May Night by Rimsky-Korsakov, Fri 30 Jun 2023, From (2022/2023), Directed by Alexandr Maskalin,, Conductor Larisa Gergieva, Roman Leontiev, Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theater, Saint Petersburg, Russia

The co-creators of May Night were men of equal import: Gogol and Rimsky-Korsakov. It is a poetic opus wrought by youthful forces: Gogol wrote his May Night as a twenty-year-old young man, while for Rimsky-Korsakov it was to be only his second opera, and on the day of the premiere the composer was not yet thirty-six years of age. One December evening in 1871, the happy and newly-betrothed Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Nadezhda Purgold read aloud Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, including the particular favourite of May Night. The bride-to-be could see the "operatic" nature of the plot clearly from the very first. It was Nadezhda, the composer's wife already six months later, who on several occasions reminded her husband of Gogol's story. In 1877 Rimsky-Korsakov finally sank his teeth into the matter. The composer was particularly well prepared in his approach to May Night. Behind him lay extensive studies in counterpoint (when teaching his students, the young professor of the St Petersburg Conservatoire had also undertaken an intensive study himself), working with Glinka's scores and researching, recording and arranging folk songs. All of this bore fruit in May Night, written by an already mature hand; here there is everything for which Rimsky-Korsakov is so admired: a rich and subtle orchestral palette, pliant melodies with recognisable arrangements of folk songs, echoes of early pagan rituals, its delightful picturesque quality (take Ukrainian Night preceding Act III alone), the humour... Here for the first time we also see a particular Korsakovian female character: a fragile, ethereal, fairytale-like beautiful creature – Pannochka, to be followed in due course by Snegurochka, the Swan Princess, Volkhova... It was at the Mariinsky Theatre in 1880 that audiences first saw May Night. This is an anniversary production: it was staged in 2009 to mark two centuries since the birth of Gogol. Alexander Maskalin's beautiful chamber production remains faithful to the original: the director does not enter into polemics with the work's great creators, instead creating a comfortable stage arena for them. The production makes use of the performing prowess of the Mariinsky Academy of Young Opera Singers. The tenor role of Levko is central to the entire work; this is a rare case for Rimsky-Korsakov (among others), where in an operatic love story the emphasis is placed not on the girl but on the boy. The reason for this is possibly that the composer was experiencing the very same sensations felt by the hero of his opus. The opera is, after all, dedicated to the composer's beloved wife. Khristina Batyushina