Russalka (Dargomyschski)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Opera dates
Title: Russalka
Original title: Русалка
Shape: Opera in four acts
Original language: Russian
Music: Alexander Dargomyschski
Libretto : Alexander Dargomyschski
Literary source: Alexander Pushkin : The mermaid
Premiere: May 4th jul. / May 16, 1856 greg.
Place of premiere: Circus Theater, Saint Petersburg
Playing time: approx. 2 ½ hours
Place and time of the action: Russia, legendary time
people
  • Prince ( tenor )
  • Princess ( mezzo-soprano )
  • Müller ( bass )
  • Natascha (Наташа), his daughter, later Russalka ( soprano )
  • Olga (Ольга), an orphan given to the princess (soprano)
  • the wooer ( baritone )
  • a hunter (bass)
  • Russalotschka (Русалочка), 12 years old ( speaking role )
  • Boyars, boyar women, hunters, farmers, peasant women, girls, russalkas ( choir and ballet)

Russalka is an opera in four acts and six pictures by Alexander Dargomyschski , who also wrote the libretto. It is based on the poem The Mermaid by Alexander Pushkin published in 1837 and was published on May 4th . / May 16, 1856 greg. premiered at the Saint Petersburg Circus Theater.

action

first act

Bank of the Dnieper with a mill and an oak

The miller complains about his daughter Natascha, who is living with him, who he finds stubborn and stubborn (No. 1. Aria of the miller). For a year, she has had a love affair with a prince, with whom her father has come to terms, as he expects material advantages from it. To her sorrow, her lover has not shown up for a long time. When he finally visits her again, he apologizes with his other obligations and gives her a necklace (No. 2. Trio). Natascha is happy at first, but soon notices from his behavior that something is wrong. You go to the mill.

Peasants appear to dance and sing (No. 3 chorus). The miller joins them. A little later the prince also returns. Since the miller realizes that he has something on his mind, he sends the farmers away and also withdraws. The prince can now speak to Natascha alone (No. 4. Duet). He informs her that he has to separate from her in order to marry appropriately. He gives her a bag of gold when she leaves, although Natascha reveals to him that she is expecting a child. After he is gone, the miller tries in vain to comfort his daughter (No. 5. Duet). The farmers come back worried (No. 6 final). Natascha increases further and further into her despair. She throws the money on the ground and the jewelry in the river. Eventually she calls the Dnieper River to help her in her revenge and plunges into it herself.

Second act

In the prince's palace

Scene from the second act, Monte Carlo 1909

The prince celebrates his wedding with the rich noblewoman and receives the congratulations of his guests (No. 7th choir). After everyone has left, the prince and princess swear eternal love and loyalty (No. 8. Aria / Duet). The suitor also congratulates, and a happy choir toasts the couple (No. 9. Recitative and congratulatory chorus). You dance (No. 10. Slavic Dance - No. 11. Gypsy Dance). The happiness is suddenly interrupted by a plaintive song by a woman's voice (No. 12. Finale). However, the singer cannot be found. The prince believes it is the voice of his dead lover. The suitor and the orphan Olga, who were taken in by the princess, are still trying to save the mood. But when the prince wants to kiss his bride, everyone hears a woman groaning. The princess has bad premonitions.

Third act

Women's room

Sketch of the scene by A. Golovin, 1900

After twelve years, the princely couple's marriage is not good. The prince disappears into the forest for days and leaves his wife alone. She complains of his restlessness and loneliness (No. 13, Introduction and Aria). Olga cannot cheer her up either (No. 14, recitative and song). A hunter then reports that the prince had sent his retinue away and was left alone on the bank of the river. The worried princess goes to look for him with Olga.

Banks of the Dnieper, as in the first act; the mill is half ruined; Eve

Russalkas , water spirits of Slavic mythology, cavort in the river (No. 15. Choir of the Russalkas). When the prince appears, they retreat into the water. The prince is drawn to this place again and again because he cannot forget Natascha (No. 16. Cavatine). In view of the condition of the mill, he suspects that the old miller has since died of grief. But there he appears himself, ragged and half-naked. He has lost his mind with grief, thinks himself a raven, and tells us that he has sold the mill to the demons (No. 17. Duet with choir). The prince is shocked and offers him help. The miller refuses. He thinks the prince is guilty of his misfortune and suddenly becomes violent. Fortunately, the prince's hunters hear his cries for help and save him. The miller begs for mercy. The others feel sorry for the madman and leave him alone.

Fourth act

Underwater realm of the Russalkas

Sketch of the scene by Viktor Michailowitsch Wasnezow , 1884

After a few dances by the Russalkas (No. 18), her queen appears, the former Natascha, who has now become a Russalka herself - as does her now twelve-year-old daughter, known as Russalotschka. The girl says that her grandfather, the miller, asked her to get the money thrown into the river back for him (scene 19 and aria). Natascha knows that the prince will come to the bank again today. She asks her daughter to go to him, to remind him of the old days and to bring her to the water kingdom.

Bank of the Dnieper

The princess and Olga are on their way to the bank. When they notice the prince, they hide behind the ruins of the mill. Russalotschka shows herself to the prince and tells him about her mother, his former lover, who is now Queen of the Dnieper and is still waiting for him (No. 20. Finale). When the prince agrees to follow her, the princess and Olga step out to stop him. Natasha's voice can be heard with enticement calls. The prince feels an irresistible urge to the river. Finally the old miller appears too. He exclaims that today is the wedding and pulls the prince into the river with Russalotschka. The princess and Olga desperately call for help, but the hunters hurrying up cannot do anything.

The scene is transformed into a magnificent underwater kingdom illuminated by the moon and glowing like blue fire. Russalkas lay the prince's body at the feet of their queen.

layout

Russalka is the first testimony to Dargomyschski's attempt to develop a new style of singing with the slogan "truth in tones" with some like-minded people. Dargomyschski's colleagues from the “ Mächtigen Hetleins ” preferred the later opera Der steinerne Gast (1872) to the Russalka because they did not like his “mixed style”. But it was precisely this that was considered exemplary by the composer Alexander Serow . Even Igor Stravinsky appreciated the "mixture of Russian-folksy melody and the prevailing Italianism with sorglosesten and charming lightness". Strictly speaking, the different styles are not mixed, but stand side by side.

Dargomyschski contrasts the tragic main story with peasant choirs, which Pushkin still lacks. They contain musical elements from Russian folk music. Arietten in the French style are assigned to the duke. The prince's two wives are also shown in contrast. While Natascha sings in the Italian style and, as Queen of the Russalkas, refers to the style of the great opera in the last act, the arias of the princess are reminiscent of the popular Russian lament. Olga's attempt to cheer up the princess at the beginning of the third act is based on a role model in the Agathe / Ännchen scene by Carl Maria von Weber's Freischütz . Accordingly, Dargomyschski replaced the old nurse from Pushkin's text with a young girl. The miller's buffo aria at the beginning of the opera also refers to the Italian musical style. Russalka's daughter in the fourth act is, like both previous operas, a children's speaking role. Your text is melodramatically accompanied by a harp solo. In the previous operas, this scene was only used as a strange timbre. With Dargomyschski, on the other hand, it is essential to lure the prince into his downfall.

The musically most important part of the opera is the second picture of the third act with the madness scene of Müller. At the beginning, he closes his eyes to reality when he does not oppose his daughter's relationship with the prince. Only when he goes mad after their death can he see and speak the truth. The vowel line is based on the speech intonation at this point. The text is literally taken from Pushkin's original. The conflict between Müller and Fürst experiences a correspondence in the orchestra, which here also has a commentary function.

orchestra

The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:

Music numbers

According to the information on operalib.eu, the opera contains these music numbers:

first act

  • No. 1. Miller's aria: "Ох, то-то все вы, девки молодые" ("Och, to-to wse wy, dewki molodyje")
  • No. 2. Trio: “Чу! Я слышу топот его коня… Он! Да, он! "(" Tschu! Ja slyschu topot ego konja ... On! Da, on! ")
  • No. 3. Choir: "Ах ты, сердце, моё сердце" ("Ach ty, serdze, mojo serdze")
  • No. 4. Duet: "Нет, не рассеет дум тяжёлых" ("Net, ne rassejet dum tjaschjolych")
  • No. 5. Duet: “Ба, ба, ба, ба! Что вижу! "(" Ba, ba, ba, ba! Tschto wischu! ")
  • No. 6. Finale: "Ах ты, поле, моё поле" ("Ach ty, pole, mojo pole")

Second act

  • No. 7. Choir: "Как во горнице-светлице" ("Kak wo gornize-swetlize")
  • No. 8. Aria / Duet: "Подруги детства, подруги светлых дней" ("Podrugi detstwa, podrugi swetlych dnei")
  • No. 9. Recitative and congratulatory chorus: "А где дружко?" ("A gde druschko?")
  • No. 10. Slavic dance
  • No. 11. Gypsy dance
  • No. 12. Finale: "Да здравствует наш Князь младой" ("Da sdrawstwujet nasch Knjas mladoi")

Third act

  • No. 13. Introduction and aria: “Чу! кажется, трубят "(" Tschu! kaschetsja, trubjat ")
  • No. 14. Recitative and song: "Княгиня бедная!" ("Knjaginja bednaja!")
  • No. 15. Choir of the Russalkas: "Свободной толпою" ("Swobodnoi tolpoju")
  • No. 16. Cavatine: "Невольно к этим грустным берегам" ("Newolno k etim grustnym beregam")
  • No. 17. Duet with choir: "Что это значит?" ("Tschto eto snatschit?")

Fourth act

  • No. 18. Dances of the Russalkas
  • No. 19. Scene and aria: "Оставьте пряжу, сёстры, солнце село" ("Ostawte prjaschu, sjostry, solnze selo")
  • No. 20. Finale: "Невольно к этим грустным берегам" ("Newolno k etim grustnym beregam")

Work history

Fyodor Chaliapin as Miller, 1916
Wladimir Kastorski as miller, before 1917

Alexander Dargomyschski's opera Russalka was written between 1848 and 1855. He himself wrote the libretto, which is based on the poem The Mermaid by Alexander Pushkin (1832) "while preserving many of the poet's verses" . The latter - a “dramatic romance” libretto for a Singspiel - was in turn inspired by Ferdinand Kauer's Singspiel Das Donauweibchen (Vienna 1798). A version with the title Russalka , revised by Stepan Dawydow as a "comic magic opera", had such great success on the Russian music stages in the Great Theater Petersburg in 1803 that Dawydow and his colleague Catterino Cavos composed several sequels over the next few years. The poet Ivan Krylov turned against the trivialities emerging in these works. His artistically more important libretto for Cavos' opera Ilya Bogatyr from 1807 eventually served as the basis for Pushkin's text. In the portrayal of the revenge of the seduced and abandoned miller's daughter, he deals with a conflict between the bourgeoisie and the aristocracy. The most interesting figure in Pushkin and Dargomyschski is not the eponymous mermaid, but the miller who goes mad after the foreseeable catastrophe. In contrast to the early versions, there is no happy ending here. The focus is on the motive of atonement.

At the premiere on May 4th jul. / May 16, 1856 greg. Pavel Petrovich Buljakhov (Prince), Darja Mikhajlowna Leonowa (Princess), Osip Afanasiewitsch Petrow (Müller), Annisja Aleksandrowa Lavrowa-Buljakowa (Natascha / Russalka), Emilja Liliewa (Olga), PI Gumbin (Bride Maid / Jäger) sang in the Saint Petersburg Circus Theater. and IN Elistov (court singer). Konstantin Lyadow was the musical director.

Initially, the opera received little attention after its premiere. It was released in the same year at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow - but the great success did not materialize until 1865 after the resumption there and the new production in the Petersburg Mariinsky Theater . In the meantime, Serov's operas Judif (1863) and Rogneda (1865) had excited audiences for Russian operas, from which Russalka also benefited. Due to the popular material, this also had a “nationally representative” effect than Serov's works. From then on it was played frequently both in Russia and abroad. In 1878 there were performances in Kharkov, Kazan and Kiev. In 1885 the Russian private opera Sawwa Mamontov opened in the Solodownikow Theater in Moscow with this work. Also to be mentioned are productions in Copenhagen (1888, Russian), Prague (1889), Tiflis (1893, Fyodor Chaliapin's first appearance as Müller), at the Solodownikov Theater in Moscow (1897, with Chaliapin), at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow (1904 ), at the Krolloper Berlin (1908, Russian), in Monte Carlo (1909, with Chaliapin), Paris (1911), at the Solodownikow Theater Moscow (1917), in Yekaterinburg (1917), San Francisco and New York (both 1922 , Russian), Riga (1923), Jerusalem (1926), Charkow (1929), London (1931, Russian), Kuibyshev and Tbilisi (1935), Helsinki (1937, branch of the Bolshoi Theater Moscow), Yerevan (1938), Minsk (1939), Baku (1942), Stalino / Donetsk (1945), Vilnius (1949), Riga (1952), Bucharest (1958), Naples (1960) and Ulan Bator (1964).

Recordings

  • 1948 - Vasily Nebolsin (conductor), orchestra and choir of the Bolshoi Theater Moscow.
    Vitali Ignatevich Kiltschewsky (Prince), Varvara Gagarina (Princess), Alexander Stepanowitsch Pirogow (Müller), Eugenia Fedorovna Smolenskaja (Natascha / Russalka), Natalia Sokolowa (Olga).
    Studio shot.
    Melodia 36329 (4 LPs); Melodia Μ10-36629-34 (3 LPs) / Great Hall MVT 038-39 (2 CDs).
  • 1954 - Yevgeny Svetlanov (conductor), orchestra and choir of the Bolshoi Theater Moscow.
    Iwan Koslowski (Prince), Vera Iwanowna Borissenko (Princess), Alexei Filippowitsch Kriwtschenja (Müller), Eugenia Fedorowna Smolenskaja (Natascha / Russalka), Margarita Alexandrowna Miglau (Olga).
    Studio shot.
    Melodia MK DO 04414-19 (3 ​​LPs); Ultraphone ULP 101-3 (3 LPs).
  • Jan. 16, 1979 - Kraysto Marev (conductor), orchestra and choir of Plovdiv Opera .
    Georgi Velchev (Prince), Pavlina Pavlova (Princess), Evstati Dimitrov (Müller), Mimi Kavardjikova / Nevena Peneva (Natascha / Russalka?), Olga Boyardjieva (Olga?), Ivan Vampirov (suitor?).
    Live from Plovdiv.
    AE 215 (1 CD-ROM).
  • 1983 - Vladimir Fedoseyev (conductor), symphony orchestra and choir of the Radio of the USSR.
    Konstantin Pluschnikow (Prince), Nina Terentieva (Princess), Alexander Vedernikov (Müller), Natalia Mikhailova (Natascha / Russalka), Galina Pisarenko (Olga).
    Studio shot.
    Melodia C10 12933-6 (4 LPs), Relief CR 991059 (3 CDs).
  • December 20, 1997 - Paul Mägi (conductor), National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Wexford Festival Chorus.
    Alessandro Safina (Prince), Annie Vavrille (Princess), Maxim Mikhailov (Müller), Anna Maria Chiuri (Natascha / Russalka), Ljuba Chuchrova (Olga), Massimiliano Gagliardo (bride-to-be), Steven Boydall (hunter), Katia Trebeleva (Russalotschka / Lorelei), Declan Kelly (farmer).
    Live from Wexford.
  • 1999 - Vladimir Andropov (conductor), orchestra and choir of the Bolshoi Theater Moscow.
    Anatolj Zaychenko (Prince), Tatiana Erastowa (Princess), Yuri Matyuschin (Müller), Elena Zelyenskaya (Natascha / Russalka), Galina Chernoba (Olga), Sergei Murzaev (bride-to-be), Natalya Schtukaturova (Russalotschka / Lorelei).
    Live from Moscow.
  • April 28, 2001 - Paul Mägi (conductor), orchestra and choir of the Estonian National Opera Tallinn.
    Mati Korts (Prince), Riina Airenne (Princess), Leonid Savitski (Müller), Nadja Kurem (Natascha / Russalka), Valentina Taluma (Olga), Rauno Elp (Bridesmaid), Villu Valdmaa (Hunter).
    Live from Tallinn.
  • 2008 - Michail Jurowski (conductor), WDR Radio Orchestra Cologne , WDR Radio Choir Cologne .
    Vsevolod Grivnov (Prince), Marina Prudenskaja (Princess), Arutjun Kotchinian (Müller), Evelina Dobračeva (Natascha / Russalka), Elena Bryleva (Olga), Andrey Telegin (courtier / hunter), Martha Jurowski (Natascha's daughter).
    Profile / Edition Günter Hänssler PH 09024 (3 CDs).

Web links

Commons : Rusalka (Dargomyzhsky)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Sigrid Neef : Handbook of Russian and Soviet Opera. Henschelverlag Art and Society, Bärenreiter 1989. ISBN 3-7618-0925-5 , pp. 155–158.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Sigrid Neef : Russalka. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater . Volume 1: Works. Abbatini - Donizetti. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1986, ISBN 3-492-02411-4 , pp. 672-674.
  3. ↑ a b c d e Richard Taruskin :  Rusalka (ii). In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
  4. ↑ Music numbers at operalib.eu, accessed on August 26, 2018.
  5. ↑ Karl-Josef Kutsch , Leo Riemens : Large singer lexicon . KG Saur, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-598-11598-9 . P. 5307 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  6. ↑ May 16, 1856: "Rushalka". In: L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia ..
  7. ↑ a b c 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. 110.
  8. ↑ a b c d e f g Aleksandr Sergeevic Dargomyzskij. In: Andreas Ommer: Directory of all complete opera recordings (= Zeno.org . Volume 20). Directmedia, Berlin 2005.
  9. ↑ Work data on Rusalka based on the MGG with discography in Operone.