"Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth," Jesus is reported
to have said in St Luke's Gospel. One must certainly render expressions of
joy to Melodiya for their presentation of this opera, the last that
Prokofiev wrote. In the past two years I have persisted in bemoaning the
cheese-paringly inadequate documentation supplied by Melodiya in their
reissues of rare and often unique Russian operas. Here at last is a serious
attempt to address at least some of those concerns. We have an adequate and
fairly detailed (although uncued) synopsis of the plot, a cast list which
gives us the full names of the singers concerned, and a booklet note which
at least avoids some of the grosser mistranslations found in earlier issues
even if it is not always idiomatic - "deliriates on a hospital bed" sounds
inelegant at best. All we need now is the provision of complete texts and
translations, and our rejoicing would be complete - the text was provided
with the LP release of this performance issued in 1976. I just hope, to
provide a completely different metaphor, that this is not a case of "one
swallow doesn't make a summer" and the improved standards of presentation
will be maintained in future issues.
Rejoicing is all the more due because this reissue enshrines the only
complete recording ever made of The story of a real man. The opera was given
one performance only during Prokofiev's lifetime, and then disappeared
altogether from the repertory until the Bolshoi revival of 1961 which formed
the basis for this recording. The booklet tells us that this revival
incorporated some revisions both of the text and music of the opera, but
fails to let us know whether these were approved by the composer or whether
they were well-meaning attempts to make the subject more palatable to the
Soviet authorities; this was, after all, the era when the Soviet National
Anthem was substituted for the Tsarist one in some Russian performances of
Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. Reviewing an earlier CD release of this
performance on Chandos (which included both text and translation) for BBC
Music Magazine in January 2003 David Nice noted that "much of the original
score is missing" so it seems that the edition employed here may not be as
complete as one would wish; David Fanning, reviewing the same reissue for
Gramophone in the same month stated that "there are numerous small internal
cuts and a few larger ones involving minor characters; both the bright and
breezy overture and the rather feeble concluding number are here replaced by
more conventionally uplifting music, taken from the third entr'acte in Act
One." While
Rob Barnett for this site observed that "on the debit side this
recording is not the full opera but a version with significant cuts and with
scenes rearranged" the
Penguin Guide for 2003 more tolerantly
described the cutting as "judicious". What we really need is a good modern
recording of the complete opera as Prokofiev originally wrote it, but we
need not hold our collective breath unless Gergiev can oblige; an issue to
commemorate Prokofiev's centenary in 2004 anticipated by David Nice never
materialised.
As it is, we should be grateful for the reissue of this performance
despite its apparent disregard for the composer's original intentions. This
is all the more the case since the casting, including many of the Bolshoi's
most eminent soloists, is so good. In his review of the Chandos issue for
this site Rob Barnett discussed the plot at length, and I do not propose to
repeat this material here; but the score is not simply the piece of Soviet
nationalist propaganda that is often described, having - as one would expect
from Prokofiev - many moments of arresting beauty and drama. There are
indeed sections of the score which match for inspiration the film score for
Ivan the Terrible written at much the same time. Some of the
criticisms made by others have focused on the lack of sustained inspiration,
attributing this to the composer's weariness and despair in the face of
persistent official disapprobation. It is true that the impression conveyed
here is often somewhat bitty, moving too rapidly from one idea to another
without any sense of musical development; but at the same time it is far
from clear whether this is the fault of Prokofiev or of the cut edition
employed here.
The performance does everything that can be done for the score. The young
Mark Ermler in one of his first recordings is clearly fully committed to the
opera, and he obtains splendid playing from his cast and orchestra. The cast
is stellar, including singers of the stature of Artur Eizen and Alexei
Maslennikov in comparatively small roles; there are a fair number of
Slavonic wobbles on display, but these are to be expected in Russian
performances of this period, and none of them are particularly
objectionable. As also is to be expected in Russian recordings at this time,
the heavily engineered sound brings the voices too far forward in the
balance, but the orchestra remains well in the picture; and although the
result still sounds artificial, this too is acceptable in view of the
historic importance of this issue. I have not been able to compare the
quality of the transfer in this release with that obtained by Chandos in
2003, but the recording is described here as "re-mastered" from the original
tapes.
Those who already have the Chandos release, with its text and translation
into four languages, will not need to replace it; those who have not should
seek to make the acquaintance of a far from negligible score. I just hope
that Melodiya's newly acquired standards of presentation will be maintained.
In the meantime we may possibly be able to take comfort from the fact that
persistent adverse comments may have persuaded the company to provide a
better service. It may indeed be possible that, contrary to the opinions of
some correspondents, critics have their uses after all.
Paul Corfield Godfrey
