The Oprichnik by Tchaikovsky, P. I., N 16 sept 2021, Alates (2021/2021), Juhatatud Sergey Novikov, Dirigent Alexander Soloviev, Mikhailovsky Theater, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Tchaikovsky made his name as an opera composer with The Oprichnik. The opera’s plot takes audiences back to the time of Ivan the Terrible. At the centre of the dramatic narrative is young boyar Andrey Morozov, who is determined to restore his family’s honour and get his beloved back. He makes the difficult choice to join the ranks of the oprichnina — the tsar’s personal guard — and finds himself sitting next to his beautiful bride at his wedding feast... However, the oath he has made to the tsar requires his complete obedience to the will of the monarch, who has plans of his own for Andrey’s young wife. Tchaikovsky finished work on the score for The Oprichnik in the spring of 1872, but the world premiere took place in St. Petersburg only two years later, on 12 April 1874. The performance, conducted by Eduard Napravnik, was well received not only by the press, but also by the audience. The opera ran for three seasons, but Tchaikovsky’s opinion of his work remained unchanged despite this success: he was dissatisfied with The Oprichnik and forbade publication of the score until he had reworked it. Tchaikovsky worked on ‘updating’ the opera in the last year of his life, sometimes erasing entire pages from the first version of the score, but he ran out of time to bring his plan to fruition. Using Tchaikovsky’s edits and notes, the creators behind the Mikhailovsky Theatre production have slimmed the score down, removing redundant repetitions and dramatically reimagining certain parts of the opera.