“Zvartnots Conjunct with Colosseum”: From Tamanyan’s People’s House to the Theater of Opera and Ballet

 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.34680/urbis-2023-3(1)-32-61

 

Levon Abrahamian
Institute of Archeology and Ethnography NAS RA, Yerevan, Armenia
[email protected]

 

 

ABSTRACT

The article examines one of the most enigmatic constructions of Alexander Tamanyan – the People’s House, which was the basis of the current Opera and Ballet Theater in Yerevan. The People’s House was strictly criticized by young proletarian architects, the Armenian representatives of the revolutionary Culture One – the author follows the concept proposed by V. Paperny, according to which in the early 1930s the “spreading” egalitarian Culture One replaced with the Stalin-era Culture Two, characterized by “hardening” and hierarchy. It is shown that Tamanyan’s People's House was horizontally consonant with Culture One, however, it did not imply an egalitarian proletarian daily life, but a nationwide festival in the spirit of carnival festivities studied by M. Bakhtin and Ur-festival reconstructed by the author. In the vertical plane, People’s House was likened to the best achievements of medieval Armenian church architecture, in particular, the 7th-century temple of Zvartnots. Tamanyan generally conceived his People’s House as a conjunction of the Armenian Zvartnots with the Roman Coliseum, which should have been constructively realized by the closed part of the People’s House (the Tamanyan’s Culture Two) and its open part, which, together with the horizontal function of the closed part, provided the festive Culture One. A comparison is made between the classic Stalinist Culture Two, the planned Palace of Soviets in Moscow, and Tamanyan’s Culture Two, which was conceived before Stalin’s Culture Two and was combined with Culture One. Figuratively defining the idea of his project, the architect said that he wanted to combine the Armenian temple of the VII century Zvartnots with the Roman Colosseum. After the death of Tamanyan, the construction of the People’s House was continued by his son, who “edited” the building of his father, depriving it of the festive features of Culture One. Tamanyan traced this festive principle to the pagan temple of song and love located, as he believed, on the very spot where he built his People’s House. Despite being deprived as a result of reconstruction, festivity nevertheless manifests itself, but in the late 1980s and in the form of a political festival of unity. The article also outlines other possible developments of the space of the Opera building, which were laid down by Tamanyan in the mythology of his architectural work.

Keywords: people’s house, culture one, culture two, Tamanyan, constructivism, Palace of Councils, political festival.

 

 

References

Abrahamian, L. (1983). Primitive festival and mythology. Publishing House of Acad. Sci. Arm. SSR. (In Russian).

 

Abrahamian, L. (1990 a). Chaos and cosmos in the structure of mass popular demonstrations (The Karabakh movement in the eyes of an ethnographer). Soviet Anthropology & Archeology, 29(2), 70–86.

 

Abrahamian, L. (1990 b). The Karabagh movement as viewed by an anthropologist. The Armenian Review, 43(2–3), 67–80.

 

Abrahamian, L. (1993). The anthropologist as shaman: Interpreting recent political events in Armenia. In G. Pálsson (Ed.), Beyond Boundaries: Understanding, Translation, and Anthropological Discourse. (pp. 100–116). Berg.

 

Abrahamian, L. (2001). Civil society born in the square: The Karabagh movement in perspective. In L. Chorbajian (Ed.), The Making of Nagorno-Karabagh: From Secession to Republic. (pp. 116–134). Palgrave.

 

Abrahamian, L. (2001). The heavenly temple raising out of the body of sacrifice: The vision of Gregory the Illuminator from an anthropological perspective. In S. Harutyunyan & A. Kalantaryan (Eds.), Armenian Saints and Sanctuaries: Sources, Types, Worship. (pp. 361–367). Hayastan. (In Armenian).

 

Abrahamian, L. (2006). Armenian identity in a changing world. Mazda Publishers.

 

Abrahamian, L. (2010). Yerevan: Memory and forgetting in the organization of space of post-Soviet city. Anthropological Forum, 12, 248–271. (In Russian).

 

Abrahamian, L. (2012). Yerevan: Memory and forgetting in the organization of post-Soviet urban space. In A. Baiburin, C. Kelly & N. Vakhtin (Eds.), Russian Cultural Anthropology after the Collapse of Communism. (pp. 254–275). Routledge.

 

Abrahamian, L. (2015). The archetype of vertical and the vishap stone stelae. In A. Petrosyan & A. Bobokhyan (Eds.), The Vishap Stone Stelae. (pp. 121–135). Gitutyun. (In Russian).

 

Abramyan, L., & Demirkhanyan, A. (1985). The mythologem of тwins and the cosmic tree (on the meaning of a group of images in ancient Armenian rock art). Historical-Philological Journal, 4, 66–84. (In Russian).

 

Abrahamian, L., & Shagoyan, G. (2011–2012). From carnival civil society toward a real civil society: Democracy trends in post-Soviet Armenia. Anthropology & Archeology of Eurasia, 50(3), 11–50.

 

Abrahamian, L., & Shagoyan, G. (2013). Rallies as festival and festival as a model for rallies: Armenia 1988 and 2008. In S. Voell & K. Khutsishvili (Eds.), Caucasus, Conflict, Culture: Anthropological Perspectives on Times of Crises. (pp. 65–90). Curupira.

Abrahamian, L., & Shagoyan, G. (2018). Velvet Revolution, Armenian style. Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, 26(4), 509–530. Academician of Architecture Aleksandr I․ Tamanyan – Works. (2023, 9 May). clck.ru/34UEe8. (In Russian).

 

Agathangelos (2004). History of the Armenians. Translated from Old-Armenian by K. S. Ter-Davtyan & S. S. Arevshatyan. Nairi. (In Russian).

 

Alabyan, K. S. (1936). Against formalism, simplification, and eclecticism. Soviet Archaeology, 4, 1–6. (In Russian).

 

Baiburin, A. K. (1983). Dwelling in rites and notes of the eastern Slavs. Nauka. (In Russian).

 

Bakhtin, M. (1965). Rabelais and folk culture of the Middle Ages and Renaissance [Rabelais and His World]. Art Literature Publ. House. (In Russian).

 

Erzinkyan, A. L. (Comp.). (2012). Aramais Erzinkyan: Personality – Legend. Oskan Erevantsi. (In Armenian & Russian).

 

Gekht, S. (2012). «Don’t despair, I will fight for you until the end...». In A. L. Erzinkyan (Compiler). Aramais Erzinkyan: Personality – Legend. (pp. 230–239). Oskan Erevantsi. (In Russian).

 

Grigoryan, M. V. (2022). Yerevan. City’s biography. Slovo.

 

Ivanov, V. V., & Toporov, V. N. (1975). Invariant and transformation in mythological and folklore texts. In Typological Studies in Folklore. (pp. 51–76). Nauka. (In Russian).

 

Ivanov, V. V. (2006). «Culture Two» twenty years later. In V. Paperny, Culture Two. (pp. 401–406). Novoe lit. obozrenie. (In Russian).

 

Ivanov, V. V. (1983). Different chronological strata in old Armenian and the problem of the original structure of the hymn to Vahagn. Historical-Philological Journal, 4, 22–43. (In Russian).

 

Kafadaryan, K. (1975). Yerevan: Medieval monuments and lapidary inscriptions. Publishing House of Acad. Sci. Armenian SSR. (In Armenian).

 

Kalantar, A. (2007). Armenia: From Stone Age to Medieval times. In Collected Works: Vol. 4. (pp. 273–279). Gitutyun. (In Armenian).

 

Khachatryan, A. (1975). Artavazd. Hayastan. (In Armenian).

 

Khan-Magometov, S. (1996). The architecture of Soviet avant-garde. Stroyizdat. (In Russian).

Kruzhkov, N. (2014). High rises of the Stalin Moscow. The heritage of the epoch. Tsentrpoligraf. (In Russian).

 

Kuzmin, V. (1928). About housing construction of the workers. Modern Architecture, 3, 82–83. (In Russian).

 

Le Palais des Soviets: la première étape. (2022, 5 May). https://vivelemaoisme.org/le-pal-ais-des-soviets-la-premiere-etape/.

 

Mazmanyan, M. (1960). The great master. In Aleksandr Tamanyan: Articles, Documents, Contemporaries about Him. (pp. 179–185). Publishing House of Acad. Sci. Arm. SSR. (In Armenian).

 

Meletinskij, E. M. (1976). The poetics of the myth. Nauka. (In Russian).

 

Mirzoyan, T. (2009, 15 January). Strict pane, in the form of a temple. The masterpiece of Tamanyan from the perspective of history. Golos Armenii, p. 6. (In Russian).

 

Paperny, V. (2002). Architecture in the Age of Stalin: Culture Two. Cambridge University Press.

 

Paperny, V. (2006). Culture Two. Novoe lit. obozrenie. (In Russian).

Peltean, G. (2009). Armenian futurism. Sargis Khachents. (In Armenian).

 

Shakhkyan, G. (2012). The great cooperation. In Aramais Erzinkyan: Personality – Legend. (pp. 240–251). Oskan Erevantsi. (In Armenian & Russian).

 

Shashkova, N. O. (2013). Upon the high-rise construction in Moscow the 40–50s of the 20th century: Concepts, goals, results, and significance. Values and Meanings, 3(25), 145–146. (In Russian).

 

Tamanyan, A. (1933). The project of the state theater in Yerevan. Socialist Economy of Trans-Caucasia, 3–4, 121–122. (In Russian).

 

Tamanyan, A. (1935 a). The capital of Soviet Armenia. Literary Newspaper, 30(111), 15 December. In Aleksandr Tamanyan: Articles, Documents, Contemporaries about Him. (1960). (pp. 55–63). Publishing House of Acad. Sci. Arm. SSR. (In Armenian).

 

Tamanyan, A. (1935 b). Report on works. The Architecture of the USSR, 5, 3–7. (In Russian).

 

Tamanyan, A. (2000). Aleksandr Tamanyan. Collection of documents and materials. Gitutyun. (In Armenian).

 

Toporov, V. N. (1977). Concerning the reflection of an Indo-European myth in old Armenian tradition. Historical-Philological Journal, 3, 88–106. (In Russian).

 

Vas’kin, A. A., & Nazarenko, Yu. I. (2011). Stalin’s high-rise buildings: From the Palace of the Soviets to the high-rise buildings. Sputnik+. (In Russian). “We urge to prevent the Construction of the ‘People’s House’ according to the Project of the academician Tamanov” (Publication by Karen Mikayelyan). (2016, 24 March). Novoe Vremia. (In Russian).

 

 

About author

Levon A. Abrahamian
Cand. Sci. (Historical Sciences),
Corresponding Member of NAS RA
Head of the Cultural Anthropology Department
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia
15, Charents St., Yerevan, 0025, Armenia
ORCID: 0000-0002-4746-7076
Web of Science ResearcherID: IQW-8049-2023
Scopus AuthorID: 6508255165
e-mail: [email protected]

 

For citation:
Abrahamian, L. А. “Zvartnots conjunct with Colosseum”: From Tamanyan’s People’s House to the Theater of Opera and Ballet. Urbis et Orbis. Microhistory and Semiotics of the City, 3(1), 32–61. https://doi.org/10.34680/urbis-2023-3(1)-32-61