Programs · Episode

GLINKA: Ruslan and Lyudmila

Program: At the Opera
Aired: Saturday, August 21, 2021 @ 6:00 pm
Hosted by Lisa Simeone

Glinka's opera has a famously rollicking overture – and the rest of the opera keeps the action going strong.  Based on a poem by Pushkin, it might be called an "epic frolic" – a lush but lighthearted romp, through a world of fantastic adventures and fairytale love. At the Opera examines the drama in a recording from St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre, led by Valery Gergiev and starring soprano Anna Netrebko, plus a live recording from the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, starring Ekaterina Morozova and led by Alexander Vedernikov.

THIS WEEK’S FEATURED RECORDINGS:

Alexander Vedernikov, conductor

Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra and Chorus

CAST: Taras Shtonda (Ruslan); Ekaterina Morozova (Lyudmila); Vadim Lynkovsky (Svetosar); Aleksandra Durseneva (Ratmir); Vitaly Panfilov (Finn); Maria Gavrilova (Gorislava); Valery Gilmanov (Farlaf); Irina Dolzhenko (Naina); Maksim Paster (Bayan)
(PentaTone PTC 5186 034)

Valery Gergiev, conductor

Kirov Orchestra and Chorus

CAST: Anna Netrebko (Lyudmila); Vladimir Ognovienko (Ruslan); Mikhail Kit (Svetosar); Larissa Diadkova (Ratmir); Konstantin Pluzhnikov (Finn); Galina Gorchikova (Gorislava); Gennady Bezzubenkov (Farlaf); Irina Bogachova (Naina); Yuri Marusin (Bayan)
(Philips 456 248)

MORE ABOUT THE OPERA:

What do you think of when someone mentions Russian opera?  Most likely, it's something somber and dark, and with good reason.  The most famous of Russian operas include Mussorgsky's grim historical epic Boris Godunov, along with Tchaikovsky's pair of bleak psychodramas The Queen of Spades and Eugene Onegin, operas with an epic quality of their own.

And those three, popular dramas have something specific in common with plenty of other Russian operas.   All three are based on works by Alexander Pushkin — not most people's idea of leisurely reading.  Yet there is one great Russian opera, also inspired by Pushkin, that occupies far lighter territory of the dramatic spectrum.

Mikhail Glinka is often credited as the founder of the Russian opera tradition.  Ruslan and Lyudmila was Glinka's second opera, and also his last.  It appeared in 1842, after six years in the making, and it is based on a Pushkin epic.  But this one might well be called an epic frolic — a lush yet lighthearted romp through a world of fantastic adventures and fairytale love.  The story sweeps its way across the vast Russian landscape, depicting a furious conflict between good and evil.  But when it all shakes out, this epic features far more fun than furor.

Glinka’s opera follows Pushkin's original fairly closely — the whole plot is there, and then some.  The opera may come up short of fully capturing the poem’s astonishing dramatic flow, but that would have been a tall order.  Pushkin's epic is a real page turner, with disparate elements of the story tumbling over each other at a breakneck pace.  The opera is more a series of related set pieces, and it probably didn’t help that the scenario was reportedly devised, by a buddy of Glinka’s, "in a quarter of an hour while he was drunk."  Yet Glinka’s musical contribution is beautiful throughout, conjuring lively characters and vivid theatrical images, even when the action itself occasionally slows to a trot.

On At the Opera, Lisa Simeone brings us highlights of recordings from two of Russia's premiere venues: a 1995 recording from St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre, led by Valery Gergiev and starring a young Anna Netrebko, plus a live recording from the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in 2003, featuring Ekaterina Morozova and led by Alexander Vedernikov.

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