Abstract
The article attempts to reconstruct the musical and choreographic dramaturgy of the unfinished ballet “Steppe Legend” by Tles Kazhgaliyev based on a libretto by Zaurbek Raibayev through the study of archival manuscripts. The relevance of the research lies in the fact that “Steppe Legend” represents one of the most significant unrealized projects of the Kazakh ballet theatre. Its study makes it possible to considerably expand current understanding of the development trends of national ballet in the second half of the twentieth century, as well as to trace the specific features of the creative interaction between the composer and the choreographer-librettist in the process of creating a stage work. The source base of the research includes the author’s manuscript of the ballet clavier, the typewritten libretto, compositional schemes, and audio recordings of musical material preserved in the composer’s family archive. The study employs source-critical, structural-functional, textological, comparative-typological, and musical-dramaturgical methods of analysis. The research made it possible to determine the specific character of the libretto created by Z. Raibayev, which represents not only the narrative outline of the ballet, but also an extended scenario of stage action. The analysis of the musical material revealed the composer’s aspiration to create continuous dramaturgical development and a system of individualized musical characterizations of the protagonists, demonstrating adherence to the principles of ballet symphonization. The theoretical and practical significance of the research lies in the possibility of applying its results in ballet studies, source studies, the study of the creative biographies of T. Kazhgaliyev and Z. Raibayev, as well as the history of Kazakh musical theatre of the second half of the twentieth century.