| The Composer Glinka (Kompozitor Glinka) | |
| Director: | Grigori Aleksandrov |
| Starring: | Boris Smirnov Lev Durasov Lyubov Orlova Yuri Lyubimov Georgy Vitsin |
| Music: | Vladimir Shcherbachov Vissarion Shebalin |
| Cinematography: | Eduard Tisse |
| Studio: | Mosfilm |
| Country: | Soviet Union |
| Language: | Russian |
Kompozitor Glinka (Russian: Композитор Глинка; English literal translation, Composer Glinka; American release title Man of Music) is a 1952 Soviet biographical film directed by Grigori Aleksandrov.
The young composer Mikhail Glinka performs his new work at a soiree at Count Vielgorsky's house. However, the public is accustomed to Western music, and reacts coldly to the creation of the composer. The disappointed Glinka decides to go learn the art of music in Italy.
After returning from Italy, he is full of desire to write a Russian opera. Vasily Zhukovsky proposes a subject: a exploit of Ivan Susanin. Tsar Nicholas I changes the name of the opera to A Life for the Tsar and assigns a librettist - Baron Georg von Rosen.
When Glinka meets him, he is shocked: Rosen speaks Russian with a noticeable German accent. The premiere is successful, but Glinka is still not entirely happy with the libretto: "Rosen wrote the wrong words".
When the tsar learns that Glinka's opera Ruslan and Lyudmila is based on a subject by Pushkin, he sees it as sedition. This is a bitter experience for Glinka, but he is comforted by the support of "the progressive Russian people."
1953 Locarno International Film Festival[1]