HYBRID MULTICHANNEL Highlights from Russian Operas Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857) A Life for the Czar 1 Act 2: Bog vojnyi posle bitv… 4. 39 (After the battle the god of war) – Polonaise and chorus 2 Act 4: Tchujut pravdu! 5. 08 (They sense the truth!) – Ivan Susanin’s aria Vladimir Matorin – bass Alexander Dargomizhsky (1813-1869) Rusalka 3 Act 3: Nevol’no k etim grustnyim beregam.. 6. 00 (Some unknown power) - Prince’s cavatina 4 Act 3: Chto eto znachit? 11. 39 (What does this mean?) – Mad scene Mikhail Gubsky (Prince) – tenor Alexander Naumenko (Miller) – bass Male chorus Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) Iolanthe 5 Net, charyi lask krasyi myatezhnoj… 4. 14 (No, the charms of a voluptuous beauty)(Vaudémont’s Romance) Vsevolod Grivnov - tenor Pique Dame (Queen of Spades) 6 Act 3: Uzh polnoch blizitsya 5. 14 (It is close on midnight already) – Lisa’s aria Elena Zelenskaya – soprano Mazeppa 7 Act 2: O Marija, Marija – Mazeppa’s arioso 5. 12 Yuri Nechaev – baritone Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943) Aleko 8 Volšébnoy síloy pesnopén’ya 5. 25 (The magic power of song) - Old Gipsy’s Story Taras Shtonda – bass Male chorus Alexander Borodin (1833-1887) Prince Igor 9 Act 2: Ni sna ne otdykha 6. 53 (No sleep no rest) Prince Igor’s aria (orch. Rimsky-Korsakov) 10 Act 2: Zdorov li, knyaz? 6. 31 (Are you in good health, Prince?) Konchak’ s aria 11 Act 2: Gey, privesti syuda! 2. 57 (Hey, bring the captive girls here!) Recitativo (orch. Rimsky-Korsakov) 12 Act 2: Polovtsian Dances 11. 40 Yuri Nechaev (Prince Igor) – baritone Valery Gilmanov (Konchak) - bass Chorus Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of Recorded in Moscow November 2005 the Bolshoi Theatre Moscow & February 2006 conducted by Total playing time: 1. 15. 59 Alexander Vedernikov A co-production of the Bolshoi Chorus Master: Valery Borisov Theatre Moscow and PentaTone Concertmaster: Dmitry Khakhamov Music Photos: Bolshoi Theatre Archive, Executive Producers: Anton Getman, Larisa Pedenchuk (Bolshoi Museum), Alexander Vedernikov & Job Maarse Damir Yusupov, Nikolai Rakmanov, Recording Producer: Job Maarse Theo Wubbolts and others. Balance Engineer:Jean-Marie Geijsen Recording Engineer : Roger de Schot Editing : Jean-Marie Geijsen ; Erdo Groot Scene from Prince Igor n 1776, Prince Pyotr rienced all manner of IUrusov and his English disaster, including fires partner, Michael Maddox, – the only disaster from set up a theatre company which it has not suffered, in Moscow after obtain- to date, is flooding. Yet ing the imperial permis- its basic creative princi- sion of the Empress, Catherine II. ples remain the same: to provide The Bolshoi Theatre of Russia traces its audiences with the very best. its history back to this date: Mos- cow’s first permanent company and The Bolshoi Theatre today means first professional opera-house was, in great traditions developed in a mod- time, to become the country’s leading ern spirit; a colossal opera and bal- theatre. let repertoire; two stages where 500 performances are given each sea- At the time, the Urusov theatre son; and an audience of 3000 every put on productions of opera, ballet evening. In recent years, the Bolshoi and drama, and expected its artists Theatre has made a major priority of to perform roles in all these genres: staging operas and ballets by Russian and to this day, the artists of the composers, including masterpieces of Bolshoi Theatre are also trained to the 20th century. In order to provide act, as well as to sing and dance. the best theatrical background, the The same principles underline the Bolshoi engages the most renowned performance style of the Theatre’s directors, choreographers, conductors orchestra. In addition to the virtuoso and performers for the productions. instrumental skills, its members are required to participate on an equal As of 2001, the Artistic Director and basis in the performance, in accord- Principal Conductor of the Bolshoi The - ance with the spirit of the production. atre has been Alexander Vedernikov. During the course of its long life, the Bolshoi Theatre has expe- therefore, it is not just a coincidence Highlights that the birth of the national Rus- sian opera more or less concurred of the Russian opera with the opening of the ‘Great’ or ‘Bolshoi’ Theatre in Moscow in 1825. uring the eighteenth century, especially at the time of Cather- D Glinka ine the Great, Russia enjoyed a lively Mikhail Glinka (1804–1857) laid opera life; however, it was not until the the basis for the Russian opera with nineteenth century that the national Ivan Susanin, a his- Russian opera was created. Musical torical drama about a life at the court of the Czar was pre- Russian farmer (Ivan dominantly oriented towards the West Susanin), who led a and attracted, for example, many Ital- hostile Polish army ian composers to St. Petersburg. The astray during the win- works they wrote there were also ter of 1612, at the cost mostly based on Italian libretti, and if of his own life. With special permis- a Russian opera was ever performed, sion from Czar Nicholas I, who was it followed on musically in the tradi- present at one of the rehearsals, the tion of the operas that could be heard title was changed even before the in Naples, Milan or Vienna. première to A Life for the Czar, but A slow change came about in this after the 1917 revolution, the original situation during the first half of the title was reinstated. Despite the influ- nineteenth century, after Russia also ence of Bellini and the French ‘grand began to be influenced by the sense opéra’, A Life for the Czar became an of nationhood which was spread- outspoken nationalistic opera, which ing through great parts of Europe in linked a historical fact with exist- that period. Furthermore, this was ing melodies and musical motifs. the time during which the well-to- do middle class began to participate increasingly in the cultural life, and Dargomyszki The central figure in Dargomysz- In his pursuit of a ‘national’ Rus- ki’s opera, based on Pushkin’s poem sian opera, Glinka was supported by of the same title, is the miller’s daugh- Alexander Sergeyevich Dargomyszki ter Natasia, who is deceived by a (1813-1869), who was as a composer prince. She throws herself into the predominantly self-taught, and at first river and becomes a water nymph followed the French style in his operas. who entices men to their dead. When Around 1848, he began to study Rus- the prince later arrives at the river, sian musical folklore and influenced he meets Natasia’s father there, who by this, he wrote Rusalka (1856), has gone mad due to the events. a musical fairy-tale in which espe- cially the comic parts were strongly Tchaikovsky influenced by folk- The national Russian opera tradi- lore. This made tion as it came about in the nineteenth him, together with century was strongly influenced by Glinka, the trail- musical and literary folklore, and by blazer for the Rus- the increasing interest in the rich Rus- sian opera style to sian past. Various works by Peter Ilich come, although his Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) formed an works were more exception to this rule: he transformed popular among his Russian opera into a psychological colleagues than character drama, which was capable among the public. of competing on equal footing with His aspiration of processing liter- the best of Western works. The fasci- ary texts as purely and completely nation he felt for opera took root when as possible resulted in operas that he first saw a performance of Mozart’s were at times somewhat lacking Don Giovanni at the age of 10; and in the theatrical element, although only four years later, while still reeling they were excellently constructed from the death of his mother, he wrote as far as the music was concerned. the text for a one-act opera (which he did not put to music, by the way). Ten years later, he composed a scene to a disastrous love affair. Furthermore, a text from Pushkin’s Boris Godunov, the libretto gave him the opportunity but this music belongs to the early to write music in an elegant style that works that he himself destroyed, as reminds one of the culture at the did the opera, The Voyevoda (1869), French courts of the 18th century. which, however, was performed in the Bolshoi Theatre, and was later Iolanthe (1892), his last opera, reconstructed to a great extent, based does not take place in Russia, but on the material written at the time. in the Provence, and deals with a theme from the Middle Ages: it is Tchaikovsky’s interest in opera a lyrical work about the legendary grew after seeing a performance of king René of Anjou (1409-1480). Carmen in Paris in 1876, where he was The principal character, Prin- struck by the link- cess Iolanthe, was born blind, but ing of love to fate at her father’s orders, no-one has and by Bizet’s effec- ever told her that she is different to tive musical design. other people. When the knight Vaudé- That experience mont falls under the spell of her made itself felt later charms, he makes her aware of her on in the Queen blindness for the first time. He is of Spades (1890), thereupon sentenced to death, which which was based on a novella by awakens in Iolanthe the desire to Pushkin. This work, which like Carmen see, and thus brings about her cure. is entirely dominated by the relation- ship between love and fate, gave the Tchaikovsky made a major con- composer the opportunity of creat- tribution to Russian national opera ing some remarkably strong charac- in 1884 with Mazeppa.