The Stone Guest (Opera)
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| Title: | The stone guest |
| Original title: | Каменный гость (Kamenny gost) |
Alexander Jakowlewitsch Golowin : |
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| Shape: | Opera in three acts |
| Original language: | Russian |
| Music: | Alexander Dargomyschski |
| Libretto : | Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin |
| Premiere: | February 16, Jul. / February 28, 1872 greg. |
| Place of premiere: | St. Petersburg |
| Playing time: | approx. 1 ½ hours |
| Place and time of the action: | Spain, 17th century |
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The Stone Guest (Russian Каменный гость , Kamenny gost ) is a three-act opera by Alexander Dargomyschski . The libretto is based on Alexander Pushkin's tragedy of the same name from 1830. The work remained unfinished and was completed or supplemented by the composers César Cui and Nikolai Rimski-Korsakow . The opera was on February 16, jul. / February 28, 1872 greg. premiered at the Mariinsky Theater in Saint Petersburg .
action
first act
Don Juan had been exiled from Madrid as punishment for killing the commander. Now he has secretly returned and, together with Leporello, enters the site of his crime at the time, the cemetery of the Sant'Antonio monastery. Leporello advises caution. A monk tells that Donna Anna, the commander's beautiful widow, visits his grave every day veiled. Don Juan decides to seduce her.
The second picture takes place in a room of the actress Laura, a former lover of don Juan, who has invited guests to dinner and entertains her guests with a canzonetta composed by don Juan. Don Carlos, another of her lovers and the Commander's brother, is annoyed by this. Laura first succeeds in appeasing him. However, when don Juan arrives, she turns to him. Don Carlos challenges him to a duel and is killed. Laura is horrified at first, but finally surrenders to don Juan.
Second act
Don Juan is waiting for Donna Anna in the cemetery. He disguised himself as a monk and declares his love for her under the false name Diego del Calvado until she is ready to invite him to her house for the following evening. In spite of Leporello's warnings, he exuberantly orders him to invite the commander's statue as well. When the statue nods in agreement, the two flee from the cemetery.
Third act
Don Juan enters Donna Anna's apartment - still under the name Diego. She tells him that she did not marry the Commander out of love, but because of her poverty. He then reveals himself to be her husband's murderer. Anna is horrified, but at the same time fascinated. She succumbs to his art of seduction. At that moment the statue of the commander appears as the avenger of murder and adultery. She takes don Juan's hand and sinks into death with it.
history
The Stone Guest is Dargomyschski's last opera. He began composing Pushkin's text as early as 1863. From 1868, when he was already severely weakened by a heart disease and felt his death approaching, he presented the opera to the members of the composer's group The Mighty Heap - Mili Balakirew , Alexander Borodin , César Cui , Modest Mussorgsky and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - as a model for the renewal of the opera and developed it further in discussions with this group.
After Dargomyschski's death, César Cui completed the prelude and the end of the first act according to his instructions. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov carried out the instrumentation. The world premiere took place on February 16 . / February 28, 1872 greg. in Petersburg as a benefit for the conductor Eduard Nápravník and was a great success. Fyodor Komissarschewski sang the role of Don Juan, Ossip Petrow the Leporello, Julija Platonowa the Donna Anna and Ivan Melnikow the Don Carlos.
In 1898 Rimsky-Korsakov began to rewrite the instrumentation, which he completed in 1902. It also revised the music of the duel scene in the second act and the Arioso of Don Juan in the third act. In 1903 he added a prelude based on various motifs from the opera. This version was on December 19, 1906 jul. / January 1, 1907 greg. Premiered under the direction of Václav Suk at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow.
One of the most remarkable performances took place in 1917 at the Mariinsky Theater under the musical direction of Nikolai Malko and the direction of Vsevolod Meyerhold . Ivan Alchevsky sang the role of Don Juan. In 1928 the opera was shown at the Salzburg Festival in a production by the Leningrad Conservatory's Opera Studio. In 1952 it was performed at the Festival Maggio Musicale Fiorentino .
layout
libretto
Alexander Pushkin wrote his tragedy The Stone Guest in 1830 under the impression of a Russian version of Mozart's Don Giovanni performed two years earlier in Saint Petersburg . Although he took over some elements - including the shape of the Leporello - he still created an independent work. While most versions of the Don Juan theme, apart from the final scene, focus on the comedy, his drama is a romantic tragedy that is only loosened up by Leporello. Donna Anna is not the Commander's daughter here, but his widow. This adds to the horror of his murder by don Juan. Nevertheless, Pushkin's don Juan is largely passive. Events do not happen by his will. He is only forced to take part in the duel with Don Carlos, and he does not triumph over his victory. When he reveals his true identity to Donna Anna, he appears to be doing so out of real love. Apart from the duel scene, the work contains little dramatic plot. It was therefore probably not written for the stage, but is intended as a lyrical reflection on the themes of love and death. The beauties are in the details.
music
It was precisely this less operatic text that was the ideal choice for Dargomyschski's reform opera. He kept the text of Pushkin's play almost unchanged, dispensed with arioso forms and thus created the first thoroughly composed literary opera . In order to represent truth and real emotion, the music should use the word directly; H. without imposing musical form. Whether this attitude was based solely on Dargomyschski's turn to Russian realism , or whether it was a reaction to the rejection he experienced as an autodidact, cannot be said for sure. The latter certainly played a role.
It is a - in its time - musically experimental work. The work is characterized by bold harmonies and modulations, especially in the duel scene (whose sharpness, however, was softened by Rimsky-Korsakov) and in the music of the statue at the end. After a symphonic prelude, the vocal parts are subordinate to the rhythmic and melodic language guidance and the intelligibility of the text in the sense of musical realism. The technique of “melodic recitative” (as César Cui called this style), which Dargomyschski had already introduced in his opera Russalka , is perfected here. Lyric cantilenas seldom develop. In the second part of the first act, a minuet reminiscent of Mozart is striking. A gloomy, ghostly mood prevails in the second act. There are dramatic tensions, which are also represented by the orchestra. With its calm triads, the third act is stylistically reminiscent of the first. The dramatic climax finally comes with the appearance of the stone guest. The music becomes more symphonic and ends with hard and strict sounds. Here Dargomyschski uses whole-tone harmonies that were unfamiliar for the time.
Recordings
- 1946 (studio recording): Alexander Orlov (conductor), USSR State Radio Symphony Orchestra, USSR State Radio Chorus, Dimitri Tarkhow (Don Giovanni), Alexei Korolev (Don Karlos), Natalia Roschdestvenskaja (Donna Anna), N. Alexandrinskaja (Laura ), G. Abramow (Leporello). Melodia M10 47021, 2 LP
- 1954 (Live, Florence): Emidio Tieri (conductor), Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Fausto Flamini (Don Giovanni), Gino Orlandini (Don Karlos), Kyra Vayne (Donna Anna), Marianne Radev (Laura ), Jorge Algorta (Leporello). Cetra DOC 80, 2 LP
- 1963? (Studio): Boris Chaikin (conductor), Moskow Radio Symphony Orchestra, Alexei Maslennikow (Don Giovanni), Vladimir Zacharov (Don Karlos), Galina Vishnevskaja (Donna Anna), Irina Archipowa (Laura), Georgij Pankov (Leporello), Alexei Korolev (Monk), Gennady Troitzkij (statue). Ultraphone Mono, 2 LP; Melodia 0299, 2 LP
- June 1977 (studio, film soundtrack): Mark Ermler (conductor), Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theater Moscow, Vladimir Atlantov (Don Giovanni), Vladimir Valaitis (Don Karlos), Tamara Milaschkina (Donna Anna), Vitalij Vlassov (guest), Vitalij Nartov (Guest), Vladimir Filippow (Komtur), Tamara Sinjavskaya (Laura), Alexander Vedernikov (Leporello), Lev Wernigora (monk). Le Chant du Monde 2781 039.40, CD; Melodia Eurodisc 25 808 XFR, 2 LP; Premiere Opera DVD 5929, DVD
- 16.-23. January 1995 (Studio): Andrei Tschistjakow (conductor), Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theater Moscow, Nicolai Vassiliev (Don Giovanni), Nicolai Rechetniak (Don Karlos), Marina Lapina (Donna Anna), Alexander Archipov (guest), Piotr Gluboky (guest ), Mikhail Agafonov (guest), Wladislav Pachinski (guest), Nicolai Nizienko (Komtur), Tatiana Erastowa (Laura), Viacheslav Potschapski (Leporello), Boris Bejko (monk). HMF RUS 288113, CD
literature
- Günter Hausswald: The new opera book. 2nd Edition. Henschelverlag, Berlin 1953, p. 590 ff
- Heinz Wagner: Dargomyshski, Alexander Sergejewitsch - "The stone guest". In: The great manual of the opera. 2nd Edition. Florian Noetzel Verlag Wilhelmshaven, 1995, ISBN 3-930656-14-0 , p. 152 f
Web links
- The Stone Guest (Dargomyzhsky, Aleksandr) : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d The stone guest. In: Reclam's Opernlexikon. Digital library volume 52. Philipp Reclam jun., 2001, p. 2435
- ↑ Radio manuscript WDR 3 from March 7, 2010, broadcast of the CD recording by Mark Ermler
- ↑ a b c Dargomyshski, Alexander Sergejewitsch. In: Music in the past and present. Bärenreiter-Verlag 1986 ( digital library volume 60), p. 15888 (cf. MGG vol. 3, p. 9)
- ↑ a b c d e f g Richard Taruskin : Stone Guest, The [Kamennïy gost ']. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
- ↑ Hausswald, p. 590
- ↑ Опера Даргомыжского “Каменный гость” on classic-online.ru (Russian) , accessed on June 2, 2015.
- ↑ Hausswald, p. 592 f
- ↑ a b c d e Aleksandr Sergeevic Dargomyzsky. In: Andreas Ommer: Directory of all opera complete recordings. Zeno.org , Volume 20, pp. 3239 ff.