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Opera Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov "The Golden Cockerel" (Director - Kirill Serebrennikov) - opera in 3 acts
World famous Bolshoi Ballet and Opera theatre (established 1776) - Small Stage

Running time: 3 hours

The performance has 2 intermissions

Schedule for Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov "The Golden Cockerel" (Director - Kirill Serebrennikov) - opera in 3 acts 2022

Composer: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Choirmaster producer: Valery Borisov
Light Designer: Damir Ismagilov
Director: Kirill Serebrennikov
Music Director: Vassily Sinaisky
Chorus Master: Valery Borisov

Orchestra: Bolshoi Theatre Symphony Orchestra

Opera in 3 acts

Premiere of this production: 19 June 2011

Libretto by Vladimir Belsky
based on Alexander Pushkin’s fairy-tale


The 2010/11 opera season will wind up with the premiere of a new production of Rimsky-Korsakov’s THE GOLDEN COCKEREL (first night 19 June) by one of the pacesetters of the Moscow theatre scene Kirill Serebrennikov.

The Bolshoi Theatre is again to produce the most caustic and paradoxical of Rimsky-Korsakov’s operas, the most “unfairytale-like” of all his tales, the tale about the golden cockerel.

The Golden Cockerel was created after the infamous events of the 1905 revolution (the first musical sketches for the opera — the Cockerel theme — appeared at the end of 1906, and the whole score was finished in the course of the following year). And, of course, the tense political situation, which reigned at the time in the country, could not but find reflection in the opera. Especially since the composer himself was not a passive observer of the unrest: he supported the demands of the striking students and was dismissed from the Petersburg Conservatoire where he had been teaching since the 1870’s.

Lying at the basis of the opera is Alexander Pushkin’s tale of the same name, which, however, was significantly reworked. Librettist Vladimir Belsky highlighted different points of emphasis, added new scenes, a new character — housekeeper Amelfa, developed the characters of the rest of the personages, gave the tale sharper political and satirical edge — quite in keeping with the spirit of the times which had given rise to a burgeoning of satirical journalism.

On account of its political content, the opera was banned by the censor who saw it as an outspoken attack on the autocracy. Refusing to compromise, its author lost all hope of ever seeing it on stage. And, indeed, The Golden Cockerel was premiered a year after his death — on 14 September 1909 at Zimin’s Private Opera Company, in Moscow. The scenography was by Ivan Bilibin — and the production was impressive but in fairytale like vein, absolutely in the spirit of the World of Art movement to which the artist belonged. On 16 November of the same year, the opera got its first Bolshoi Theatre performance. Up to 1917 it was presented with changes insisted on by the censor’s office — namely, all its personages were ’demoted in rank’.

If one follows the opera’s performance history at the Bolshoi (taking into account the 1917 revival, there were a total of five productions), one finds two basic tendencies in production style. They were either stylized and ’aestheticized’ (as in Vladimir Lossky’s 1924 production — aesthetically beautiful, spectacular, emphatically theatrical, smacking of the marionette theatre, with complex plastic design), or sharply political and satirical (as in Nikolai Smolich’s 1932 version in which, for example, the Boyar Duma meets in the bath-house).

Kirill Serebrennikov, director of the present production, has opted for another solution.

Kirill Serebrennikov: “It is one of the best Russian operas — dynamic, subtly conceived, hard-hitting, paradoxical. It is an excellent combination of marvelous music, intelligent libretto, good text and very intriguing personages. It is a very sincere opera — one realizes immediately that it is a last work. For Rimsky-Korsakov it is a very important personal statement. I think it would be wrong to categorize it exclusively as a pamphlet. Such a major artist and philosopher would have been unable to limit himself to a topical response to the contemporary situation in Russia. The philosophical basis is very important in all his work. Rimsky-Korsakov is a conceptualist; he needs a program, a theory. And I am therefore sure that The Golden Cockerel is not simply a political and publicistic declaration, it is a serious philosophical statement.

Above all we have got rid of all the conventionally grotesque ethnic-’bilibinesque’ matter. In our production popular woodcut scenes are out. In this respect we will disappoint those people who expect from The Golden Cockerel a folklore ’patchwork’ of skomorokhi (wandering minstrels cum clowns — tr.n.), long beards, exaggerated Russian style... There won’t be any of this in our production. We abandon a very conventional, stylized and very theatrical world for quintessentially genuine — ’just like in the movies’ - reality.

In this opera there is a pamphlet, there is satire, but it is other things, which occupy my attention. I am more interested in Dodon’s inner world, the story of this Tsar’s last love. I think it is very intriguing. It is all about power and people in power. It is about how power impacts a man and what happens to him when he comes face to face with a miracle. It is the interrelationships between the two main personages, which form the core of our production. It won’t be quite fairytale. It will be a different story... and more human than socio-political”.

Vassily Sinaysky, Bolshoi Theatre music director and conductor in chief, conductor of the production: "For me, above all else, this is a work, which provided a very strong stimulus to other composers — Rimsky-Korsakov’s young contemporaries. In imaging the reception it got from his students, the very young Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Stravinsky and others, studying at the time at the Petersburg Conservatoire, I try above all to emphasize what they liked about it. Stravinsky, for instance, took a lot of things of a technical nature from Rimsky-Korsakov and, above all, from The Cockerel: use of harp, strings, and also the intonational sphere. All this and a lot more unite The Golden Cockerel and Petrushka.

On the other hand, I believe The Golden Cockerel is quite different to Rimsky-Korsakov’s usual style, to his more ‘usual’ works. In view of my love for and knowledge of Scheherazade, Sadko, The Tale of Tsar Saltan and The Tsar’s Bride, all of which I love conducting, I am astonished here at the degree he has departed into quite other spheres. And first and foremost I consider it important to highlight the innovations he introduced into this opera in respect of musical language, usage and modification systems of leitmotifs, harmony, and even steps towards atonality (!).





Synopsis

Act I


In the palace preparations are underway for a ’session’ of the boyars’ Duma.
They are waiting for the Tsar.
The Astrologer appears and addresses those present:

I’m a wizard. I’m endowed by
occult knowledge with rare gifts — to
call up shades and fill anew a
lifeless breast with magic being.

Here before you, comic masks will
bring to life an ancient fable.
Though a tale, the moral’s true —
Good young people, mark it well.


A hubbub breaks out. The Astrologer disappears. Enter the Tsar.
The Tsar appeals to his boyars for advice on how to keep his kingdom safe from attack. His eldest son suggests bringing the army back from the frontier and posting it round the capital. Many support this idea. General Polkan, however, disapproves of the plan. The Tsar’s youngest son suggests the army should be disbanded altogether and only mobilized again at the appearance of the enemy. Dodon is delighted at the idea! But Polkan turns this suggestion down too. The Duma is at a loss to know what to do. They suggest that beans or kvas grains should be consulted.
Enter the Astrologer. He presents Dodon with a magic Golden Cockerel who will always give warning of danger. The Tsar promises the Astrologer any reward he likes to name:

Your first wish I will fulfill
Like it were my very own.


Exit the Astrologer. His fears allayed, Dodon goes to sleep. He has a sweet dream.
The Cockerel starts to crow:

Cock-a-doodle-doodle-doo!
Be alert! Be on your guard!


Noise and bustle. The Tsar mobilizes two armies which march off to the scene of war led by his sons. He then goes back to sleep. Dodon’s terrible dream. Again the Cockerel warns of danger. Having gathered together a force, Dodon now goes off to war himself accompanied by General Polkan.

Act II

Tsar Dodon, accompanied by his army, sees the bodies of his two dead sons. A horrified Dodon mourns his children. Suddenly a mysterious tent appears before him. A beautiful woman steps out of the tent and sings a hymn to the rising sun. It is the Tsaritsa of Shemakha. Dodon is bewitched by her beauty and her singing. By guile and artifice, the cunning Tsaritsa seduces Dodon who offers her his hand in marriage. His offer is accepted. The Tsaritsa of Shemakha and Dodon set off for the capital.

Act III

The populace are awaiting the return of their Tsar. Dodon and the Tsaritsa of Shemakha appear to the sound of trumpets. The populace greet them. The Astrologer makes his way through the crowd. He reminds the Tsar of his promise and asks for the Tsaritsa of Shemakha. Dodon tries to make the old astrologer see sense, offering him at least half his kingdom, but the latter is adamant. Loosing his temper, Dodon rough-handles the old man and chases him off. The Astrologer dies. The Golden Cockerel flies down off the tower and pecks Dodon on the forehead. Dodon dies. The Tsaritsa of Shemakha and the Cockerel vanish. The people are totally disorientated:

Oh what will the new dawn bring?
How’ll we live without our Tsar?

Epilogue

The Astrologer appears from the crowd. He now concludes his tale:

That is how the story ends.
But the bloody denouement,
though distressing it may be,
really should not worry you.
Only I and the Tsaritsa
were the real live people here. The
others were delirium — a
dream, a pale specter, a void...




Schedule for Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov "The Golden Cockerel" (Director - Kirill Serebrennikov) - opera in 3 acts 2022


Bolshoi Theatre - Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov "The Golden Cockerel" - Venera Gimadieva, soprano
 
About This Video
01:55
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
"Sbroshu chopornie tkani" (arioso of the Queen of Shemakha from The Golden Cockerel)
Venera Gimadieva, soprano
Choir and Orchestra of The BOlshoi Theatre, Moscow
Vassily Sinaiskiy, conductor
19 June 2011


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