Organization

Conductor

Andrey Lebedev

Stage director

Alexey Veiro

Video designer

Дарья Синцова

Chorus master

Yulia Senyukova

Singer

Bass

Vladimir Kudashev

Ivan Soussanine

Evgeny Stavinsky

Soprano

Irina Bozhenko

Antonida

Irina Kostina

Elvira Khokhlova

Tenor

Alexander Bogdanov

Bogdane Subinine

Alexey Tatarintsev

Dmitry Bobrov

Contralto

Aleksandra Saulskaya-Shultyaeva

Vanya

Yulia Mennibaeva

Margarita Nekrasova

Otar Kunchulia

Polish Captain of the Guard

Andrey Fetisov

Alexander Popov

Polish Messenger

Sergey Sheremet

Mikhail Pervushin

Russian Captain

Boris Zhukov

Novaya Opera

A Life for the Tsar

Moscow

Russia

Novaya Opera Theatre

A Life for the Tsar Glinka

Public

Approved

A Life for the Tsar is Glinka's first work in the operatic genre. Before Glinka, the feat of the Kostroma peasant, patrimonial elder Ivan Susanin, who under torture did not reveal the whereabouts of the young Tsar Mikhail Romanov, was reflected in the opera genre by Katerino Cavos (Ivan Susanin, 1815). However, Glinka's work, outstanding in all respects (musical language, dramaturgy, perfect balance of whole and details), is rightfully considered the first Russian classical opera.

In A Life for the Tsar, the influence of Handel's heroic oratorios, operas of contemporaries (especially Italian bel canto masters) is tangible. However, all these influences combined, became the facets of Glinka's unique style. A Life for the Tsar is an opera that is Russian in spirit, in which for the first time ordinary people are presented as real heroes, and their speech is filled with Russian song intonations. The parts of Susanin, Antonida, Vanya sound “in Russian”, and the grandiose final chorus “Glory” has become the unofficial anthem of our country. The "Russian" images were contrasted with a brilliant suite of European dances: polonaise, krakowiak, waltz and mazurka. The juxtaposition of song and dance - contrasting figurative spheres that characterize Russians and Poles - is a truly brilliant find of the composer!

In Soviet times, ideology intervened in the fate of the opera. In the production of the Bolshoi Theater in 1939, the main emphasis was on the feat in the name of the Motherland, and the search for the tsar by the Poles turned into the search for Minin. The new name - "Ivan Susanin" - addressed, however, to the draft version of Glinka. The new libretto (excellent in a purely literary sense!) was created by the poet Sergei Gorodetsky. One of the justifications for altering the plot is precisely the poetic shortcomings of Baron Rosen's libretto. However, as a result, another opera with the same music was in fact on stage .

It is quite natural that since the late 1980s the opera has been performed in its original form. However, A Life for the Tsar is a rare guest on the opera stage: among the reasons are the scale of the composition and the exceptional difficulty of the vocal parts.

English

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