Soviet Empire and Operatic Realm : Stalinist Search for the Model Soviet Opera
This paper analyzes the phenomenon of classical opera used (and abused) by the Soviet officials as an instrument to re-build imperial common consciousness on a new, Soviet ground, and, thus, create ...
National Form and Socialist Content: Soviet Modernization and Making of Uzbek National Opera Between the 1920s and 1930s
This essay explores the Soviet domination of Uzbekistan, achieved through cultural modernization and the creation of a national culture in the 1930s. It investigates the history behind the making of the first Uzbek national operas to be performed at the Bolshoi Theatre during the 1937 Dekada of Uzbek Arts and Music. The 1937 Uzbek dekada reconstructed and recontextualized Uzbek national music, while the dekada premiers of the Uzbek national operas Gulsara and Farhod va Shirin celebrated Soviet modernity and what Marina Frolova-Walker has termed “socialist cultural nationalism”. At the same time, they made obsolete indigenous attempts at modernizing local music which preceded Soviet modernization. This essay investigates the historical and cultural significance of the 1937 Uzbek dekada, and addresses how the dekada rewrote the Uzbek nation’s cultural historiography. It traces a local origin of “Uzbek opera” back to the early 1920s in order to uncover a local discourse on musical modernization and nationalization that was hidden behind the painted curtains of the Bolshoi stage. By connecting the 1920s and 1930s discourses on musical modernization and the making of an Uzbek opera, this essay ultimately engages with the imperialistic nature of Soviet modernization that overrode a local mode of modernity.
Collagen dynamics in articular cartilage under osmotic pressure
Cartilage is a complex biological tissue consisting of collagen, proteoglycans and water. The structure and molecular mobility of the collagen component of cartilage were studied by 13C solid‐state NMR spectroscopy as a function of hydration. The hydration level of cartilage was adjusted between fully hydrated (∼80 wt% H2O) and highly dehydrated (∼30 wt% H2O) using the osmotic stress technique. Thus, the conditions of mechanical load could be simulated and the response of the tissue macromolecules to mechanical stress is reported. From the NMR measurements, the following results were obtained. (i) Measurements of motionally averaged dipolar 1H–13C couplings were carried out to study the segmental mobility in cartilage collagen at full hydration. Backbone segments undergo fast motions with amplitudes of ∼35° whereas the collagen side‐chains are somewhat more mobile with amplitudes between 40 and 50°. In spite of the high water content of cartilage, collagen remains essentially rigid. (ii) No chemical shift changes were observed in 13C cross‐polarization magic angle spinning spectra of cartilage tissue at varying hydration indicating that the collagen structure was not altered by application of high osmotic stress. (iii) The 1H–13C dipolar coupling values detected for collagen signals respond to dehydration. The dipolar coupling values gradually increase upon cartilage dehydration, reaching rigid limit values at ∼30 wt% H2O. This indicates that collagen is essentially dehydrated in cartilage tissue under very high mechanical load, which provides insights into the elastic properties of cartilage collagen, although the mechanical pressures applied here exceed the physiological limit. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.