Russian Opera - 19th Century

19th Century

The 19th century was the golden age of Russian opera. It began with a success of a massive and slowly developing operatic project: the opera Lesta, dneprovskaya rusalka and its three sequels (1803–1807, first in Saint Petersburg) based on the German romantic-comic piece Das Donauweibchen by Ferdinand Kauer (1751–1831) with the Russian text and additional music by Russianized Venetian immigrant Catterino Cavos (1775–1840) and Stepan Davydov (1777–1825).

The next success was a patriotic opera Ivan Susanin (1815) by Cavos based on an episode from Russian history.

This success was continued with the brilliant operatic career of Alexey Verstovsky (1799–1862), who composed more 30 opera-vaudevilles and 6 grand-operas including Askold's Grave (Askoldova mogila, first performed in 1835) that received about 200 performances in Saint Petersburg and 400 in Moscow only for the first 25 years.

However the most important events in the history of Russian opera were two great operas by Mikhail Glinka (1804–1857) A Life for the Tsar, (Zhizn za tzarya, originally entitled Ivan Susanin 1836) and Ruslan and Lyudmila (based on the tale by Alexander Pushkin, 1842. These two works inaugurated a new era in Russian music and upraise or Russian national opera.

Since these, opera became a leading genre for the most of Russian composers. Glinka was followed by Alexander Dargomyzhsky (1813–1869) with his Rusalka (1856) and revolutionary The Stone Guest (Kamenny gost, completed by Rimsky-Korsakov and premiered in 1872).

Other composers were:

• Semen Hulak-Artemovsky (1813–1873) with his 3 operas including Zaporozhets za Dunayem (1863);
• Alexander Serov (1820–1871) with his Judith (1863) Rogneda (1865) The Power of the Fiend (Vrazhya sila, 1871);
• Anton Rubinstein (1829–1894) with his 19 operas including The Demon (1875 Saint Petersburg);
• César Cui (1835–1918), with his 14 operas including William Ratcliff (1861–1868);
• Eduard Nápravník (1839–1916), with his 4 operas including Dubrovsky (1895);
• Sergei Taneyev (1856–1915), with Oresteia, (1895, Saint Petersburg);
• Anton Arensky (1861–1906), with his 3 operas including A Dream on the Volga (1880).

Russian opera reached its apogee with the works by Modest Mussorgsky and his antipode Pyotr Tchaikovsky.

• Modest Mussorgsky

• Pyotr Tchaikovsky

• Aleksandr Borodin

• Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov

Modest Mussorgsky's (1839–1881) Boris Godunov remains the greatest masterpiece of Russian opera, despite what many consider to be serious technical faults and a bewildering array of versions (Original Version of 1869, Revised Version of 1872, Rimsky-Korsakov Edition of 1908, Shostakovich Edition of 1940, etc.). His other operas were left unfinished:

• Salammbô (1866)
• Zhenit'ba (The Marriage, 1868)
• Khovanshchina (1872–1880)
• The Fair at Sorochyntsi (1874–1880)

Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) completed ten operas including the most famous Eugene Onegin (Yevgeny Onegin), 1877–1878, 1879 Moscow and The Queen of Spades (Pikovaya dama), 1890, 1890 Saint Petersburg, which now belong to the world's standard repertoire. His other operas are:

• Voyevoda (The Voivode), 1867–1868, destroyed by the composer, but posthumously reconstructed
• Undina (or Undine), 1869, not completed, partly destroyed by the composer
• The Oprichnik, 1870–1872, 1874 Saint Petersburg
• Vakula the Smith (Kuznets Vakula), 1874, 1876 Saint Petersburg
• The Maid of Orleans (Orleanskaya deva), 1878–1879, 1881 Saint Petersburg
• Mazepa 1881–1883, 1884 Moscow
• Cherevichki (rev. of Vakula the Smith) 1885, 1887 Moscow
• The Enchantress (also The Sorceress or Charodeyka), 1885–1887, 1887 Saint Petersburg
• Iolanta (Iolanthe), 1891, 1892 Saint Petersburg

Not less important was Aleksandr Borodin’s (1833–1887) Prince Igor – (Knyaz Igor, completed by Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov, 1890).

Prolific Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908) completed fifteen operas, the most significant achievements of the art of opera in Russia at the end of the century. The most notable of them are:

• May Night (Majskaja noch) 1878–1879
• The Snow Maiden (Snegurochka 1881 1st version, premiered 1882, Saint Petersburg; c. 1895 2nd version)
• Sadko (1896, premiered 1898, Moscow)
• The Tsar's Bride (Tsarskaya nevesta1898, premiered 1899, Moscow)
• The Tale of Tsar Saltan (Skazka o tsare Saltane, premiered 1900, Moscow)
• Kashchey the Immortal (Kashchey bessmertny, 1902)
• The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya (Skazanie o nevidimom grade Kitezhe i deve Fevronii, 1904)
• The Golden Cockerel (Zolotoy petushok, 1907)

The last three of them already belong to the 20th century Russian opera.

There were built a lot of new opera theatres including Bolshoi Theatre (opened since 1825 Moscow), and Mariinsky Theatre, opened since 1860 Saint Petersburg).

The history of 19th century Russian opera could be observed in the selected list of premieres at the Saint Petersburg theatres:

Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre

• 1835 – Askold's Grave
• 1836 – A Life for the Tsar
• 1842 – Ruslan and Lyudmila
• 1856 – Rusalka

Mariinsky Theatre (since 1860)

• 1863 – Judith
• 1865 – Rogneda
• 1871 – The Power of the Fiend (Vrazya sila)
• 1872 – The Stone Guest
• 1874 – Boris Godunov
• 1874 – The Oprichnik
• 1875 – The Demon
• 1876 – Vakula the Smith
• 1881 – The Maid of Orleans
• 1882 – The Snow Maiden
• 1886 – Khovanshchina
• 1886 – Prince Igor
• 1887 – The Enchantress (Charodeyka)
• 1890 – The Queen of Spades

Mamontov's Private Russian Opera established in 1885. Savva Mamontov discovered talent of Chaliapin, commissioned designs from Mikhail Vrubel, Konstantin Korovin, Natalia Goncharova and Ivan Bilibin, staged the late operas by Rimsky Korsakov.

Opera spread to the provincial centres of Kiev (1867), Odessa (1887) and Kharkiv (1880).