Dolidze Viktor

Viktor Dolidze [18 (30) July 1890, Ozurgeti – 24 May 1933, Tbilisi] was a composer and the founder of Georgian comic opera. He studied at the Tbilisi Commercial School, where he organized an orchestra of mandolinists and guitarists. In 1910, he was awarded first prize at a mandolinist competition held in Tbilisi.

In 1917, he graduated from the Kyiv Commercial Institute, while also studying violin and composition at the Kyiv School of Music, where he completed courses in music theory. That same year, he returned to Georgia.

Dolidze’s works include: Keto and Kote (based on A. Tsagareli’s play Khanuma, 1919), Leila (based on Tsagareli’s The Lek Woman Guljavari, 1922), Tsisana (based on a plot by S. Ertatsminda, 1929), and the Zamira (1931, based on Ossetian folk themes, unfinished); the symphonic fantasy Iveriada (1925); the symphony Azerbaijan (1932); a piano concerto (1932); and several romances. During his 1926 trip to Samachablo, he collected and arranged Ossetian folk songs.

Among his works, the opera Keto and Kote has a special place. It was presented in Moscow in 1937 during the First Decade of Georgian Art and Literature, and has been staged in various opera theaters across the USSR, as well as abroad—in Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Poland.

The opera’s success is largely attributed to its humorous plot, vivid imagery, and memorable, melodic music. Dolidze made use of old Tbilisi urban folklore motifs and everyday musical forms. The opera was later adapted into the popular film Keto and Kote (1947, directed by V. Tabliashvili).

Literature: დ ო ნ ა ძ ე  ლ., ვიქტორ დოლიძე, წგ.: ქართული მუსიკის ისტორია, ტ. 1, თბ., 1990; ფ ი ჩ ხ ა ძ ე  მ., ვიქტორ დოლიძე, თბ., 1991; ჩ ხ ი კ ვ ა ძ ე  გ., საქართველოს საბჭოთა კომპოზიტორები, თბ., 1956; В а ч н а д з е  М. А., Виктор Долидзе, Тб., 1961; К о р е в  С. И., „Кето и Котэ" В. Долидзе, М.– Л., 1951.

G. Toradze