Lénine, Staline et la musique - exhibition in Paris

There is a new exhibition at the Cité de la musique in Paris, that starts the 12th of October till January 16th, with this title "Lénine, Staline et la musique".
And apparently, I read that there will be a theremin that visitors can test. I think it's not an original Termens but more a Big Briar 91-A that the museum already has, but I'm not sure.

From the website :

Continuing the theme of the relationship between music and power, begun back in 2004 with the “Third Reich and music” exhibition, the Cité de la musique is presenting a chronicle of musical life during the first thirty years of Soviet Russia. This exhibition places musical creation within the context of Russia’s artistic movements and history, from the 1917 October Revolution to Stalin’s death in 1953. It examines the role of art and artists in revolutionary impulse, and how these slowly became exploited by Soviet totalitarianism. Looking beyond this regime, the exhibition addresses the independence of artistic creation in the face of political power.

Designed in two main parts that oppose revolutionary utopias with Stalinian domination, “Lenin, Stalin and music” unites over 400 works related to music (autographed and printed music scores, musical instruments, models and costumes from ballets and operas), visual art (paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures), photography and photomontage, film (film excerpts and posters) and audiovisual archives (propaganda, filmed concerts, etc.) Organised for the France-Russia Year 2010, the exhibition requires exceptional loans from the Moscow’s main museums (Tretyakov Gallery, Glinka Museum, State Historical Museum, A.A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, the Gorky Museum and more) and from St. Petersburg (Russian Museum, Museum of Theatre and Music, St. Petersburg City History Museum, National Library, and more).

Visits are conducted with an audioguide providing access to movie soundtracks and to the exhibition’s musical content. A special audioguide and game-booklet has been designed for young visitors. For the visually impaired, tactile elements are placed throughout the exhibition and complement the audio description.

The exhibition is organised for the France-Russia Year 2010 / www.france-russia2010.com



Here's the link in english : http://www.citedelamusique.fr/anglais/musee/expo_temporaires.aspx
I will definitly go to the exhibition.

Jimmy Virani

Well, I've been to the exhibition, and was disapointed to see that there was no explanation on the life of Leon Theremin, or even, what is the instrument. Too bad when you know the story of the inventor, and it's relation with the soviet politics.
There was an RCA with its amp, a Croix Sonore, and a Moog Etherwave that you could try but completly out of pitch and impossible to fix it.
People really couldn't understand why this instruments were there, and what they really were.
Sad.

I am amazed that the curators of the museum and the people who mounted the exhibition at the CITE DE LA MUSIQUE failed to give the theremin the importance it deserves. You cannot discuss music in post-revolutionary Russia under Lenin without emphasizing the extraordinary role the theremin played.

For most of the last eighty years, the French have had more interest in the ondes Martenot than the theremin. There was a tremendous response to Leon Theremin's original presentation of the instrument at l'Opera in 1927, but after that the ondes seemed to take over the spotlight as far as France was concerned.