Peter the Great (Bulgakov)

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Mikhail Bulgakov around 1935

Peter the Great ( Russian Пётр Великий , Pjotr ​​Veliki ) is an operatic libretto by the Soviet writer Mikhail Bulgakov , which was completed in 1937 and published in 1988 in issue 2 of the quarterly magazine Soviet Music .

In the years 1934–1939 the author, as literary advisor to the Bolshoi Theater, created a total of four such libretti, of which only Rachel was performed in 1947 with the music of Reinhold Glière .

content

1

June 1709: Peter wins over Charles XII at Poltava . and Mazeppa . Both losers flee. Rehnschiöld , a third loser, has honor in his body; hands the sword to the victor. Peter makes his sword in return and invites the Swedish field marshal to drink with the Russians . The tsar thanked his colleague Menshikov from the bottom of his heart.

2

Petersburg : Peter works as a ship's carpenter, arranges for the ailing war ship Antonius to be repaired , threatens a neglected squadron commander in the Navy with the death penalty and orders forced labor for aristocrat Golovin . The latter beat a man to death. The Tsar had hospitals set up for illegitimate children near the church and sent Morkow, who had not studied navigation in Venice but had amused himself, to the casemates . Peter then receives his unwanted son Alexej . When the latter is supposed to demonstrate to his father that he can read architectural drawings, the work-shy young man shuns himself.

3

Peter is working on a ship in the Petersburg Admiralty among the carpenters. After work he dismisses Menshikov. The deserved fighter against the Swedes plundered the people in his governorate. The tsar wants to forgive one more time.

The sick Peter worries about the succession to the throne. Alexei does not want to rule, but prefers to go to the monastery.

4th

Alexei's country house near Petersburg: Monks and Protopope talk the Tsarevich one that his father was the Antichrist . Alexei promises the monks that if he should succeed Peter's throne, he will sink his father's ships, destroy Petersburg, which is surrounded by mud, and reintroduce ancient customs. The son flees from the hated father to the Viennese court .

5

Petersburg: Alexej returns from Austria. The father knows no mercy and orders imprisonment.

6th

Menshikov announces to the crowd that the Emperor has made peace with the Swedes. In a carnival procession, Peter shows the people the boyars with their beards cut off.

7th

Gulf of Finland : Peter and his sailors save Russian soldiers - land rats - from the distress at sea.

8th

Palace of the Tsar in Petersburg: The emperor called his wife Katharina , daughter Anna , Menshikov, Tolstoy and Buturlin to his deathbed . Peter dies before he can articulate his last will.

9

The dispute over the succession flares up. Golitsyn , Dolgorukov and Repnin consider Alexei's son to be the only rightful ruler. Tolstoy, Apraxin the Elder, and Buturlin disagree. Menshikov, on the other hand, favors Katharina.

Stalin

Schröder wrote in January 1996: Bulgakov wanted to purge the “Red Tsar”, but could not find access to the dictator. The author hoped, however, that Stalin would certainly not miss an opera about Peter the Great . On September 17, 1937, Bulgakov presented the libretto to his chief censor. Two days later, Platon Kerzhenetsev replied that he missed the people in the battle of Poltava. Kerchenzew did not recognize Peter's friend and enemy in the whole text. In addition, Menshikov and the rest of the tsarist appendix were not drawn sharply enough. And - Kerschenzew continued - Comrade Stalin had shown how cruelly the people under Peter had been exploited. This must absolutely become one of the foundations for a revision. Kerzhenetsev wanted more dramatic tension, less idyll and elucidation of the abuse of Alexei by foreigners. Finally, Peter’s innovations in relation to his son Alexei’s adherence to the traditional should be more clearly worked out. Kerzhenetsev advocates a less modern language in the libretto.

German-language editions

Output used:

  • Peter the Great. Opera libretto in 4 acts (9 images). From the Russian by Renate and Thomas Reschke . Re-poems by Waldemar Dege . Pp. 179-209 in: Ralf Schröder (Ed.): Bulgakow. Peter the Great. Film scenarios. Libretti. (= Vol. 12.2 Collected Works, 13 Vols.) Verlag Volk & Welt, Berlin 1996. ISBN 3-353-00953-1

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Russian from 1993: ru: Музыкальная академия (журнал) , for example: Die Musikakademie
  2. ↑ Notes in the Bulgakov encyclopedia bulgakov.ru (Russian, first paragraph)
  3. ↑ Russian ru: Рашель (либретто Булгакова)
  4. ↑ Russian ru: Морковы - Данило Павлович Морков, Danilo Pavlovich Morkov served under Peter the Great
  5. ↑ engl. en: Protopope
  6. ↑ Russian ru: Шафер, Наум Григорьевич