Semyon
Kotko was the fifth of Prokofiev's eight operas and the first
specifically written for the Soviet stage. When he wrote this
work it was within the three years after his return to the Soviet
Union after years in France and the U.S.A. He still had something
to prove.
The
conductor of the present recording is Mikhail Zhukov who conducted
the premiere at Moscow's Stanislavsky Theatre on 23 June 1940.
The production had started off in the hands of Vsevolod Meyerhold
but he 'disappeared' while the production was in hand (and was
executed in 1940). Serafima Birman took his place.
Prokofiev's
timing was, in any event, far from perfect. At that point the
Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact was in place. Portraying
Germans as the enemy was not going to be acceptable. The invaders
became Austrians in that first production. It is strange that,
when Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa and invaded the USSR
in 1940, Prokofiev's lyrical opera was not embraced with fervent
enthusiasm. Regardless, the opera fell from favour ... and fell
deep. It resurfaced only in 1958 in Brno (the scene of the first
performance of Romeo and Juliet in 1938). and appeared
two years later in the studio for this Moscow-based Melodiya production.
There was a Bolshoi stage production in 1970. There have been
other productions since including several celebrated revivals
conducted to Sergei Gergiev.
The
plot essentially deals with Kotko the hero returned to his village
from the Great War. He is to be married to Sofya to whom he declared
himself before he left for the fighting. Now the way is surely
clear for their marriage? Sofya's father, the collaborator, Tkachenko
is set against the match and forbids it even in the face of a
formal match-making ceremony. Tkachenko expects to be able to
make a better match after the Bolsheviks have been thrown out
of power.
The
arrival of German soldiers to requisition supplies causes resentment
in the village and using a ruse the soldiers are disarmed
and sent packing. Of course the Germans return with their Haydamak
allies to punish the villagers. They make an example by summarily
hanging Tsaryov and Ivasenko. Tkachenko hands over a list of prime
suspects for elimination and, of course, Kotko's name is at the
head. The Kotko's house is razed to the ground. Semyon takes refuge
in the woods with the other Soviet partisans (this work might
make a fascinating mini-season with Inglis Gundry's contemporary
opera The Partisans). One of Tkachenko's workmen referred
to as Staff Captain Klembovsky is to be married to Sofya instead.
An
order arrives from Red Army HQ that the partisans must attack
the Haydamak centre of operations in the village. At the start
of Act V preparations are in hand for the forced wedding of Sofya
and Klembovsky. They enter the church. Semyon alone rushes in
calling on Sofya to lie down as he throws a grenade. Klembovsky,
Von Wierhof and Tkachenko are all injured in the explosion but
alive. Semyon is arrested and is sentenced to death. Tkachenko
has the pleasure of presiding over the execution but the Red Army
is advancing and drives the invaders from the village. Remeniuk
captures the villain Tkachenko who is led off to execution. Kotko
and Sofya are blissfully reunited. The villagers join in a paean
to celebrate the liberated Ukraine.
The
Chandos booklet runs to 124 pages mostly occupied by the side-by-side
libretto in two columns per page - English on the left; Cyrillic
(unfortunately not transliterated Russian) on the right. Each
scene is given a timing and page number in the meticulous track-listing
on pages 4-9. There are four photographic plates from a latter-day
Bolshoi production of Semyon - several might well be from
the 1970 Bolshoi run.
All
credit to Chandos and their integrity in declaring, on the outside
of the package, that this is a mono recording from 1960. There
should be an industry award for such consumer-orientated frankness;
a narrow commercial view might have resulted in the usual 'tactful'
non-disclosure.
At
the masthead of the front cover we are addressed with the words
'Chandos Historical Opera' so there should be no surprises. However
this is not, by any stretch of the imagination, primitive or crude
sound. Unsophisticated it may be but it is usually sturdy as a
pit pony and honest as the day is long. In fact it is in general
a pleasure to hear.
Technically
the Chandos lab staff have made the tapes sound as good as they
possibly can. Of course the sound is in mono and is analogue yet
hiss has been practically eliminated. Technical flim-flam, apart
from a discreetly displayed 24bit symbol, is absent. We are told
who the transfer engineer is but not treated to a dissertation
on what was done to produce the generally very solid and sweet
or tangy sound. This time I would have appreciated knowing something
about what was done. Was the lab working with LPs or original
Soviet tapes. Whatever necromancy has been worked the results
are splendidly secure. A good demonstration track is tr.1 on CD2
and special note should be taken of the orchestral episode right
at the end of scene 10. Here you can hear the nicely conjured
dynamic contrasts - all very subtly executed by the USSR Radio
Symphony.
On
CD2 the burnished eloquent duet (tr.4) between the serenading
Semyon and the fiery Sofya takes us close to the Eugene Onegin
stage music and Romeo and Juliet. The orchestral writing
in Act III is a world treasure. The great love melody runs into
tr 5. and weaves its way through the whole of the Act. The grand
clashing chorus pound out with motoric punctuation at end of CD2
as Sofya and Lyubka call out against the injustice of the hangings
of Tsaryov and Ivasenko by the Germans and their allies the Ukrainian
Haydamaks. The 'engine pounding' of the music (CD2 tr.16) well
captures the temple-pounding despair and hysteria. It operates
as if one of Borodin's Polovtsian choruses had been gripped by
a malign intelligence and deprived of all pliancy of rhythm and
melodic life. Detail a after detail registers effectively in
this mosaic of an opera. At CD2 tr. 12 the little agogic pauses
before each phrase is echoed between voice and orchestra.
Semyon's
glorious ringing tone is another highlight of the set though with
a hint of emery paper in the edge of his voice (CD2 tr.13). Contrary
to Slavonic cliché only one male voice is afflicted with
'wobble'; otherwise the cast are secure in vocal production. While
the sound is intrinsically strong and stable there is an occasional
and infrequent a rawness under pressure. This can be heard in
the massed choir at tr. 3 CD3 at the start. The work loses some
of its originality towards the end and the final chorus (CD3 tr.12)
is not the emotive pay-off it might have been. That said this
is a work well worth discovering.
The
competition is in stereo. Gergiev recorded what must be a cut
version of the opera in 2000. His recording on Philips 464 605-2
plays for only 136.46 as opposed to Zhukov's 182.45. Looking at
the timings for each scene the difference is accounted for by
many small cuts here and there. The Chandos version gives us far
more of Prokofiev's music than Gergiev. From that vantage point
the Chandos is essential listening for fans of Prokofiev as well
as for collectors of authentic Soviet recordings.
Chandos
will want to play their cards close to their chests but in the
delta where nostalgia and the appreciation of full-blooded music-making
meet there are many listeners who await their next ex-Soviet release
with excited anticipation. Whatever next - The Gambler,
Love in a Monastery, or a complete Rimsky-Korsakov opera
series. Now if only Chandos were able to get hold of Ostankino
radio tapes of Ivan Dzerzhinsky's Sholokhov-based operas ...!
More please.
Chandos
here cater to a small but developing market in their second historic
release from Melodiya or Mezhdunarodnaya Kniga sources. This highly
attractive opera is given with superb voices and with orchestral
imagination. It is also a most vigorous and emotionally telling
tribute in this the year (2003) of the half-centenary of Prokofiev's
death.
Rob
Barnett
Libretto by Sergei Prokofiev
and Valentin Katayev