Vampuka

a one-act parody opera. Full title, Vampuka, the African Bride: A Model Opera in All Respects (music and libretto by V. G. Erenberg, based on a feuilleton by A. Mantsenilov [M. N. Volkonskii]).

Vampuka ridicules the absurd conventions and clichés of operatic productions—the drawn-out quality of the action, the dismemberment of words, and the repetition of syllables that lose all meaning. The work was first staged in 1909 by the Curved Mirror Theater in St. Petersburg; it was performed until 1927 in Leningrad, Moscow, Riga, and Tbilisi. “Vampuka” became a term designating all that is conventional, hackneyed, pretentious, and far from reality in operatic productions.