Music and Time Annotation << Back Opera-thriller «The lesson» by I. Kholopov: specifics of the genre and the features of drama E.I. Pererva The article is devoted to the composition of a contemporary composer Igor Kholopov (a graduate and a teacher of the Musicalpedagogical Institut named after M. Ippolitov-Ivanov, class of Honored Artist of Russia Podgaits E.) – opera-thriller «The lesson» based on the eponymous play by French playwright Eugene Ionesco. The opera was staged as a part of the “Open Stage” project, the premiere was held in the Theater hangar on Belarusskaya on December 27, 2014. The critics noted that the director Ekaterina Vasileva managed to create a vivid performance in the spirit of Dygilev’s «Golden Cockerel». The article touches upon the specifics of the genre, reveals the features of drama, compositional principles, the system of leitmotifs. The article contains musical examples from the composition (fragments of orchestral entry, funeral march, two arias of the Pupil («Bright snow shone in the valley» and «When horses die, they breathe ...», the main leitems are the Pupils, Teachers, Handmaids, etc.). Keywords: opera, theater, dramaturgy, Kholopov, Ionesco. Contacts: - Pp. 44-52.