Rubinstein: The Demon

Opera no 39

Rubinstein: The Demon

Rubinstein is now probably remembered only for the slightly mawkish ‘melody in F’ which was once a stable of salon concerts and the bandstand but even than is probably now fading from memory. But in his day he was a very important figure in Russian music, not only as a composer but as a pianist and educator. He knew all of the important musicians of his time and was well regarded.

I thoroughly enjoyed this opera. It is very much in the idiom of Der Vampyr and The Flying Dutchman with hints of Weber and French grand opera. It was exciting and, particularly towards the end, genuinely moving in its depiction of the struggle between good and evil. Occasionally the music was a little cliched and called to mind the oriental fantasies of Albert Ketelby or even the cartoons of Walt Disney, but that can hardly be blamed on Rubinstein - it was a common fate of the tropes of dramatic 19th century music to be repurposed in this way.

This performance from the Wexford festival omitted the ballet but I heard that on a separate recording. I don’t think that is was much missed. - it did seem to be rather conventional. But I noted that some of the music turned up, in a rather turbo charged form, in an arrangement by Resphighi as the Dance of the Tartar Warriors in the ballet La Pentola Magico. I’d know that for years without having any idea of its original source.

Serov: Judith

Opera no 38

Serov: Judith

Soloists

Bolshoi Theatre orchestra

Andreï Tchistiakov

Serov occupies a place between Glinka and the mature operas of Tchaikovsky and The Five. He is now almost a forgotten figure and he never had much traction in the West but he was admired by Tchaikovsky and others at the time. But he was also the subject of some very biting criticism from Stasov, the leading music critic in mid 19th century Russia.’the whole psychological aspect of drama was absolutely alien to him and beyond him. You will not hear a single passage in any of this three operas which expressed heartfelt emotion, genuine warmth of feeling, or passion.’ There’s plenty more where that came from.

I read this before I listened to the opera, so my expectations were not high. But it seemed that I was listening to something completely different. I thought that this was a splendid piece - full of colour and drama and with some highly attractive melodic writing. As to be expected in a Russian opera of this period there is some notable choral writing and dance music. And the final ensemble with an impassioned soprano solo was superb - really made the hairs stand up on the back of the neck.

So a really impressive piece. The contrast with the Tchaikovsky yesterday in this project was very marked. One a major composer being distinctly under par: the other a minor composer really hitting the jackpot.

Tchaikovsky: Cherevichki

Opera no 37

Tchaikovsky: Cherevichki

Soloists

Chorus and Orchestra del Teatro Lirico Di Gagliari

Gennady Rozhdestvensky

This was an opera I was looking forward to. I’ve heard from several people that it is a good piece and Tchaikovsky himself  said that it was ‘musically well-nigh my best opera’. I have to say, however, that I found it rather disappointing. It is not a bad piece  of course, but I felt that it never really made an impact - much of it rather passed me by. It was only towards the end that I really started to enjoy the piece. Mainly because of the extended dance music which was first rate Tchaikovsky and very much in the same mode as the great ballets. There was also an attractive duet for female voices.  But by this time it was too late for me. I am a great Tchaikovsky enthusiast and so it was doubly disappointing that this work failed, at least for me, to hit the spot. 

But of course the whole point of this project is to explore lots of different works and there are bound to be some which don’t make such a strong impression as others.

Glinka: Ruslan and Lyudmila

Opera no 36

Glink: Ruslan and Lyudmila

Soloists 

Kirov Opera

Valery Gergiev 

Ruslan and Lyudmila is of course famous for its overture - one of the great showpieces of the orchestral repertoire (I remember how scary it felt the first time I played it). But I had never heard any of the rest of the opera before.  I thought it was an absolutely fascinating piece.

You can feel Glinka here trying (and succeeding) to create a Russian operatic tradition out of so many different strands. The influence of French Grand Opera is very clear is some of the big set piece ensembles (such as the end of the first act)  but Weber is another influence and there is a Bellini-like Italianate lyricism to some of the lyrical numbers. Some of the ballet music seems to belong to the same world as Adam and Auber but others is distinctly Russian in style and looks forward to the ballet music of Tchaikovsky. But you also get elements of what would become the standard tropes of Russian opera. Folksong-based melodies, big choruses with a religious feel to them, major roles for low voices and oriental touches, including the use of the whole-tone scale.

The orchestration is fascinating. There is a prominent part for piano in the first act (it returns later)  and some of the magic music uses the glass harmonica (it is not exactly clear what Glinka had in mind) though in this recording some sort of glockenspiel appears to be used.  

Glinka manages to make a coherent opera out of all of these diverse elements and I really enjoyed getting to know the piece. You can see what Glinka had such an influence over the next generation of Russian opera composers.  It was also satisfying, some 50+ years since I first heard the overture, to put in into the context of the operas as a whole. The big second-subject tune is a baritone aria in Act 2 and the fast scale-based music at the start occurs at the very end of the opera. The overture is such a good piece on its own that one admires the way that Glinka wove everything together seamlessly.  

Fomin: The coachman at the horse stage post

Opera no 35

Fomin: The coachman at the horse stage-post 

Following a series of Czech operas I am now turning to Russia. Opera took a while to get going in Russian  and the early years were dominated by Italian composers. Those Russians who did write operas generally wrote them in Italian as well so Russian language operas by native composers were rare until the end of the 18th century.

This is one of the first of them, Fomin was the son of a military family and he undertook musical training in Bologna. He then returned to St Petersburg where he was associated with the imperial theatre. He wrote some 30 operas, although there are some issues over the attribution of some of them.  

I found it difficult to find out much about this opera on line so I listened to it more or less blind. It started as I expected with a rather jolly overture in a sub-Haydnesque style but then came a surprise. Instead of continuing in that vein we had about 10 mins of mainly choral music which was solemn and religious in character. It reminded me of Gluck or the Armed Men scene in The Magic Flute with some moments that seem positively Handelian. Then it reverted back to the Haydnesque idiom with some attractive songs and ensembles. The music was in truth quite crude in places, but the composer did have the knack of writing some catchy tunes. The last ensemble seemed to be based on the same folk song that Tchaikovsky used in the last movement of the 4th symphony.

In truth this seemed more like a play with songs rather than an opera as we know it - though I am still mystified by those opening choral sections. It is remarkable to think that the huge accomplishments of 19th Russian opera composers were built on such slight foundations as this.

Janáček: The excursions of Mr Brouček

 Opera no 34

Janáček: The excursions of Mr Brouček

Soloists

Czech Philharmonic orchestra and chorus

František Jilek

I was lucky enough to have the great Janáćek scholar John Tyrrell as my Ph D supervisor so I learned a lot about the composer from talking to John and reading his books as they came out. I knew the ‘big five’ operas from the Mackerras recordings (for which John wrote the booklet notes) but I had not heard this opera before.

What a strange yet wonderful piece it is. Simon Rattle called it ‘really beautiful and off the charts surreal’ and that sums it up very well. The first part, the excursion to the moon, is dominated by a manic waltz rhythm which crops up time and time again in various guises. The orchestration is wonderfully distinctive and hair-raising lay difficult - one wonders quite how the orchestra coped with it in 1920. The second part is perhaps slightly less inspired thought it does have some extraordinary choral writing, which not surprisingly gave the original performers real problems and required some discrete instrumental doubling. Yet it many ways the highlight is the absolutely gorgeous love duet that forms an interlude between the two parts of the opera. This shows that Janáċek had a melodic gift equal to anybody of his generation.

I can’t believe that it has taken me so long to listen to this peice. I will certainly return to it.

This concludes this series of Czech operas, If you include the Foerster  https://andrew365newpieces.blogspot.com/search/label/Foerster I included in last year’s project I have covered most of the major 19th figures. I’ll return to the Czech lands later in this project to pick up some more 20th century works.

Smetana: Dalibor

Opera no 33

Smetana: Dalibor

Soloists

Prague National Theatre chorus and orchestra

Jaroslav Krombholc

Dalibor is one of the central works in the Czech operatic repertoire, although initially it had little success - Mahler's conducting of the work in Vienna helped to establish its importance. It has been compared to Fidelio in that the plot concerns a political prisoner whose lover disguises herself as a man in order to work in the prison and help rescue him.

I thought that it was a very impressive piece. It is not as overtly melodramatic as the Kovařovic opera (the previous work in this project) but makes a strong impression throughout. Perhaps the high point is the big solo for Dalibor himself in the third act but the duet for the lovers is also intensely moving. 

Last year I was impressed by Smetana's The Kiss https://andrew365newpieces.blogspot.com/2025/10/smetana-hubicka.html and said that I would like to explore more of the composer's operas. Listening to this opera today certainly increases my enthusiasm for Smetana as an opera composer - there's certainly more to go at.

Kovařovic: The Dogheads

Opera no 32

Kovařovic: The Dogheads

Soloists

Prague radio orchestra and choir

František Dyk

Kovařovic is primarily remembered for his connection with Janáček: he conducted the 1916 Prague revival of Jenůfa, which did much to establish Janáček's international reputation. But in doing so he revised and re-orchestrated some of the work and for 60 years or so the opera was almost always heard in Kovařovic's version.

As a composer Kovařovic wrote several operas before his appointment as musical director of the Prague National Opera meant he had no more time to compose large scale works. This opera, about a rebellion against the Hapsburg forces in 1695 was his most popular work and remained on the fringes of the repertoire in the Czech lands for many years.  

It is quite an old-fashioned piece for an opera written at the very end of the 19th century. It feels, and sounds, like something from a generation earlier. It has all the apparatus of a French grand opera with lots of blood and thunder and, to be frank, little subtlety. But on its own terms it was enjoyable and clearly shows a composer who understood the theatre and the power of opera to convey emotion and fervour.

I can't imagine that it could ever make any headway outside the Czech lands, and is really now of historical interest only. But that doesn't make it any the less enjoyable as a one-off experience.

Blodek: In the Well

Opera no 31

Blodek: In the well

Soloists

Prague National Theatre

Jan Štych

This was a delightful work. The obvious point of comparison is The Bartered Bride which was first performed around the same time and indeed has the same librettist. This is a lighthearted story about village life and love - the well is where young girls to to see an image of their future husband and the prospective suitor of the heroine hides in a tree above the well so that it is his reflection that is seen. Inevitably he falls into well, but all ends happily ever after.

The music is very much in the early romantic style of composers such as Lortzing with an overlay of  the Czech style familiar from Smetana and Dvóřak. It is a short piece which places few demands on the performers - John Tyrrell points out that the piece is often performed by amateurs and is still very much in the Czech operatic repertoire.

Fibich: Šárka

Opera no 30

Fibich: Šárka

Soloists

Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra

Sylvain Camberling

Fibich is a name which still has a slight resonance among , at least older, listeners because his poem used to be a staple of the violin recital in an arrangement by  Jan Kubelik.  I don’t think that I have ever heard any more of his music.

I really enjoyed this opera. It was full of drama and strong characterization. The story is a classic of Czech folklore and was also the subject of an opera by Janáček and a tone poem by Smetana but this opera doesn’t suffer by comparison with that august company. Fibich has a real dramatic flare and a gift for melody. Some of the ensembles were really spine tingling. Fibich’s operas have never really travelled outside the Czech lands (unlike those of Smetana and Dvořák) which on the evidence here is a great pity. This piece would certainly command the stage anywhere.  

Škroup: Columbus

Opera no 29

Škroup: Columbus (extracts only)

Soloists

Prague Radio Orchestra and Chorus

František Djk

After a group of French and then Italian operas I am off on my (metaphorical) travels again to listen to some Czech operas. My much missed former Ph.D supervisor John Tyrrell wrote the definitive book in English on Czech opera and I will be using it as a guide for this part of the project.

The first composer he deals in detail with is the rather splendidly named František Škroup, who wrote what is generally considered to be the first Czech opera. He also wrote the Czech national anthem.

This opera, based on the life of Christopher Columbus, is a much later work written when the composer had was working at the German opera in Rotterdam. In fact the work was written to a German text. It was not performed in a Czech version until the 1940s. This recording of extracts was a from a radio performance in the 1960s.

It is no forgotten masterpiece. In fact I thought some of it was absolutely awful. It was grotesquely trivial and uninspired. Now I don’t look for profundity in everything . I enjoy much music which is not of the first rate so long as it has character, but this was just bombastic without any real merit.  Some of the quieter music was a bit more appealing but this was very old fashioned music for 1855 and had no character of its own.  I this that this recording was made as a way of honouring a composer who was important in his day, but his time has long gone and I can’t ever imagine this opera being performed other than as curiosity. I’ve certainly no desire to hear it again. My only relief is that this recording was only of extracts  - at least I didn’t have to endure the whole thing,

Bellini: I capuleti e Montecchi

Opera no 28

Bellini: I Capuleti e Montecchi

Soloists

Vienna Symphony Orchestra

Fabio Luisi

My knowledge of Bellini is fairly limited. I saw Norma years ago and included La Sonnambula in my project last year https://andrew365newpieces.blogspot.com/2025/10/bellini-la-sonnambula.html but that is about it. This, Bellini’s version of Romeo and Juliet struck me as almost two operas joined together as one.  When Romeo and Juliet are not singing much of the music seems to me to be routine rum-ti-tum without any special merit. But the music for the lovers - both women in this version - is on another plane altogether. There is some ravishing music here which shows Bellini’s supreme command of the long melodic line and ability to colour what is essentially straightforward harmony with telling chromatic inflections. The orchestration is also highly effective - particularly the use of the harp and long solos for the cello and the clarinet. Bellini is able to conjure a dream-like atmosphere in a way few other composers have matched. The entrance aria for Juliet is particularly haunting, as is the final duet. Again though, as I have noted before, the very end is rather disappointing - a few bars of noisy ‘painting by numbers’ trivial music for the chorus. A real pity, but it does goes with the territory with operas of this period.

At its best this was a superb opera - just a pity that it is not all at the same level of invention.

This concludes this brief look at Italian opera in the pre-Verdi era. I’ll return to Italy later in this project but next I will spend some time on Czech opera.

Donizetti: Maria Stuarda

 Opera  no 27

Donizetti: Maria Stuarda

Soloists

Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna

Richard Bonynge

Don Pasquale is one of my favourite operas but other than that my knowledge of Donizetti is pretty patchy. Perhaps there is just so much to go at that it is all a bit overwhelming. 

I remember seeing the famous confrontation scene between Mary and Elizabeth (which of course didn’t happen in real life) on a TV broadcast years ago and I knew the prayer that Mary sings before her execution - other than that his was new piece for me.

There was a fair amount of rum-it-rum routine in the more vigorous sections of the opera - something one has to get used in Italian operas of this period of course - but the lyrical material is highly attractive - there are some wonderful moments throughout the score. The confrontation scene is dramatic but the final pages are probably the best  in the opera. The prayer is intensely moving and there is some heartbreaking music here - perhaps the very last moments are rather weak and hackneyed - composers of this period often didn’t quite know to end pieces.

So I was glad to have heard the opera. Whether it will lead to my exploring the rest of Donizetti’s output remains to be seen. 

Ricci: Crispino e la Comare

Opera  no 26

Ricci: Crispino e la Comare

Soloists

Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia

Jader Bignamini

This is a rare example of an opera by two composers. The Ricci brothers both had independent careers as opera composers but came together to write some works jointly.

I was aware of this opera but I had never heard it before. It is something of a romp. Some of the music is routine but it has charm and some energy - though it rarely pales in comparison to the Rossini in the previous entry in this project) and it was well worth listening to. There are some extended ensembles including a trio for the male characters which is highly amusing. I remember talking to the great Bonaventura Bottone (who sang with the Nottingham Opéra Group) about this trio. Early in his career he took part in a performance of the opera at the Wexford festival. In rehearsal they found this trio very long and rather dull and wanted to make cuts, but in fact on stage it turned out to be the hit of evening!

Apparently Luigi wrote all of the music in 3/4 and Federico the music in 2/4! I suppose that is one way of dividing up the responsibilities. Alas the brothers fell out badly and Luigi did not attend the premier! It will be interesting to listen to some of the opera which which they wrote as individuals. Some recordings of extracts are available.