Fomin: The coachman at the horse stage post

 Opera 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.