Russian opera essentially came into being in the second quarter of the Nineteenth Century, the product of a surge in Russian nationalism. Because of this, it tends to deal with subjects that are less well known in the West, staged in a décor based on traditional court or peasant costumes and folk art.

Both productions we shall sample today are the work of stage director Dmitri Tcherniakov, who does not eschew traditional approaches so much as to put them in quotes, as it were, as reference points in his postmodern staging. So he can take the fairy-tale fantasy of Ruslan and Lyudmila (1841) by Mikhail Glinka (1804–57), and set its individual scenes in a bomb shelter, brothel, or penthouse apartment—or conversely take an historical opera such as The Tsar's Bride (1899) by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908), and set it in a hi-tech world that specializes in the creation of illusion.

Each presentation will include the final scene of the opera complete, plus enough preliminary material to put it into context. The class handout (links above) includes enough of a plot outline to make this clear. Because the director delivers quite a few surprises in his presentation, I would rather not give a preview as such, but listening to the overtures of the Glinka or Rimsky operas will give you a good idea of the flavor of the music. rb.

 
The good news is that both operas are available complete in good traditional Russian productions with English titles. The less good news is that the Dmitri Tcherniakov productions we watched may be seen only as trailers, although I give Amazon links for buying the DVD in each case. I also give links to the trailers of four other Rimsky-Korsakov operas in productions by Tcherniakov, plus two by other directors: the St. Petersburg Tsar Saltan is interesting as an example of a traditional fantasy production that really works, and the longer-than usual trailer for the Frankfurt Christmas Eve is interesting for the interviews with the director, Christof Loy, whose work we have seen in other classes.rb.

RUSLAN AND LYUDMILA
  Moscow 2011   Trailer (mostly items not heard in class!)
Buy DVD
  St. Petersburg 2003   First half (traditional production, with titles)
Second half (traditional production, with titles)
 
THE TSAR'S BRIDE
  Berlin 2013   Trailer
Lyubasha's Act I aria (not from the Met!)
Buy DVD
  Moscow 2018   Complete opera (with English titles)
 
OTHER RIMSKY TRAILERS
  Invisible City of Kiteszh   Amsterdam (Tcherniakov)
  Sadko   Moscow (Tcherniakov)
  Snow Maiden   Paris (Tcherniakov)
  Tale of Tsar Saltan   Brussels (Tcherniakov)
St. Petersburg (traditional, lots of color)
  Christmas Eve   Frankfurt (Christof Loy, extended trailer)

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