Glinka belonged to,
or rather founded, the Russian national
school of opera. He was also the first
Russian composer who set Russian music
on the European musical map. He travelled
widely in Europe, met both Bellini and
Donizetti in Milan and it is possible
to hear an influence from them in this,
the first of his two operas. There are
several arias that have a typical Italian
bel canto cantilena. He was also
influenced by Rossini; vocally if not
dramatically. Sobinin’s part seems modelled
after Arnold in Guillaume Tell
with its extremely high-lying tessitura
and need for power and brilliance. Still
it is the Russian element that dominates
this score, not least in the important
choral parts. It’s also characteristic
of much of the Russian operatic legacy
that the chorus, the Russian people,
play such an important part. He might
have learnt something from Rossini,
Guillaume Tell again, but essentially
the patriotic feeling paired with an
easily recognizable Russian tone was
his pioneering contribution to Russian
music. This element became part and
parcel of the Russian operatic tradition,
witness the operas of Mussorgsky, Borodin
and Rimsky-Korsakov.
Premiered in 1836,
Ivan Susanin was an immediate
success. When before the first performance
Glinka changed the title to A Life
for the Tsar the Tsar also took
it to his heart (not surprisingly) and
accepted Glinka’s dedication. During
the Soviet regime the subject of the
opera was not comme-il-faut but
since it was regarded as a kind of national
opera the text was revised, on Stalin’s
initiative, eliminating all the references
to the Romanov dynasty. With the original
title restored it was played again at
the Bolshoi in 1939. The revision also
meant that parts of the score were removed
altogether. Thus in this recording Sobinin’s
act 4 aria is missing as well as the
coronation scene in the epilogue. This
means that the abridged epilogue is
less than seven minutes long, consisting
of the agitated orchestral Entr’acte
and the triumphant final chorus with
church bells. These two extracts were
separately recorded three years after
the main work.
The action takes place
in a village near Moscow and in a Polish
army camp in 1613. In the first act
Ivan Susanin, a peasant, brings the
news that the Polish invaders are marching
towards Moscow. This causes general
alarm. His son-in-law to be, the soldier
Sobinin, comes home and reports that
the Polish forces have been defeated
and a new Tsar elected. This also means
that now Sobinin and Antonida can be
married. In act two a big ball is held
in the Polish camp. The officers learn
that a new Tsar is to be crowned and
plan to kidnap him. In the third act,
while the village people sing patriotic
songs about Russia’s victory and Susanin
is planning his daughter’s wedding,
Polish soldiers arrive and try to force
Susanin to show them where the future
Tsar is hidden. He agrees but decides
to lead them astray and sends his foster-son
Vanya to warn the young Tsar. In the
fourth act the soldiers realise that
Susanin has fooled them and he is killed.
The epilogue takes place in Moscow,
in Red Square, where the people rejoice
in the salvation of the Tsar and mourn
Susanin as a hero. Finally the Tsar
arrives and is crowned.
The present set was
recorded just after the war. Considering
the age of the recording the sound is
quite good with the brass ringing out
impressively. Under the experienced
Melik-Pashayev the orchestral and choral
forces deliver a lively and incisive
performance. The chorus as usual sounds
very Russian with a big but rather unsubtle
sound, where the higher voices are produced
with a great deal of vibrato and the
typically astringent tone; OK, it is
sometimes rather unattractively shrill
to modern Western ears. However it does
give a strong feel of authenticity and
the chorus sings with feeling and insight.
Both the chorus and the orchestra suffer
from constricted sound and act 2 - mainly
a series of lively Polish dances - however
well played, becomes something of a
trial. This music, superbly orchestrated,
cries out for stereo and a wider dynamic
range.
The solo voices fare
much better but there have to be some
reservations concerning the quality
of some of the singing. Antonida, Ivan
Susanin’s daughter, is sung by Natalia
Spiller, who has a strong, steady lyric-dramatic
soprano. She has a fine legato and phrases
nobly with a fine sense of the ebb and
flow of each musical phrase. The actual
sound is a different matter: it is unattractive
– shrill and grating on the ear in a
typical Slavonic manner. By contrast
today’s Russian and other East European
singers belong more or less to the same
school as the rest of the operatic world.
One gets used to the penetrating sound
but only reluctantly will I replay her
solos. Going to the Appendix we hear
the legendary Antonina Nezhdanova in
Antonida’s fourth act Romance.
Through the swish of the almost century-old
recording we hear the real thing: a
lyrical voice of great beauty and lightness,
glittering and warm and with exquisite
pin-point high notes. She was a noted
Queen of the Night and was greatly admired
by Rachmaninov who wrote several songs
for her, among them the celebrated Vocalise.
The title role is sung
by Maxim Mikhailov, a true bass with
much of the character of some other
Russians: firm, sonorous, with great
warmth and good low notes. He is also
a superb actor. He was well past fifty
when the recording was made but apart
from some wooliness in the upper part
of the register it’s a well-preserved
voice. Having reputedly sung the part
more than four hundred times he had
been able to dig deep into this character.
Being born into a peasant family he
probably also could more readily identify
with the role than singers from other
backgrounds. He is deeply moving in
the third act when the Polish soldiers
appear, searching for the new Tsar and
Susanin decides to pretend to show them
the way but in reality lead them astray.
This is the dramatic turning point in
the opera when the rural idyll is shattered
and Susanin deep inside knows that he
will not come back. In the fourth act,
when he has lead the Polish soldiers
astray, he sings his aria "They
sense the truth" (CD 3 track
4) and the following scene with great
involvement. This is a great portrait
of a role that could be regarded as
the equivalent of Boris Godunov in importance.
Some commentators claim that it is in
fact more central than Boris as a representative
of the people. In the Appendix we here
a glimpse of another contemporaneous
bass – and also a great Susanin – Mark
Reizen. They are quite similar in voice
and approach to the role, Reizen possibly
even more rhythmically incisive with
amazingly clear runs and an almost tenoral
top. And there is also the master among
masters: Chaliapin, in Susanin’s fourth
act aria – an even sharper-etched reading,
more baritonal but also more sonorous
in the lower register than Mikhailov.
I can’t remember a single recording
by Chaliapin, especially not in Russian
repertoire, where he isn’t 100% involved.
Here he applies an extra lachrymose
timbre, not exactly sobbing in the Gigli
manner but one can almost see tears
in his eyes. My first recording of this
scene, with Kim Borg back in the sixties,
is probably unsurpassed for beautiful
vocalizing but he never goes quite as
deep under the skin of the character.
Chaliapin, by the way, sings not only
the aria proper but also the following
recitative – or arioso rather, although
this is not indicated in the track list.
Mikhailov’s is, however, a deeply felt
performance and he brings out all the
joy, warmth, despair and sorrow that
afflicts Susanin during the course of
the opera.
The most well-known
singer in the cast is probably the tenor
Georgi Nelepp, who possesses a brilliant
voice and encompasses the part admirably.
It’s a difficult part which requires
dramatic power and the ability
to toss off cascades of ringing high
notes. What he doesn’t possess is warmth.
His forte notes are painfully metallic
and when, as on CD1 track 5 he momentarily
keeps the voice in check and produces
legato singing in mezzo-forte, the tone
becomes fluttery. Sobinin’s act 4 aria
is not included in this recording, but
in the Appendix it is sung, in German,
by the fearless Helge Rosvaenge. He
also has punch and gleaming high notes
in abundance but produces much more
agreeable sounds and a lovely honeyed
mezza voce that Nelepp can’t muster.
It is difficult to imagine this aria
better done and with such fine nuance,
even though the young Nicolai Gedda,
who recorded it in 1957, runs him close
... and he sings it in Russian. In recent
years Janiz Lotric and Vladimir Grishko,
both on Naxos, have included the aria
in recital discs but they can’t challenge
the two Nordic singers; Rosvaenge was
born in Denmark, although he spent most
of his career in Germany and Austria.
The fourth central
character, Vanya, Susanin’s foster-son,
is a trouser-role, needing a mezzo-soprano
with a good low register, or a contralto,
which Yelizaveta Antonova most certainly
is. We first meet her/him in the third
act in a long scene with Susanin. He/she
introduces him/herself with possibly
the most well-known melody in the opera,
also heard in the overture. She has
a fruity, vibrant voice, sometimes over-vibrant,
but produced with ease and in long unbroken
phrases. The problem with most women
singing male roles is that they seldom
sound like young men and in particular
this young man could never be mistaken
for anything other than a rather matronly
middle-aged woman. This problem is aptly
illustrated in the Appendix, where I.N.
Sokolova sings in the same duet. She
has a somewhat lighter voice than Antonova
and doesn’t sound as matronly, but it
is still a feminine voice we hear. In
the Appendix we also hear Evgeniya Zbruyeva,
recorded in 1913. She is, by some distance,
the best Vanya of the three, but not
even she can hide that she is a woman.
Her more restrained vibrato contributes,
however, to create an image of a younger
person. This, to some extent, is contradicted
by excessive scooping and foghorn hooting
on the highest notes, which was typical
for the period; just listen to Ernestine
Schumann-Heink.
In the minor roles
it is interesting to find the bass Fyodor
Svetlanov, father of Evgeny Svetlanov,
the great conductor who also worked
at the Bolshoi as music director.
I notice that I’m writing
almost more about the appendix than
the opera proper but there is so much
to savour there, especially Rosvaenge
and the unparalleled Chaliapin. Is it
worth buying a three-disc set for the
appendix alone? Well, there are other
reasons, too. The first of these is
to hear this epoch-making opera, although
truncated according to Soviet aesthetics,
in a Soviet recording from Stalin’s
days, with a house-cast of well-versed
singers. In addition, for good or ill,
there are authentic sounding orchestral
and choral contributions under one of
the most experienced of Soviet opera
conductors. Among the soloists Maxim
Mikhailov in the important title role,
stands out and his well-rounded portrait
of Ivan Susanin, both vocally and dramatically
is more than worth the price. However,
for better sonics, which doesn’t mask
too much of the brilliant orchestration,
for a choral sound that is easier on
the ear and possibly for better interpretations
of some of the major parts one has to
look elsewhere. The problem is that
there is not much to find in the catalogues
at present. On www.amazon.com
I couldn’t find a single entry on Glinka
in the opera department – on CDs, that
is. On DVD there is a recently released
Bolshoi set, recorded in 1992, with
a star line-up: Nesterenko, Mescheriakova,
Zaremba and Lomonosov as Sobinin and
with Lazarev conducting. I haven’t seen
or heard it but have read a couple of
positive reviews. Long ago there was
a Decca set, recorded back in the late
1950s under Oscar Danon and with the
imposing bass Miro Changalovich in the
title part, while Sony recorded the
opera in the early 1990s in Sofia, conducted
by Tchakarov and with Boris Martinovich,
Chris Merritt, Alexandrina Pendachanska,
and Stefania Toczyska. Finally there
seems to exist a, possibly, live RAI
recording from Milan, conducted by Simonetto
and with Boris Christoff, Virginia Zeani
and Giuseppe Campora on GOP.
I would suggest readers
go for the new DVD but the Naxos reissue
also has its attractions but the drawbacks
I have tried to delineate need to be
borne in mind.
Göran Forsling
Chorus and orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre,
Moscow/Alexander Melik-Pashayev (Acts 1 – 4),
Vasili Nebolsin (Epilogue) 
