Organization

Singer

Soprano

Oksana Kramareva

Zemfira

Ksenia Bakhritdinova

Tetyana Ganina

Baritone

Taras Shtonda

Aleko

Mykhailo Kirishev

Viacheslav Bazyr

Igor Yevdokimenko

Tenor

Valentyn Dytiuk

The young gypsy

Dmytro Kuzmin

Dmytro Ivanchenko

Bass

Sergii Magera

The old gypsy

Bogdan Taras

Oleksandr Milev

Vladimir Tishkov

Contralto

Natalya Kysla

The old gypsy woman

Stage director

Vitaliy Malakhov

Conductor

Volodymyr Kozhukhar

Bogdan Plish

Costume designer

Maria Levytskaya

Natalia Kucherya

Set designer

Choreographer

Viktor Yaremenko

Chorus master

Lev Venedyktov

National Opera of Ukraine

Russian

Kyiv

Ukraine

Main Stage

Public

Approved

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DIAMOND OF RAKHMANIN HERITAGE

Surprisingly, Russian composers, who were sensitive to European trends in opera, especially in the second half of the nineteenth century, for some reason almost completely ignored such an aesthetically and psychologically amazing trend as verism. You can list Russian works in this genre on the fingers of one hand. But among them there is one opera, which was not only the first Russian veristic opera, but also in the depth of psychology and internal drama of the senses deservedly won the right to be among the best works of this genre in the world. This is the "Aleko" Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 - 1943), was created based on the hugely popular among Russian and European composers Alexander Pushkin's poem "Gypsies".

Fourteen operas, two ballets, orchestral and choral suites, and almost twenty romances have been written based on Pushkin's plot. However, the deepest musical interpretation of the work was made by Sergei Rachmaninoff, choosing this Pushkin work for the opera (libretto - a prominent Russian director Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko), which was to report on graduation from the Moscow Conservatory (1892).

The young composer, who already had in his works the Piano Concerto with Orchestra, the Youth Symphony, the symphonic poem "Prince Rostislav" based on the ballad of the same name by Alexei

In seventeen days Tolstoy wrote and orchestrated a brilliant one-act opera, for which he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Moscow Conservatory and the right to inscribe his name on the marble plaque of the best graduates of the famous musical institution. A year later (April 27, 1893) "Aleko" staged the Moscow Bolshoi Theater. The opera was very warmly received by the audience. Peter Tchaikovsky congratulated his young colleague, predicting a great creative future for him. Apparently, not without his participation immediately after the Moscow premiere, Sergei Rachmaninoff received a proposal to stage "Aleko" on the Kiev stage. The uniqueness of this production was that the premiere performance, which took place on October 18, 1893, was conducted by the author. This was the debut of Sergei Rachmaninoff as an opera conductor, which the composer will remember throughout his later artistic life, noting the creative potential of the Kyiv troupe, which fully and very vividly revealed his score. The newspaper "Kievlyanin" noted the great success of the opera: "Rachmaninov's triumph was undeniable. The audience, orchestra and vocalists gave him the warmest and most sincere applause with a rain of flowers, throwing and ink. There seemed to be no end to the challenges ...

His brilliant musical talent placed Sergei Rachmaninoff among the most prominent Russian musicians. Together with O. Scriabin he shared the then Olympus of piano performance, conducted the most complex symphonic works, wrote vocal and instrumental music, toured extensively in Russia and abroad. For some time he headed the symphony orchestra of the London Philharmonic, revealed his talent as an opera conductor at the Moscow Private Opera Sava Mamontov, making interesting interpretations of "Mermaid", "May Night", "Carmen". In 1905 he was invited to conduct the Moscow Bolshoi Theater, where he staged operas "Life for the Tsar", "Mermaid", "Boris Godunov", "The Queen of Spades", as well as his own operas "Francesca da Rimini" and "The Stingy Knight". poem for orchestra, choir and soloists "Bells", which, incidentally, adorns the modern repertoire of the National Opera of Ukraine and has performed many times in many European countries, has plans to create operas "Salambo" (by G. Flaubert) and "Monna Bath" on the plot of a very fashionable at the time Belgian writer M. Maeterlinck. Unfortunately, both operas were never completed, and Sergei Rachmaninoff's touring performances as a conductor and pianist were too dense and intense throughout his later life.

After Moscow and Kyiv, the opera "Aleko" was performed on the stage of the Tavriya Palace in St. Petersburg with the participation of Fyodor Chaliapin and the outstanding singer of the Kyiv Opera Maria Deisha-Zionitskaya as part of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Pushkin's birth.

The heroes of Sergei Rachmaninoff's opera are revealed in line with the melodramatics characteristic of the art of the late nineteenth century. At the same time, critics noted in the young composer's work "Turgen's psychologism" and the so-called Apukhtin tearfulness, which, in fact, made it so popular among the audience of that time.

Well-known Russian music critic M. Kashkin noted after the premiere of the opera "Aleko" on the Moscow stage that the young composer, still virtually unknown to anyone, managed to create an opera of high psychological tension, create original and extremely complete images that conveyed the beauty and strength of feelings heroes, fill the laconic plot with deep feelings, reveal the drama.

The brilliant stage history of Sergei Rachmaninoff's first opera began, which still adorns the stages of many theaters, although in the 1930s the composer, who gained vast musical experience, repeatedly stated that he considered Aleko no more than an attempt to approach the great opera genre. I wanted to add to his work a prologue that would give an understanding of how and where Aleko appeared in the work, which for many viewers became a poetic personification of Pushkin himself, especially those who knew how interested Pushkin was in Gypsy life, their traditions and love of freedom. The peculiar culmination of both the poem and the opera is the eloquent phrase "We are wild, and we have no laws ..." However, the tight schedule of S. Rachmaninoff's performances as a pianist and conductor did not contribute to such a plan. At least in 1936 he refused to initiate the staging of the opera Alleco in Paris.

After a long break (at that time an obstacle to further productions was the composer's stay abroad and a categorical reluctance to return to communist Russia), the opera "Aleko" reappeared in the repertoire of the Kiev theater. It was 1937, the centenary of Alexander Pushkin's death. However, the opera, staged by conductor V. Yorysh, director O. Kolodub and artist G. Kigel, and the main parts were performed by Mykhailo Donets, Andriy Ivanov, Oksana Petrusenko did not stay in the repertoire. In 1961, "Aleko" was heard again on the Kyiv stage. The staging was quite bright in all respects. After a ten-year break, the orchestra met with the brilliant conductor Konstantin Simeonov, who raised S. Rachmaninoff's music to the sky-high peaks of penetrating the color of the score and its disclosure. Together with "Aleko" the one-act ballet "Symphonic Dances" choreographed by Elena Tangieva-Birzniek was staged, and thus the audience had the opportunity to enjoy the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff of different periods. The main parts were performed by Lilia Lobanova (Zemfira), Volodymyr Tymokhin (Young Gypsy), Mykola Vorvulev (Aleko), Volodymyr Matveev (Old Gypsy). The opera was directed by Iryna Molostova, who managed to give the plot a pervasive action, although she could not overcome the "gypsy color", which significantly reduced the psychologism of the action and feelings.

Years, decades, even centuries have passed since the composer's debut of the outstanding Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. But his work remains in the context of the world music space, as evidenced by the interest of the National Opera of Ukraine in his first opera, which despite various artistic trends and directions has not lost its artistic value, brings us not only exotic themes of Gypsy life, but also more - deep , beautiful, full of feeling music.

Sergei Rachmaninoff's work had a great influence on the European school of composition, piano and conducting, absorbed both the humanistic traditions of the greatest operas of Russian composers of the second half of the nineteenth century, and the rapid search for new means of expression quite turbulent and contradictory twentieth century.

English

Aleko by Rachmaninoff, From (2021/2022), Directed by Vitaliy Malakhov,, Conductor Volodymyr Kozhukhar, Bogdan Plish, National Opera of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

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