Russian opera

After a long tradition of importing operas by Italian, French, and German composers, Russians finally saw works by a native composer, Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka: Zhizn za tsarya (A Life for the Tsar), also known as Ivan Susanin, (1836), and Ruslan i Lyudmila (1842; “Ruslan and Lyudmila”), both premiered in St. Petersburg. Basically Italianate operas, they—Ruslan in particular—determined the course of Russian opera, because of Glinka’s approximations of Slavic folk music, his modified use of leitmotif technique, and his evocative orchestration.

The works of Aleksandr Borodin, Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, and Modest Mussorgsky have remained on opera programs around the world. Borodin’s incomplete Knyaz Igor (Prince Igor, his own libretto; completed and edited by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov and Aleksandr Glazunov) was staged posthumously in St. Petersburg in 1890. Resembling the style of French grand opera, the work is notable for its use of an idiom based on Russian folk song and its suggestion of “oriental” melody. Rimsky-Korsakov’s numerous operas alternate between dramas and fairy tales, with more or less weight given to recitative and lyrical elements. His finest opera may be “the Russian Parsifal,” Skazaniye o nevidimom grade Kitezhe i deve Fevroni (“The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh”), a work of marked emotional strength that premiered in St. Petersburg in 1907. Of his lighter works, best known are Snegurochka (St. Petersburg, 1882; “The Snow Maiden,” his own libretto), Sadko (Moscow, 1898; libretto by the composer and Vladimir Nikolayevich Bel’sky), and the fantastic opera buffa Zolotoy petushok (Moscow, 1909; Le Coq d’or, or The Golden Cockerel, libretto by Bel’sky, after Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin). Like Prince Igor, Rimsky-Korsakov’s operas contributed significantly to what many music lovers came to consider typically Russian music.

Mussorgsky composed all or part of several operas. Among them, Khovanshchina (to his own libretto; the score completed and orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov; posthumous premiere in 1886) bears a family resemblance to Prince Igor, particularly in its employment of real and simulated “oriental” elements, but it is more serious and much more confident in tone. Mussorgsky’s greatest achievement is Boris Godunov (St. Petersburg, 1874; his own libretto, after Pushkin and Russian history). Boris, the guilty usurper of the throne, dominates this pageant in which the Russian people are present in forceful choral writing. Mussorgsky’s ability to transmit textual points in very condensed music was extraordinary, and he succeeded in extracting intense power and theatrical effectiveness from his newly developed techniques. Boris Godunov has exerted a strong influence on numerous composers of opera both in Russia and elsewhere.

The operatic practice of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was quite distinct from that of his contemporaries. His work was notable for clear characterization expressed lyrically. His best-known, very distinctive operas are Eugene Onegin (Moscow, 1879; libretto by the composer and Konstantin S. Shilovsky, after Pushkin) and the melodrama Pikovaya dama (St. Petersburg, 1890; The Queen of Spades, libretto by Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky [the composer’s younger brother], after Pushkin). Noteworthy in Eugene Onegin is the vivid portrayal of the protagonists. In all of Tchaikovsky’s operas the highly subjective emotional tone that long made his orchestral works so appealing is tellingly present.

It is noteworthy that all the Russian composers mentioned thus far—including Tchaikovsky, who was the most international among them—had their operas premiered either in St. Petersburg or in Moscow, suggesting that language was a barrier to production in western Europe. In contrast, Igor Stravinsky’s Russian operas were initially heard in Paris, partly because of his association with the Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev and the innovative dance company Ballets Russes, which had taken that city by storm. Although Stravinsky’s ballets are what made him famous and are still his most popular works, he wrote three operas during his long composing career. First came Solovey (1914; “The Nightingale,” libretto by the composer and Stepan Nikolayevich Mitusov, after Hans Christian Andersen), which clearly reveals the influence of Rimsky-Korsakov, who had been Stravinsky’s teacher. Next was Mavra (1922; libretto by Boris Kochno, derived from Pushkin), an opera buffa in his distinctive musical style, which included unpredictable accents and frequent changes of metre (organization of beats into groups of two or more), use of ostinatos (persistently repeating musical patterns), and juxtaposition of static blocks of sound; these traits, among others, made Stravinsky the foremost composer of his era. Then a long period marked by several near-operas (among them the opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex, 1927) elapsed before the appearance of Stravinsky’s full-length opera in English, The Rake’s Progress (1951; libretto by the poets W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman, after William Hogarth’s engravings), a neoclassical austere and compassionate work.

Sergey Prokofiev composed numerous operas, some in his modern style and others in the conservative style demanded in the Soviet Union at the time. Among the former, the best and most often staged are the opera buffa L’Amour des trois oranges (Chicago, 1921; The Love for Three Oranges, his own libretto) and the lurid opera of hallucination, Angel of Fire or The Fiery Angel (radio premiere 1954; Ognennïy angel, his own libretto after a story by Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov). Of Prokofiev’s Soviet-period operas, the most winning is the cheerful Betrothal in a Monastery, also known as The Duenna (1946; Obrucheniye v monastïre or Duen’ya, libretto by Mira Mendelson). The most ambitious is the massive War and Peace (1946; Voyna i mir, libretto by the composer and Mendelson), which has been successfully revived since the late 20th century.

The Soviet-period opera best known outside its homeland, however, is a grim tale of sexual repression and violence by Dmitry Shostakovich, originally called Ledi Makbet Mtsenskogo Uyezda (1934; Lady Macbeth of the Mzensk District, libretto by the composer and Aleksandr Preys) and later revised, after a long period of eclipse caused by government disapproval, as Katerina Ismaylova (1963). Shostakovich’s youthful opera The Nose (1930), based on a satirical play by Nikolay Gogol, was revived in the early 21st century in Boston and New York City with great success.