Mira Mendelson

CurryTime7-24: Corrected ballet title.

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[[File:Mira Mendelssohn Prokofiev.jpg|thumb|upright|Sergei Prokofiev with Mira Mendelssohn in 1946.]]
'''Mariya-Cecilia Abramovna Mendelson-Prokofieva''' (typically referred to as '''Mira Mendelson'''; January 8, 1914 – June 8, 1968) was a Russian poet and writer who was the second wife of [[Sergei Prokofiev]]. She was the co-librettist of her husband's operas ''[[Betrothal in a Monastery]]'', ''[[The Story of a Real Man]]'', and ''[[War and Peace (opera)|War and Peace]]'', as well as the ballet ''[[The Tale of the Stone Flower]]''.<ref name="Morrison">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>

== Biography ==
Mendelson was born in [[Kiev]] on January 8, 1914; the only child of Abram Solomonovich and Vera Natanovna Mendelson. Her father was an economist and statistician, while her mother had earned recognition for her work as a [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|CPSU]] member.<ref name="Morrison"></ref> As a young woman she began her studies in higher education at the Energy Sector of the [[Genplan Institute of Moscow]], before eventually moving on to the [[Maxim Gorky Literature Institute]].

The details of how she first met Prokofiev, or how her professional relationship with the then married composer developed into an extramarital affair remain unclear. According to her memoirs, she met her future husband in August 1938 at a resort in [[Kislovodsk]] while vacationing there with her family. However, Prokofiev's then wife [[Lina Prokofiev|Lina]] recalled to him in a letter written to him less than a year before their final separation:

:"Remember what you wrote after the first meeting. It was hardly you who chose [Mendelson and her family], but they who "chose" you—where? At a health resort—you, not some speck of sand, but [Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev], the leading composer of the nation, a famous person with a family man aura, twice as old. ''Perhaps you will say "love at first sight"—who will believe that?'' There were sufficient witnesses in Kislovodsk to the fact that she followed you everywhere."<ref name="Morrison"></ref>

By January 1939 Prokofiev had gifted to Mendelson an autographed photograph of himself, which bore the inscription: "To a blossoming poet, from a modest admirer." He also requested that she meet him again in Kislovodsk later that summer. By the fall of that same year he began sketching out the [[Piano Sonata No. 8 (Prokofiev)|Piano Sonata No. 8]], a work whose first movement "Andante dolce" theme was inspired by her. He dedicated the score to her upon its completion in 1944.<ref name="Berman">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> Lina Prokofiev claimed in interviews after her former husband's death that he initially described Mendelson as "just some girl who wants me to read her bad poetry."<ref name="Morrison"></ref> He later revealed the truth of the affair to his wife. She did not object to it so long as they did not live together. On March 15, 1941, Prokofiev declared to his wife that he was leaving her for Mendelson. He moved into his new partner's apartment in central [[Moscow]] a few days later. Despite the acrimonious separation, Prokofiev continued to financially support his family, sometimes employing his friend and colleague [[Levon Atovmyan]] as an intermediary.<ref name="Morrison"></ref>

The [[Operation Barbarossa|German invasion of the Soviet Union]] forced Mendelson and Prokofiev to flee Moscow, first to the [[Georgian SSR]], then to the [[Kazakh SSR]]. During this period they collaborated on a number of operatic projects, many of which were abandoned, including a proposed setting of Tolstoy's ''Resurrection''. Out of that came the couple's most important artistic collaboration, the opera ''War and Peace''. The subject had been suggested to the composer by Mendelson's father.<ref name="Morrison"></ref>

After the end of [[World War II]], the couple returned to Moscow, and spent the rest of their summers together in Nikolina Gora. On November 22, 1947, Prokofiev filed a petition in court to begin divorce proceedings against his estranged wife. Five days later the court ruled that the marriage had no legal basis since it had taken place in [[Weimar Republic|Germany]], and had not been registered with Soviet officials, thus making it null and void. After a second judge upheld the verdict, he and Mendelson wed on January 13, 1948.<ref>https://ift.tt/3hDyfLb name="Morrison"></ref>

Prokofiev's final years were beset by health problems brought upon by [[hypertension]], which necessitated Mendelson's additional assistance as secretary and sometimes caregiver. By 1953, however, he grew to be profoundly depressed about the state of his health, lamenting to his wife that his "soul hurt." He died from a [[cerebral hemorrhage]] on March 5, 1953.<ref name="Morrison"></ref> After his death, his first wife petitioned the courts to have them reassert her rights as Prokofiev's sole and legitimate spouse. An initial ruling in her favor was reversed by the [[Supreme Court of the Soviet Union]] on March 12, 1958, which reaffirmed that her marriage had no legal validity.<ref name="Morrison"></ref> [[Dmitri Shostakovich]], [[Dmitry Kabalevsky]], and [[Tikhon Khrennikov]] were among the witnesses called upon by the court to give their testimonies.<ref name="Mendelson-Prokofieva">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>

Mendelson spent her own final years organizing her husband's papers, promoting his music, and writing her memoirs. She died of a heart attack in Moscow on June 8, 1968. According to her wishes and those of her deceased husband, she was buried by his side at [[Novodevichy Cemetery]].<ref name="Mendelson-Prokofieva"></ref>

== Notes ==





[[Category:Sergei Prokofiev]]
[[Category:1914 births]]
[[Category:1968 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Kyiv]]
[[Category:Russian Jews]]
[[Category:Soviet Jews]]
[[Category:Jewish poets]]
[[Category:Russian poets]]
[[Category:Soviet writers]]
[[Category:Soviet women writers]]
[[Category:Russian women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Russian poets]]
[[Category:20th-century Russian women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century writers]]
[[Category:Soviet poets]]
[[Category:20th-century Russian translators]]
[[Category:Russian opera librettists]]
[[Category:Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery]]

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