Highlights from Russian Operas

Traditionally, since the middle of the 18th century, Russian opera had been influenced by the Italians, just as the music world as a whole had been strongly oriented towards that country during the empire of the czars. For Russian composers, this meant that they have to battle incessantly for the recognition of their musical identity, which was not surprising in a country where many prominent families felt more at home speaking French than Russian. In his operas A Life for the Czar (1836), and Ruslan and Lyudmila (1841), Michael Glinka laid a foundation for the national opera cul¬ture, and Alexander Dargomishky (see Highlights from Russian Operas, PTC 5186 089) followed his example. However, their music was still strongly influenced by foreign works; the torch was then taken over by Alexander Borodin and a few others, who grouped together under the name Moguchaya Kuchka (the ‘mighty handful’). Their main objective was to develop an authentic idiom, based on Russian folklore music. In addition, they strove to create a high degree of realism in the music drama. They were successful at this, even though at times hindered in the realization of their intentions by a lack of professional training of various members.

Modest Mussorgsky
The strongest ‘personal’ musical idiom of all Russian composers of the nineteenth century was that belonging to Modest Mussorgsky (1839 – 1881), who came from a military family, and thus was more or less destined to a life in the civil service. As a musician, he was a partial autodidact, which perhaps explains why he completed only one opera, although he was working on several projects at the same time. Another explanation is provided by his awkward financial situation, and the influence of an alcohol problem, which finally led to his death.
An additional problem was the fact that Mussorgsky preferred to act as his own librettist, which led him at times to a time-consuming and well-nigh interminable study of the various sources. When drafting the text for Khovanshchina, he was able to count on the support of the critic Stasov; nevertheless, he never finished the score. It was left to Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov – another member of the ‘mighty handful’ – to complete the work, and come up with the orchestration. And it was in this version that the opera received its première in St. Petersburg in 1886.
The opera Khovanshchina (the title is difficult to translate, but probably best described as the ‘Khovansky affair’) is set in the year 1682 in the reign of Peter the Great, during an insurrection of his bodyguards, known as the ‘Streltsy’ (musketeers). The main storyline describes the political power struggle between Prince Khovansky, commander of the Streltsy, and Prince Golitsyn, against the background of a religious conflict surrounding the orthodox ‘Old Believers’. The link is formed by the relationship between Khovansky’s son, Andrey, with his former lover Marfa, who has joined the ‘Old Believers’. When Marfa is taken to Prince Golitsyn in the second act to tell his fortune, she predicts that disgrace will befall him and that a wretched fate awaits him, in which he is deprived of his power and wealth.
The end of the third act takes place in the Moscow district where the insurgent Streltsy are quartered. After receiving the news that military units are advancing to crush the revolt, the Streltsy turn to their leader, Prince Khovansky, who advises them to surrender to the Czar.

Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov was the only opera that Mussorgsky was able to complete; in fact, he even wrote a number of different versions of the work. Despite romantic influences, he managed to allot the realism to which he aspired an important place, with a remarkable balance between lyricism and realism. Furthermore, the composer proved himself a master of unusual harmonies and instrumental effects in the characterization of both the individual roles and the situations portrayed. Nevertheless, as with the previous opera, this work was not included in the international opera repertoire until Rimsky-Korsakov had somewhat ‘polished up’ the original score in a later revision.
The composer based his libretto mainly on a play written by Alexander Pushkin about Czar Boris Godunov, who apparently came into power after murdering the nine-year-old Czarevich, the last living son of Czar Ivan the Terrible. The coronation scene takes place in the square in front of the Kremlin. Encouraged by Prince Shuiski, the crowd has gathered to cheer its new leader as he leaves the cathedral after the coronation. However, the Czar is sombre and offers a prayer to God that he will be able to rule as a worthy and just sovereign. His announcement that the people of Moscow will also participate in the festivities unleashes renewed cheers and applause.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Not only did Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 – 1908) orchestrate and revise the scores of other composers, he also composed 16 operas of his own. Lyricism and late-Romanticism reign supreme in these works, of which the subjects are mostly fairy-tales and the world of myths and sagas. Rimsky-Korsakov proved himself to be a master in the melodic and instrumental design of the works, and what his works at times lack in dramatic power, is amply compensated by the liveliness of the theme and the tonal wealth of the score.

Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya
A good example of Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera style can be found in the Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya (1907). The libretto by Vladimir Ivanovich Belsky was based on various books, songs and stories, including a folk-tale written down in 1567 about the Life of Peter, Prince of Murom, and his spouse Fevroniya: this was again typical of the composer’s interest in the folklore past of the Russian people. Various folk-music influences, which Rimsky-Korsakov managed to subtly integrate into the work, can be heard throughout the score.
The story of the opera tells how the prince of Kitezh, Vsevolod, is injured during a hunting party. He is cared for lovingly by the maiden Fevroniya, whereupon he asks her to marry him. However, during the wedding festivities in Little Kitezh, the city is destroyed by the Tartars. Fevroniya survives the slaughter and is forced by the Tartars to take them to Greater Kitezh. There, Vsevolod’s armies are defeated at the Kerzhenets river, and Kitezh disappears in a magical mist. Fevroniya flees into the forest, and dies of exhaustion, but comes back to life in a ‘reincarnated’ Kitezh, where her wedding to Vsevolod is celebrated.

Sadko
The ‘opera legend’ (1898) Sadko is based entirely on old folk-tales, and contains a libretto written jointly by the composer and Vladimir Belsky. The main character is the singer Sadko, who gains great wealth, thanks to the daughter of the sea-god, and thereupon undertakes distant journeys with his ship. When he fails to offer the sea-god a gift, the latter punishes him by becalming the ship; however, Sadko manages to please the sea-god so well with his songs, that the god offers him the hand of his daughter Volkhova in marriage. During the ensuing festivities, singers arrive from all corners of the world to perform, but in the end the mood becomes so exuberant that the entire ocean is in turmoil and countless ships are lost. A mythical hero puts a stop to this natural disaster and orders Sadko to return home. Volkhova accompanies her lover, and when they arrive in Novgorod, she is transformed into the river of that name, which has connected Novgorod to the open sea from that moment onwards.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
In the operas of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 – 1893), lyricism and Romanticism likewise reign supreme, but as a playwright, this composer had greater insight than Rimsky-Korsakov. After a number of operas based on folklore themes, this fact was especially emphasized in Eugene Onegin. Tchaikovsky wrote the libretto himself, in collaboration with Konstantin Shilovsky, basing it on Alexander Pushkin’s novel in verse of the same name. They played down the slightly ironic tone of the original in favour of a poetic-¬realistic approach. The melancholy mood of the story, the arrogant attitude of the hero referred to in the title, which is later transformed into fierce passion, but above all the disenchantment of the dreamy maiden Tatiana fired Tchaikovsky’s imagination to such an extent, that he came up with just the right musical style almost by intuition. Nevertheless, following the première given in 1879 by students at the Moscow conser¬vatoire, it still took a number of years before Eugene Onegin gained a place as one of the most important romantic operas from the second half of the 19th century.
A good example of the romantic perspective from which Tchaikovsky approaches the story is provided by the aria of the young poet Vladimir Lensky. A rash quarrel with his friend Onegin leads to an inevitable duel, and Lensky, who foresees the fatal conclusion, looks back wistfully on his life. Soon all memory of him will fade away, and his only hope is that his fiancée Olga will not forget him so quickly.

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