov\u2019s Variety Theater: The man truly running the Variety is Rimsky, the financial director, who is first introduced with a safe at his side (Bulgakov, 86). Chapter 17 details Vasily Stepanovich\u2019s trouble with the very routine delivery of vast sums of money from the Variety to the overseeing Entertainment Commission (154-64). Bulgakov\u2019s descriptions of the political corruption and materialism of Soviet artistic institutions overlap with the historical functions of Grand Opera.<\/p>\n<p>Bulgakov\u2019s character examples of artistic and political corruption tie these same leaders of Soviet institutions to prominent fixtures of Grand Opera, as described in <em>The Cambridge Companion to Grand Opera<\/em>. Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz directly alludes to Hector Berlioz, a leading composer and critic of Romantic French music. Hector Berlioz regularly composed pieces commissioned by the state, including several Grand Operas with nationalist overtones. Importantly in connection to Bulgakov\u2019s Berlioz, Hector Berlioz was also an editor of a prominent musical journal and an author of an influential theoretical textbook on the grandiose orchestration typical of Grand Opera, <em>Grand Trait\u00e9 d\u2019Instrumentation<\/em>. Grigory Danilovich Rimsky, the financial director of the Variety, also takes his name directly from an operatic composer. Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov was active in a later Romantic period, but still composed nationalist operas in the epic style of Berlioz. These two examples personally symbolize Grand Opera\u2019s political and financial overlap of art in the Soviet institutions. Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoi\u2019s name resembles the Bolshoi Opera House in Moscow, which premiered operas by Rimsky and hosted tours of French Grand Opera. Bolshoi itself means \u201cgrand\u201d in Russian, certainly an homage to the Parisian center of the operatic world at that time\u2014it is interesting that the house committee chairman alludes to the \u201chouse\u201d of Grand Opera in Russia. Through Bosoi, Bulgakov references the state corruption of art in nineteenth-century France to further comment on the state corruption in the housing crisis in the USSR.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to historical and individual characteristics, Bulgakov adopts the musical characteristics of Grand Opera to portray satirically certain Moscow chapters as scenes in an actual Grand Opera. In Grand Opera, marches represent the \u201cchant national\u201d or \u201ca kinetic response to a political predicament\u201d (Charlton 315). This musical style is used in the grotesque march that closes the Variety show, in which Woland skewers Soviet materialism, and George Bengalsky attempts to censor his act. The ballets of Grand Opera make a \u201cclose connection [to] prevailing social-dance customs\u201d and are often \u201cmasked balls\u201d (Charlton 103, 99). Bulgakov stages his rendition as Satan\u2019s Grand Ball: Hellish members \u201cdanc[e]\u201d to Strauss\u2019s waltz, the scene \u201cpulsating with rhythm\u201d (Bulgakov 230). Berlioz (or at least his head) and a member of the Theatrical Commission are \u201cinvited\u201d to this spectacle, equating their artistic and moral corruption to the long list of history\u2019s condemned.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the most essential musical component, the chorus \u201cputs the \u2018grand\u2019 into Grand Opera\u201d (Charlton 76). A sense of \u201cthe chorus\u201d is constantly referenced throughout the novel, as dialogue is never spoken but \u201csung\u201d in different vocal registers. The chorus was also a main political communicator: After a change in government, \u201cthe [French] nation\u2019s foremost opera house already had a chorus in place ready to step to the footlights in new roles embodying the power of a people . . . to form an invincible state\u201d (Fulcher 77). Bulgakov uses the strange, involuntary \u201cchorus\u201d of the Entertainment Commission to satirize the political and material corruption of Soviet artistic institutions (Bulgakov 160\u201363). Bulgakov\u2019s allusions to the function, figures, and musical characteristics of Grand Opera highlight the political corruption, materialism, and artistic compromise of Soviet cultural institutions.<\/p>\n<p>In direct contrast, Bulgakov\u2019s allusions to Lieder highlight his artistic and moral ideals. During the Romantic era, Lieder is in many ways the opposite genre of Grand Opera. Musically, its succinct length and minimalist accompaniment contrast the indulgent five acts and grandiose orchestration of Grand Opera. The solo voice is juxtaposed against the chorus. Theoretically, Lieder serves a primarily emotional function, as a conversation between poetry and music; while, as I have shown, Grand Opera serves social and political goals. A Lied was performed privately in the home, while Grand Opera was staged in decadent state-funded opera houses with a charged admission. These differences with Grand Opera imply Lieder allusions represent artistic and moral opposition to the Soviet institutions.<\/p>\n<p>The allusion to Schubert introduces Lieder as the representation of artistic and moral ideals. Schubert is the archetypal composer and symbol of Lieder, and his reference brings to mind his principal musical pursuit. Schubert\u2019s Lieder are primarily identified by their strong emotional power\u2014his pieces create an \u201cinterior stage . . . in the sanctuary of self\u201d (Parsons 21). The goal of his music was not to parlay the current political temperament, but to explore the internal range of emotion in episode dramas of love and sorrow. Musically, Schubert\u2019s Lieder have \u201charmonic audaciousness,\u201d which \u201cmay have struck listeners in Schubert\u2019s day as wildly revolutionary\u201d (Parsons 21). This shows Schubert was not catering to any audience, but writing his music for purely artistic reasons. It is important within the context of artists in <em>The Master and Margarita<\/em> that, despite being politically \u201csubjected to stringent censorship[,] . . . self-assured resistance to authority is sounded\u201d in multiple Schubert Lieder (Parsons 97). Through his music, Schubert strove for personal and political freedom. Bulgakov\u2019s decision to name him as a main symbol of the Master\u2019s refuge, awarded in Chapter 32, casts Schubert\u2019s musical practices as a higher example than the Grand Opera allusions of Moscow.<\/p>\n<p>The Master is Bulgakov\u2019s \u201cliving Schubert,\u201d embodying characteristics noted above. Mirroring Schubert\u2019s principal practice in music, the Master explores the volatile internal emotions of Pontius Pilate in literature. His rewriting of the Gospels, most drastically in his approach to Jesus, is artistically innovative. While the Master does not fight his censorship and persecution outside of his art, his novel does reproach authority and its negative effects, both in Yeshua\u2019s philosophical hearing with Pilate and in the tragic result of Rome\u2019s political policies (Bulgakov 22, 24). His connection to Schubert spreads Bulgakov\u2019s isolated reference to the moral and artistic ideals of Lieder throughout the rest of the novel. These Lieder allusions reveal the novel\u2019s ideals of personal freedom and expression. Thus, Grand Opera and Lieder allusions represent the opposing sides of Bulgakov\u2019s central morality play.<\/p>\n<h4>The Conflict of Grand Opera and Lieder on a Personal Plane<\/h4>\n<p>But what is the venue for acting out this morality play? Oja and Pittman\u2019s psychological argument is essentially an exploration of Ivan Bezdomny\u2019s response to the novel\u2019s moral and artistic conflict, defined above in terms of Bulgakov\u2019s musical allusions. Both critics examine Bulgakov\u2019s theme of madness quite literally, leading to interesting interpretations of chapter 11. Each asserts Ivan\u2019s \u201csplit in two\u201d is the development of schizophrenia. This begins with Woland, who \u201ctriggers in Ivan a revelation of the falseness of all the half-baked hypermaterialism\u201d of MASSOLIT and his own writing (Oja 144). After running through Moscow in a dream-like hysteria, he is taken to Stravinsky\u2019s clinic. Here Ivan progresses into madness: \u201cAt first Ivan talks to himself; then his monologue turns into a dialogue between the \u2018old\u2019 and \u2018new\u2019 Ivans; finally the Master\u2019s entry completes the process of Ivan\u2019s split\u201d (Pittman 163). Creation of the Master, along with his life and literature, provides a necessary \u201calternative course for the writer faced by the morally repressive climate of the writer\u2019s profession in 1930s Moscow\u201d (Oja 145).<\/p>\n<p>Ivan\u2019s development of a \u201cDoppelganger\u201d or \u201csplinter psyche\u201d creates dual personas assuming the external qualities of Grand Opera and Lieder internally (Oja 142, Pittman 163). The \u201cold\u201d and \u201cnew\u201d personas represent the same moral and artistic roles symbolized by Grand Opera and Lieder:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">The old Ivan, like Berlioz . . . represents the writer as hypocrite, the writer as sycophant, the writer as professional phony; whereas the Master represents the alternative, the writer as hero. This is the moral alternative Bezdomny recognizes, realizes, and adopts for himself. (Oja 145)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>When Ivan\u2019s mind uses these personas to explore the moral conflict on an imaginary level, allusions to Grand Opera and Lieder continue in much the same way, as signposts marking the proximity to corruption. During Margarita\u2019s \u201cflight\u201d in chapter 21, for example, she revels in a release from Moscow, causing destruction <em>en route<\/em> to the deep woods. But the freedom she declares is contingent upon her submission to the authority of Woland in the Grand Ball. Thus, the musical allusions in the woods are a frog\u2019s march and a ballet of mermaids and naked witches (Bulgakov 211), two elements of Grand Opera. Within the Grand Ball, her strange immobility alludes to the Parisian operatic ballet \u201cbased on codified . . . positions, and sometimes copying Classical statues\u201d (Charlton 98). Her nakedness also reflects sexual corruption of Grand Opera, as \u201cogling the danseuses at the Opera . . . was a favorite Parisian sport,\u201d encouraged to a point of prostitution by the theater (Charlton 99). Ivan creates the Master\u2019s life, already noted as an example of Lieder, with full adherence to Romantic ideals of isolation and torment in creation. After Ivan realizes the true nature of Moscow, his resulting psychological breakdown continues the opposition of Grand Opera and Lieder on a personal plane. Grand Opera and Lieder allusions function not only in defining the novel\u2019s central moral conflict externally, but also on a deeper, additional level in Ivan\u2019s dual-persona attempt to confront the problem internally.<\/p>\n<h4>Grand Opera and Lieder: Thematically and Functionally United<\/h4>\n<p>In synthesizing through Ivan these strongly opposing symbols on a single individual (and thus shared) plane, Bulgakov hints at their underlying similarities and a second, common function. Violating the seemingly rigid roles of musical allusions in <em>The Master and Margarita<\/em>, Bulgakov\u2019s primary fixtures of Grand Opera and Lieder, Berlioz and Schubert respectively, historically overlap in notable ways. Schubert wrote <em>Fierrabras<\/em>, a Grand Opera, and Berlioz composed several m\u00e9lodies, French interpretations of Lieder. Schubert\u2019s collections of Lieder consciously approach a unified dramatic narrative, much like an opera, and Berlioz\u2019s operas have arias explicitly in the style of Lied. Especially interesting in the context of <em>The Master and Margarita<\/em>, Schubert\u2019s first Lied set a section of Goethe\u2019s <em>Faust<\/em> to music, and Berlioz wrote an entire Grand Opera, <em>La Damnation de Faust<\/em>. These similarities, along with Bulgakov\u2019s decision to assign Berlioz and Schubert to be the primary symbols of Grand Opera and Lieder, prompt an examination of their actual works.<\/p>\n<p>Berlioz\u2019s <em>La Damnation de Faust<\/em> and Schubert\u2019s Lied cycle <em>Winterreise<\/em> share prominent themes. Both Faust and Schubert\u2019s protagonists suffer from troubling visions. In scene 7 of Berlioz\u2019s Grand Opera, \u201cFaust\u2019s Vision,\u201d gnomes and sylphs dance ballet for him before Mephistopheles appears. In Schubert\u2019s <em>Winterreise<\/em>, in which a young man wanders through the frozen woods after his heart is broken, two songs deal with visions. In \u201cDer Lindenbaum\u201d (\u201cThe Linden Tree\u201d), the wanderer\u2019s favorite tree calls out for him to commit suicide. Another song, \u201cDie Nebensonnen\u201d (\u201cThe Mock Suns\u201d), deals with a vision of three suns haunting the wanderer: two of them, the eyes of his lover, turn away forever. In a typically Romantic ideal, both Faust and the wanderer are tormented by distressed solitude. In scene 16, Faust languishes in the dark woods, invoking nature to abate his piteous cries. For <em>Winterreise<\/em>, the entire cycle of Lieder follows the young man through his existential musings as he travels alone through the winter woods. The supernatural \u201cwill-o\u2019-the-wisps\u201d play prophetic roles for Margarita and the wanderer. A quartet of these folk spirits accompanies Mephistopheles\u2019 warnings of Margarita\u2019s future loss of Faust in scene 12. In \u201cIrrlicht\u201d (\u201cWill-o\u2019-the-Wisp\u201d), the phantom lights have led the wanderer astray, which he interprets as a reflection of his pursuit of love. Dreams provide the setting of scenes for the two composers. In scene 7, Mephistopheles tempts Faust by lulling him to sleep and conjuring dreams of Margarita. The song \u201cFruhlingstraum\u201d (\u201cSpring Dreams\u201d) is a yearning dream of love in springtime. These shared elements show Bulgakov\u2019s allusions to Grand Opera and Lieder may be in conflict generally, but they are thematically united through his given examples.<\/p>\n<p>Not coincidentally, Bulgakov uses these same thematic elements to develop Ivan\u2019s schizophrenia. Bulgakov develops the theme of visions into schizophrenic creation, a product of Ivan\u2019s distressed solitude at the clinic. All action within Ivan\u2019s imagined narrative is colored by the supernatural and usually heralded by dreams or dream-like states. Bulgakov\u2019s allusions to Grand Opera and Lieder are now operating on yet another level; They are functionally united as Bulgakov\u2019s thematic mechanisms.<\/p>\n<p>Because of this important thematic and functional correlation with Ivan\u2019s schizophrenia, allusions to Grand Opera and Lieder are part of the resolution of Bulgakov\u2019s central moral question, \u201cwhat is the moral course of action for an artist\u201d in Soviet Russia (Oja 151)? The madness argument places Ivan as the central figure of the novel; he becomes Bulgakov\u2019s case study of the artist in Soviet Russia. His progression into madness is \u201ca process that is eminently healthy and healing,\u201d helping Ivan make sense of his place within the damaging moral and artistic environment of Soviet Russia (Oja 149). The result of this madness is stability between the two opposing moral forces. According to Pittman: \u201cBulgakov conjures up his protagonists\u2019 suppressed or neglected \u2018shadow\u2019 lives and gives expression to a vision of potential unity,\u201d a balancing act that \u201crepresents a complex \u2018settling of accounts\u2019 . . . between the poet\u2019s life of imagination and enforced conformity\u201d (Pittman 162, 166). Thus, through Ivan, Bulgakov presents not an answer, but a synthesis of true and forced functions of the artist in Soviet Russia. As is in all elements of <em>The Master and Margarita<\/em>, there is no simple, definitive answer. An artist must find a variable personal balance between independent and institutional creation. Bulgakov\u2019s complex layering of allusions to Grand Opera and Lieder mirrors this synthesis.<\/p>\n<p>Ivan\u2019s epilogue also reasonably echoes this conclusion. Every spring moon he seems to relive his dualist madness. \u201cIvan Nikolayevich openly talks to himself\u201d in Patriarch\u2019s Ponds, recreating his horrible realization of moral corruption; he then internally visits Nikolai Ivanovich, remembering a humorous tale from his moral escape in which he \u201cknows what will happen next by heart\u201d (Bulgakov 333). Bulgakov\u2019s curious reversal of first and patronymic names reinforces the dual nature of this experience. Continuing this motif, Ivan\u2019s full name in the epilogue is different. He is no longer Bezdomny, Russian for \u201chomeless,\u201d but Professor Ponyryov. He has found his own psychological \u201chome,\u201d mirroring the Master\u2019s \u201ceternal home\u201d Ivan visits in his vivid dreams (Bulgakov 325). Bulgakov strengthens this connection by ending both chapter 32 and the epilogue with the same phrase. Bulgakov presents Ivan\u2019s synthesis as the goal of the ideal artist, although in the real world.<\/p>\n<p>In conclusion, Bulgakov uses general, historical characteristics of Grand Opera and Lieder to illustrate the two external forces of his central moral question, \u201cwhat is the moral course of action for an artist\u201d in Soviet Russia (Oja 151)? Through Ivan Bezdomny\u2019s schizophrenic creation of the Master, the moral question is transcribed internally. In typical Bulgakovian irony, prominent examples of Berlioz\u2019s Grand Opera and Schubert\u2019s Lieder share thematic characteristics that Bulgakov uses to develop Ivan\u2019s madness. In this paradox, Bulgakov\u2019s chosen elements of Grand Opera and Lieder simultaneously resolve the moral and artistic opposites the two musical genres broadly symbolize.<\/p>\n<p>This progression makes an additional musical allusion. Bulgakov\u2019s multi-layered symbolic application of Grand Opera and Lieder in the novel mirrors the harmonic structure of \u201csonata form,\u201d a principle classical music form used by almost every major composer. In sonata form, the piece of music is organized into three sections: the exposition, the development, and the recapitulation. In the exposition, two harmonic \u201ctheme groups\u201d are presented in conflict; that is, they are in different keys. However, once the piece reaches the recapitulation, these same \u201ctheme groups\u201d are restated, only now in harmony, or in the same key. This accomplishment synthesizes the two paradoxical functions of Grand Opera and Lieder in one final statement of music\u2019s relationship with the novel: Taken with his constant invocations of the moon, <em>The Master and Margarita<\/em> is Bulgakov\u2019s literary \u201cMoonlight Sonata.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Works Cited<\/h2>\n<p class=\"citation\">Bartlet, M. Elizabeth C. &#8220;Grand op\u00e9ra.&#8221; <em>Grove Music Online<\/em>. <em>Oxford Music Online<\/em>. Web. 25 April 2010.<\/p>\n<p class=\"citation\">Berlioz, Hector. <em>The Damnation of Faust<\/em>. Trans. Leopold Damrosch. New York: G. Schirmer, 1880. Musical Score.<\/p>\n<p class=\"citation\">Blank, Ksana. \u201cBulgakov\u2019s <em>Master and Margarita<\/em> and the Music of Igor Stravinskii.\u201d <em>Slavonica<\/em>: 6.2 (2000): 28\u201343. Print.<\/p>\n<p class=\"citation\">B\u00f6ker-Heil, Norbert, et al. &#8220;Lied.&#8221; <em>Grove Music Online<\/em>. <em>Oxford Music Online<\/em>. Web. 25 April 2010.<\/p>\n<p class=\"citation\">Bulgakov, Mikhail. <em>The Master and Margarita<\/em>. Trans. Diana Burgin and Katherine Tiernan O\u2019Connor. New York: Vintage International\/Random House, 1996. Print.<\/p>\n<p class=\"citation\">Charlton, David, ed. <em>The Cambridge Companion to Grand Opera<\/em>. New York:Cambridge University Press, 2003. Print.<\/p>\n<p class=\"citation\">Fulcher, Jane F. <em>The Nation\u2019s Image: French Grand Opera as Politics and Politicized Art<\/em>. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987. Print.<\/p>\n<p class=\"citation\">Lowe, David. \u201cGounod\u2019s <em>Faust<\/em> and Bulgakov\u2019s <em>The Master and Margarita<\/em>.\u201d <em>The Russian Review<\/em>: 55 (1996). 279\u2013286. Print.<\/p>\n<p class=\"citation\">Natov, Nadine. \u201cThe Meaning of Music and Musical Images in the Works of Mikhail Bulgakov.\u201d <em>Bulgakov: The Novelist Playwright<\/em>. Ed. Lesley Milne. Luxembourg: Harwood, 1995. 171\u2013186. Print.<\/p>\n<p class=\"citation\">Oja, Matt F. \u201cThe Role and Meaning of Madness in <em>The Master and Margarita<\/em>: The Novel as a Doppelganger Tale.\u201d <em>Bulgakov: The Novelist Playwright<\/em>. Ed. Lesley Milne. Luxembourg: Harwood, 1995. 142\u2013156. Print.<\/p>\n<p class=\"citation\">Parsons, James, ed. <em>The Cambridge Companion to the Lied<\/em>. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Print.<\/p>\n<p class=\"citation\">Pittman, Riitta H. \u201cDreamers and Dreaming in M.A. Bulgakov\u2019s <em>The Master and Margarita<\/em>.\u201d <em>Bulgakov: The Novelist Playwright<\/em>. Ed. Lesley Milne. Luxembourg: Harwood, 1995. 157\u2013170. Print.<\/p>\n<p class=\"citation\">Schubert, Franz. <em>Winterreise<\/em>. Trans. Theodore Baker. New York: G. Schirmer, 1923. Musical Score.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John Collins (WR 150, Paper 3) Download this essay Introduction Several articles have connected Mikhail Bulgakov\u2019s many musical allusions to the actual composers and compositions, exploring how these references influence and inform his masterpiece, The Master and Margarita. David Lowe traces the narrative transformation of the Faust legend from Goethe through Gounod\u2019s opera to Bulgakov\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2844,"featured_media":0,"parent":3692,"menu_order":12,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/writingprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1939"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/writingprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/writingprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/writingprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2844"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/writingprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1939"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/writingprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3874,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/writingprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1939\/revisions\/3874"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/writingprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/writingprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}