Yes, it’s brand new to you, unless you are over 100 years old! Or, if you caught it in your travels abroad, most likely only in Russia. The Met last produced Alexander Borodin’s Prince Igor in 1917 and then showed it only 10 times between 1915 and 1917 -- always in Italian. We are now offered it in the actual house as well as at Live-at-the-Met-in-HD-at-the-Movies.
So it is a novel experience for most of us, presented in Russian with an almost solidly Russian cast. Of course, parts of it are very familiar because of the adaptation of some of the score for the musical Kismet, in 1953. Who hasn’t been exposed to “Stranger in Paradise” ad nauseam, or delightfully, to “The Polovtsian Dances.”
Was it worth the wait? I’d say yes to this quite exciting production by Dmitri Tcherniakov, who in collaboration with Gianandrea Noseda and composer Pavel Smelkov, uses newly discovered fragments to the unfinished Borodin score.
He was only a part-time composer, devoting his life to science, as a truly famous chemist and medical doctor. As a before-his-time feminist, he even co-founded a medical school for women. Hence, with such a busy life, it is totally understandable that he often abandoned compositions in an unfinished state.
Borodin was a member of the “Mighty Five,” a group of composers who rejected Western influences for native expression. The group included Rimsky-Korsakov and Mussorgsky, and it is they who initially edited some of his works, including Prince Igor.
Borodin (1833-1887) had a fascinating life. The illegitimate son of a Georgian nobleman, who impregnated a peasant serf girl on his estates, Borodin grew up a serf to his own father. (Shades of so many slaves in our country.)
How he became a chemist is not really clear to me, since he was not even entitled to be admitted to any school of higher learning. But he even studied in Heidelberg, where he met his Russian wife. He died at the age of 53, of a heart attack, while attending a ball.
He tackled the libretto for Prince Igor himself, basing it on a scenario by Vladimir Stasov, which dealt with the epic “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” by an anonymous author.
The lengthy opera is in three acts with a prologue, which sets the stage for the psychologically complicated plot:
Igor plans a military campaign with his son Vladimir, to fight the Polovtsians who have threatened the city of Putivl in 1185. An unexpected solar eclipse is taken as a bad omen, but Igor persists, over the objection of his wife Yaroslavna, and a group of boyars. Two cowardly soldiers go, what nowadays is referred to as AWOL
Act 1 shows the battle is lost. Igor is the prisoner of the Polovtsian chief, Khan Konchak, who offers friendship to his tormented and hallucinating captive. In a sub-plot, the Khan’s daughter, Konchakovna, has fallen in love with Vladimir.
Act 2 has trouble at the home front. A frantic Yaroslavna is threatened by her villainous brother Galitsky, who means to replace Igor. In passing he has abducted a village maiden (guess what for!) Boyars inform Yaroslavna of Igor’s defeat. In the ensuing panic Galitsky is killed.
Act 3 shows Putivl has been destroyed. Igor returns, having escaped, but is haunted by torturous visions. (Shades of Oreste’s “Furies?” There may be nothing new under the mythical sun.) The aforementioned cowardly soldiers want to save their hides by being the first to announce Igor’s safe return. He interrupts their elation, taking the blame for the city’s destruction and with his actions starts everyone off in rebuilding their broken lives.
Since I am neither over 100 years old, nor have caught the opera in my trips to Europe, and somehow missed it when the City Opera performed it NY, Prince Igor was a new experience for me. It seems that is the same for 99% of the HD audience in Westchester.
Certainly not in a league with Boris Godunov, but loaded with persuasive melodic beauty, it identifies itself immediately with the rhythmic power so readily associated with Russian music. And, of course, with the effective use of the chorus.
Here, the Met’s over 100 chorus members deserve tremendous praise. Their sound was splendid and evidently they managed the Russian language extremely well. It was explained that the score involves little repetition, (is what we call “through music”,) which meant there was a huge amount of Russian to be learned.
And total praise must be allotted to the almost solid Slavic cast. Some are tested Met veterans, others made auspicious debuts.
The part of Igor was in the charismatic hands and vocal chords of the Russian Bass Ildar Abdrazakov. His performance was striking, both on the musical and thespian levels. Since the direction stresses a psychological approach this is not so easy when you know you are in constant close-ups from the HD cameras, yet need to show bodily reactions for the audience in the Family Circle!
The Ukrainian soprano, Oksana Dyka, made her Met debut as Yaroslavna, Igor’s loving, forever worried wife. She has a beautiful sound and handled her demanding role with dignity and polish.
The over-the-top passionate part of Konchakovna, who seduces Vladimir, was sensually performed by the mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili, who hails from the Republic of Georgia.
Stefan Kocan, the Slovakian bass who made his Met debut in 2009, sang the enigmatic Khan Konshak very persuasively.
The Russian bass, Mikhail Petrenko, performed the villainous Prince Galitsky with all the slimy gusto needed. He has portrayed scoundrels at the Met before, as Sparafucile in Rigoletto and Hunding in Die Walkuere.
The role of Vladimir was debuted quite successfully by Russia’s tenor Sergey Semishkur.
As usual the Met’s grand orchestra performed splendidly, here under the able baton of Italy’s Gianandrea Noseda, who was so important to the total creation of this Prince Igor.
Host for the HD transmission was Eric Owens. The cast interviews with the assistance of interpreters proved most entertaining. (His famous mellifluous speaking voice alone would have made them mesmerizing.) One of the additional intermission features has Peter Gelb in an enlightening discussion about the production.
The use of black-and-white projections, to show the cruelty of battle, was an ingenious and potent way to portray the effects on Igor’s psychological status.
Frankly I was not at all impressed by the choreography for the familiar Polovtsian Dances.
But all in all, this was an operatic experience not to be missed.
In “Tickets for the Opera” by author Phil G. Goulding, Borodin is quoted as having said: “Prince Igor is essentially a nationalist opera which can be of interest only to us Russians who like to refresh ourselves at the fountainhead of our history, and see the origins of our nationality revived upon the stage.”
He definitely was shortchanging himself. Everyone can enjoy this opera – especially when performed by the cast the Met offered this time ‘round!
The encore will take place on Wednesday, March 5th, 2014, at the WP CityCenter and NewRock in NR, at 6:30 PM.
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Here are some impressions from some of your neighbors:
When leaving the movie theater I queried a few people and got responses such as: “I thought it was wonderful.” When I asked the respondent whether he had seen Prince Igor before, he answered: “No, but I rarely fail to like an opera. I am such a lover of opera.”
A woman explained that she found it a bit static and did not appreciate that it was four-and-a-half hours long. Another informed me that she loved "every minute of it."
Rita Kaplan of New Rochelle, an extremely well-informed opera buff, turned out to have seen Prince Igor when it was done at NYC Opera—about 50 years ago. She much preferred that production, especially remembering that the famed ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev performed the Polovstian Dances. “This time the dancing was ridiculous,” she said, “but I did find the 3rd Act very effective and moving.” She felt the real star of the opera was the chorus.
Harriet Berger of Crestwood, another definite opera “oficionada,” thought “the choreography was unfortunate. It almost made a mockery of the music.” She minded the black-and-white projections of the dying, as being “too gloomy,” but thought the singing was superb. “Just hearing the performances of Igor and Vladimir, would have made the opera worth coming to. She found the ending “poignant, beautiful and a perfect way of conveying hope and the lifting of spirit.”
