Russian Opera

Russian Opera

The seeds of a distinctively national art music in Russia are usually dated from the first half of the 19th century. The performance of the opera A Life for the Tsar (1836), by Mikhail GLINKA, is usually cited as the turning point for Russian music (Russia's national anthem is taken from this opera). In this historical opera, as well as in his subsequent opera Ruslan and Ludmila (1842), the orchestral fantasy Kamarinskaya (1848), and numerous songs, Glinka successfully fused the typical

melodies, harmonies, and rhythms of Russian folk music with the forms and techniques of Italian opera -- creating an eclectic but unmistakably national idiom. Glinka's younger contemporary, Alexander DARGOMYZHSKY, is best known for his

influence on subsequent nationalist composers through his posthumously produced opera The Stone Guest (1872), a radical

attempt to promote musical realism by abandoning the forms and conventions of traditional opera in favor of continuous

recitative.

The FIVE, or the Mighty Five, is the label given to a group of Russian composers that formed during the 1860s. Supported

by the influential critic Vladimir Stasov (1824-1906), the Five -- Mily BALAKIREV, Aleksandr BORODIN, Cesar

CUI,Modest MUSORGSKY, and Nikolai RIMSKY-KORSAKOV -- sought to legitimize the goals and achievements of

nationalistic music and to oppose the dominance of Western musical influences. Although linked by common propagandistic

aims and by the characteristic absence of formal musical education, the composers wrote in differing styles. The most lasting

musical achievements were made by Borodin, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov. Borodin is noted for his use of Russian

orientalisms in works such as In the Steppes of Ce...

... middle of paper ...

... (1983);

4.Seaman, Gerald, History of Russian Music, vol. 1 (1967);

5.Stasov, Vladimir, Selected Essays on Music, trans. by Florence Jonas (1968; repr. 1980).

Musical samples

Glinka

A Life for the Tsar. Aria of Ivan Susanin by Maxim Mikhailov

Tchaikovsky

Eugene Onegin:

Gremin's Aria by Mark Reizen (1948)

Lenski's Aria by Nikolay Gedda

Rimsky-Korsakov

Sadko:

Song of the Viking Guest by Feodor Shaliapin (1927)

Viking Song by Mark Reizen (1952)

Song of the Indian Guest by Ivan Kozlovsky

Song of the Venetian Gest by Pavel Lisitsian

Dargomizhsky

Mermaid. Miller's Aria by Maxim Mikhailov

Musorgsky

Khovanschina:

Marfa's Song by Nadezhda Obukhova (1948)

Marfa's Devination by Nadezhda Obukhova (1941)