Boyarynja Vera Sheloga
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| Title: | The boyaress Wera Scheloga |
| Original title: |
Боярыня Вера Шелога (Boyarynja Wera Scheloga) |
| Shape: | Opera in one act |
| Original language: | Russian |
| Music: | Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov |
| Libretto : | Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov |
| Literary source: | Lev Mei : Pskovitjanka |
| Premiere: | December 15th jul. / December 27, 1898 greg. |
| Place of premiere: | Theater by Gavrila Solodownikov , Moscow |
| Playing time: | about 50 minutes |
| Place and time of the action: | Pskov , 1555 |
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Bojarynja Wera Scheloga (Russian: Боярыня Вера Шелога, German: Die Bojarin Wera Scheloga , op. 54) is an opera in one act or a "musical-dramaturgical prologue" to the opera Pskovitjanka . Like this one, the music and libretto are by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov . The content is based on the first act of the play Pskowitjanka by Lev Mei . The prologue was created in the years 1877/1878, was revised in 1898 and published as an independent work on December 15 . / December 27, 1898 greg. premiered in the theater of Gavrila Solodownikov in Moscow.
action
The action takes place in 1555 at the time of Ivan the Terrible in the Russian city of Pskov .
Living room in the house of the boyar Sheloga; In the morning
In the background the door to the stable; right two windows to the garden; one of them is open and some cherry branches enter; on the left a half-open door, behind it a table with a small box on it; In front of the open window are a lace frame and two chairs with splendidly carved backs.
Scene 1. Nadezhda and her wet nurse Vlassjewna are visiting her sister Vera, the wife of the boyar Ivan Scheloga. While Vlasjewna decorates her mistress with jewelery from the box, the two talk about the deep sadness of Wera, who hardly speaks and spends the day singing lullabies to her little daughter Olga (Olenka). Vlassjewna believes she misses her husband, who has been fighting for the tsar in the war with Nadeschda's fiancé Yuri Tokmakov for a long time. Nadezhda is unsure of her own feelings for Prince Juri, whom she finds unattractive. Vlasievna replies that most girls would not hesitate for a moment to marry him. In the meantime the child has woken up and Wera sings a lullaby from outside to calm him down (“Baju-bai-bai-bai”). Vlasievna withdraws into the cellar.
Scene 2. The two sisters expect the men back shortly. Ivan Scheloga has been with the army for so long that he has never seen Olga. Wera confesses to Nadeschda the reason for her grief: she has sinned and Olga is another man's child. Now she doesn't know what to do with Ivan. Nadezhda tries to comfort her: Ivan will be angry for a while, but will soon forgive her. But Wera doesn't want forgiveness because she still loves the other man, whose name she doesn't want to mention. She tells Nadezhda her story: soon after she was married against her will, her husband went to war. The tsar came to the city of Pskov after a major victory. At that time Wera wanted to visit a nearby cave monastery. However, she got lost in the forest on the way there. She heard a voice and ran towards it, but stumbled and passed out. When she woke up again, she was in a noble tent with a nobleman who deeply impressed her and whom she could not resist - Tsar Ivan himself. When trumpets announce the arrival of the two men, Wera panics.
Scene 3. Yuri Tokmakov and boyar Ivan Scheloga enter awaiting a happy greeting. However, Wera backs away and warns her husband not to touch the child. Iwan suspiciously asks whose child this is. Nadezhda replies instead of her sister: "Mine!"
layout
Rimsky-Korsakov himself stipulated that in the event of a performance of the Boyarynja Vera Scheloga as the prologue to Pskowitjanka “the overture of the prologue should be played before the prologue and the opera's overture before the beginning of the first act”.
In line with the prologue character of the work, the leitmotifs of Olga and the Tsar from Pskowitjanka appear in Wera's story . For Wera's way to the cave monastery, Rimsky-Korsakov used music from the first picture of the last act of Pskovitjanka, in which Olga is in the forest near the monastery.
The recitative dialogues of the two sisters and the wet nurse stand musically between "speech imitation and melodic stylization". The dramaturgy of the three main characters manages without any conflicts. The real meaning of the work lies in the music, which depicts “atmospheric and mental states”.
In Wera's lullaby, which was created at the same time as his collection of folk songs, Rimsky-Korsakov showed the "sphere of the feminine musically and lyrically in the manner of a folk song". The melody and accompaniment are varied in each stanza.
orchestra
The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:
- Woodwind : two flutes , two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons
- Brass : four horns , two trumpets , three trombones
- Timpani
- Strings
Work history
The work tells the prehistory of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Pskowitjanka, composed in 1873 . He composed it in 1877/1878 as part of the first revision of this opera as a prologue to the same. He wrote the libretto himself. It is based on the first act of Lev Mei's tragedy Pskowitjanka, which Rimsky-Korsakov left out in his opera. In the first version the prologue only consisted of the lullaby and Wera's story. In the third version of the Pskowitjanka from 1891/1892 he rejected the prologue again. In 1898 he took up the work again, added the recitative and thus completed the one-act opera. In his chronicle of my musical life he described the changes as follows:
“I rewrote the prologue under the title 'Die Bojarin Wera Scheloga' and gave it a form in which it could be played both as an independent one-act play and as a prologue to my opera. I took over the greater part of Wera's story with small changes from the draft prologue for the second 'Pskowitjanka' version of the 1970s, as did the finale; I wrote the entire first part from scratch, with the exception of the lullaby, in my new vocal style of composition. The lullaby was simply revised. "
The world premiere as an independent work took place on December 15th . / December 27, 1898 greg. held in the theater of Gavrila Solodownikow in Moscow by the ensemble of the Russian private opera of Savva Mamontov . S. Borisoglebski (Ivan), N. Salina (Wera), E. Azerskaija (Nadeschda), S. E. Trezvinskij (Yuri) and S. Sinitsijna (Vlassjewna) sang.
The work was also shown as a one-act play when it was performed in Petersburg in 1899. The first performances as a prologue to Pskovitjanka took place in 1901 at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow and in 1903 at the Mariinsky Theater in Petersburg. Later productions by Pskowitjanka mostly did without the prologue. The US premiere as a stand-alone work took place in 1922 at the New Amsterdam Theater in New York. In Western Europe, the prologue was presented in a concert performance by RAI Turin in 1978 .
The score and piano reduction were published by Bessel in Petersburg as early as 1898. In 1946 the score was published in Volume 8 of the Complete Edition of Rimsky-Korsakov's Works.
Recordings
- 1947 - Semyon Sakharov (conductor), orchestra and choir of the Bolshoi Theater Moscow.
Vladimir Gavrjuschow (Ivan), Sofja Panowa (Wera), Jelena Gribowa (Nadeschda), Nikolai Schtschegolkow (Yuri), Marija Levina (Vlassjewna).
As a prologue to Pskovitjanka .
Naxos 9.81172 (1 CD); Aquarius AQVR 333-2 (2 CDs with Pskowitjanka ). - 1980 - Stoyan Angelov (conductor), Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Petar Bakardjiev (Ivan), Stefka Evstatieva (Wera), Alexandrina Milcheva-Nonova (Nadeschda), Dimiter Stanchev (Juri), Stefka Mineva (Vlassjewna).
Studio shot.
Harmonia Mundi Β 152 (1 CP); Balkanton 10607 (1 LP) / Fidelio 1877 (1 CD); Capriccio 10762 (1 CD). - 1985 - Mark Ermler (conductor), orchestra and choir of the Bolshoi Theater Moscow.
Vladimir Karimov (Ivan and Juri), Tamara Andrejewna Milaschkina (Wera), Olga Terjuschnowa (Nadeschda), Nina Grigorewa (Vlassjewna).
Studio shot.
Melodia C10 24693 (1 LP).
Web links
- The Noblewoman Vera Sheloga, Op.54 : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
- Libretto (Russian) as full text on libretto-oper.ru
- Libretto (English) as full text and libretto (Russian, transcribed) as full text at OperaGlass
- Discography on Boyarina Vera Sheloga at Operadis
Remarks
- ↑ The role of Prince Juri can be omitted if the work is performed separately, since he only has to sing a single word here.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Anonymous: Boyarïnya Vera Sheloga ('The Noblewoman Vera Sheloga'). In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
- ↑ a b c d e f The Bojarin Wera Scheloga op. 54. In: Sigrid Neef : The operas of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (= Musik Konkret 18 ). Verlag Ernst Kuhn, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-936637-13-7 , pp. 23-30.
- ↑ a b c d e f g The boyaress Wera Scheloga (Bojarynja Wera Scheloga). In: Sigrid Neef : Handbook of Russian and Soviet Opera. Henschelverlag Art and Society, Bärenreiter 1989. ISBN 3-7618-0925-5 , pp. 405-406.
- ^ Nikolai van Gilse van der Pals : NA Rimsky-Korssakow. Opera and sketch about life and work. Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim / New York 1977 (reprint of the Paris-Leipzig 1929 edition), ISBN 3-487-06427-8 , pp. 352–355.
- ↑ December 27, 1898: "Vera Sheloga". In: L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia .
- ↑ a b c Bradford Robinson: Foreword to the study score on musikmph.de, 2009, accessed on May 23, 2020.
- ↑ Boyaryna Vera Sheloga. In: Amanda Holden (Ed.): The Viking Opera Guide. Viking, London / New York 1993, ISBN 0-670-81292-7 , p. 869.
- ↑ Information on Semyon Sakharov's CD Pskowitjanka (as well as the names in Russian ) on aquarius-classic.ru, accessed on May 23, 2020.
- ↑ Information on the admission of Semyon Sakharov to Chandos, accessed on May 23, 2020.
- ↑ a b Karsten Steiger: Opera discography. Directory of all audio and video recordings. 2nd, fully updated and expanded task. KG Sauer, Munich 2008/2011, ISBN 978-3-598-11784-8 , p. 393.
- ↑ a b Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov. In: Andreas Ommer: Directory of all complete opera recordings (= Zeno.org . Volume 20). Directmedia, Berlin 2005.
Pskovitjanka (The Pskov Girl, 1873) | Boyarynja Wera Scheloga (The Boyarin Wera Scheloga, 1898) | Maiskaja notsch (The May Night, 1880) | Snegurochka (Snow Maiden, 1882) | Mlada (1892) | Notsch pered Roshdestwom (The Night Before Christmas, 1895) | Sadko (1898) | Mozart i Saljeri (Mozart and Salieri, 1898) | Tsarskaya Nevesta (The Tsar's Bride, 1899) | Skaska o zare Saltane (The tale of Tsar Saltan, 1900 | Servilia (1902) | Kashchei bessmertny ( Kashchei the Immortal, 1902) | Pan Wojewoda (1904) | Skasanije o newidimom grade Kitesche i dewe Fewronii (The legend of the invisible city of Kitez and of the virgin Fevronija, 1907) | Solotoi petuschok (The golden rooster, 1909)