The Russian Mood Volume 2

By James Vendeland

The Russian Mood volume 2, as expressed in the operas of the 19th and 20th centuries, is an anthology of original English translations by Elena Levin and James L. Vendeland. Included are the translations of the librettos of 4 Russian operas. The operas are: Modest Mussorgsky's Sorochinsky Fair, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's May Night, and The Tale of Tsar Saltan, and Yuri Shaporin's The Decembrists. Hyperlinks following each libretto will connect the reader to you tube sites where excerpts of the operas can be heard.

• Language: English
• Publisher: James Vendeland
• Release date: Nov 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301209675

James Vendeland

Jim Vendeland is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. For 35 years he practiced ophthalmology in Cleveland, Ohio and has been studying Russian for 20 years. For several years Jim and his teacher and coauthor Elena Levin, have translated a wide variety of Russian poems, opera librettos, musical romances, and prose into English. He is also an opera fanatic, a collector of rare medical eye instruments, and former president of the Ocular Heritage Society. Jim is married and has 3 children and 5 grandchildren.

Book preview

THE RUSSIAN MOOD

AS EXPRESSED IN OPERAS OF THE

19TH AND 20TH CENTURIES

VOLUME II

An Anthology of Original English Translations

By

Elena Levin and James L. Vendeland

.

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012 Elena and James L. Vendeland

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of these authors.

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THIS ANTHOLOGY IS DEDICATED TO OUR SPOUSES AND TO BOTH PRESENT AND FUTURE LOVERS OF RUSSIAN OPERA

The painting on the front cover of this book is by the artist Valentin Serov (1865-1911).

This portrait is of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908). He is regarded as one of the great Russian orchestrators and opera composers. Two of the four operas presented in this volume were composed by him.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Acknowledgements

MODEST MUSSORGSKY

*Sorochinsky Fair: Composer and librettist: Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881), Opera libretto

Hyperlinks

NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV

*May Night: Composer and librettist: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908), Opera libretto

Hyperlinks: Hyperlinks are provided which connect these operas to you tube sites where excerpts of them can be heard.

VLADIMIR BELSKIY

*Tale Of Tsar Saltan: Librettist: Vladimir Belskiy (1866—1946), Composer: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908), Opera libretto

Hyperlinks: Hyperlinks are provided which connect these operas to you tube sites where excerpts of them can be heard.

YURI SHAPORIN

ALEKSEY TOLSTOY

VSEVOLOD ROZHDESTVENSKY

*The Decembrists: Composer: Yuri Shaporin (1887-1966), Librettist: Aleksey Tolstoy (1883-1945), Librettist: Vsevolod Rozhdestvensky (1895-1977), Opera libretto

Hyperlinks: Hyperlinks are provided which connect these operas to you tube sites where excerpts of them can be heard.

About the Authors

End Notes

INTRODUCTION

OR

WHY WE WROTE THIS BOOK!!

Let me begin by giving the reader some background information about myself and my co-author Elena Levin. At the present time I am a retired physician who has been a student of Russian for many years. By this I mean that I have had formal lessons with my tutor, friend, and co-author Elena on a weekly basis for twenty years! Thanks to Elena, I have acquired much knowledge of Russian poetry, prose, opera librettos, Russian music, and Russian culture.

Initially I wanted to learn Russian because as a practicing ophthalmologist in Cleveland, Ohio I was beginning to see Russian émigrés, who at that time had obtained permission to leave the Soviet Union. When they arrived at my office, very few of them over the age of fifty spoke English. Often they were unaccompanied by their English speaking children or a translator. I knew that if I were to treat these patients, I had to learn Russian. I found Elena by chance when she accompanied her mother to my office for an eye exam. Upon hearing of my predicament, Elena offered to become my tutor. She is very knowledgeable, speaks English fluently, and has worked as both a Russian translator and interpreter for well over twenty years after emigrating from Russia. She also had been a translator in the Soviet Union for many years. I accepted her offer and thus our collaboration, studies, and friendship began. This relationship has endured for twenty years! The first years were devoted to teaching me basic Russian so that I could communicate with my Russian patients. I recorded each weekly hour long lesson. During the rest of the week I listened to the recording and did homework assignments. We found that translating short poems and lyrics of Russian romances (art songs) was an excellent way for me to learn the language and be exposed to Russian culture. As I progressed, we branched out into translating longer works from Russian into English. These works included a number of Russian opera librettos. I have been highly motivated by these studies and have collected the recorded music of many of these rarely performed Russian operas and songs.

And now I would like to comment on why we selected the specific Russian operas to include in this volume. All four operas are virtually unknown to English speaking audiences but were very familiar to Russian listeners at the time they were created.

The libretto for Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan was written by Vladimir Belskiy and is based upon a poem by Alexander Pushkin. The libretto is in rhyming verse just as the original Russian text. Belskiy carefully followed Pushkin’s poem and only made minor changes in the story line. We have endeavored to maintain the rhyme and rhythm of the original text in our English translation. Aleksey Tolstoy’s libretto for Shaporin’s opera The Decembrists, Rimsky-Korsakov’s libretto for his opera May Night, and Mussorgsky’s libretto for his opera Sorochinsky Fair have not been translated in rhyme form in keeping with the structure of the original Russian text. We believe that after reading these librettos in English and listening to the arias, choruses, and overtures in Russian, the reader/listener will have a greater appreciation of these works. Therefore, we have provided hyperlinks at the conclusion of each opera libretto in this volume. These links will direct readers to you tube sites where they can listen to samples of these operas sung in their original language.

The first reference which we drew upon in writing the biographies for this book was Wikipedia. Then other sources confirmed this information. Our list of references includes the following:

Abraham, Gerald (New York, 1986). The New Grove Russian Masters 2. W.W. Norton & Company

Calvocoressi, M.D. (London, 1978). Mussorgsky. J.W. Dent and Sons LTD.

Recommended recordings

Sorochinsky Fair: composer—Modest Moussorgsky, soloists, chorus, and orchestra of Yekaterinburg State Academic Opera Theatre of Russia, conductor—Yevgeniy Brazhnik, recorded June-July 1996, URAL 2 compact discs.

May Night: composer—Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio,—conductor—Vladimir Fedosseyev, recorded in 1976, Relief CR 991044, 2 compact discs.

May Night: composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, soloists, dancers, chorus, actors, and orchestra of the Stansilavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre,—conductor—Felix Korobov, recorded March 9, 2008, VAI 4510, 1 dvd.

The Tale of Tsar Saltan: composer—Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, chorus and orchestra of the Bolshoi, Moscow, conductor—Vassili Niebolssine, recorded circa 1953-1954, LYS 512-513, 2 compact discs.

The Decembrists: composer—Yuri Shaporin, chorus and orchestra of the Bolshoi, Moscow, conductor—A.S. Melik-Pashaev, recorded in 1953, Preiser Records MONO 90574, 2 compact discs.

Drawing upon material which we had translated over the course of several years, we began. Others with more knowledgeable in the publishing field recommended that we consider a collection of translations from Russian works, an anthology, rather than just one or two long poems or opera librettos. We have divided this anthology into two volumes which we have entitled The Russian Mood. Volume I is devoted to the translation of Russian poetry and Volume II to four Russian opera librettos. To you the reader we offer a sampling from works of some of the greatest Russian poets, composers, and librettists of the past two centuries.

Cleveland, September 2012

j.v.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors want to thank Amanda Eckertson, our graphic design artist who spent a great deal of time and effort into the creation of this book cover.

MODEST MUSSORGSKY

Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881) was born in the town of Karevo, Russia to a wealthy land-owning family. At age 13 Mussorgsky was enrolled in the Cadet School of the Guards in Saint Petersburg. Later he studied piano and composition and became a member of the Mighty Five. This was a group of talented musicians which consisted of Balakirev, Cui, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, and Mussorgsky. Balakirev was their leader. The purpose of this group was to create music that would be identifiable as Russian in origin and would be different from music of mainstream Europe. This endeavor would encompass Russian folksongs, instrumental, opera, vocal and symphonic works.

Among his compositions, Mussorgsky is best known for his piano/symphonic composition Pictures at an Exhibition, his song cycles, and his operas Boris Godunov (regarded by many as the greatest of Russian operas) and Khovanshchina.

His opera Sorochinsky Fair is a comic opera in contrast to Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina which are both tragedies based on true events in Russian history. Mussorgsky was both the composer and librettist for Sorochinsky Fair which is based on a folktale by Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852). Mussorgsky died at age 42 as a result of alcoholism before he was able to complete this opera. It was subsequently finished by a number of Russian composers and editors.

The opera Sorochinsky Fair is divided into three Acts. It deals with the love of Gritsko, a peasant and the Cossack Cherevik’s daughter Parasya. Parasya’s step-mother wants to break up the lovers. Gritsko makes a bargain with a Gypsy who promises him that he will wed Parasya. There are superstitions among the town folk about the Devil returning to town with a pig’s face to reclaim his lost red jacket. Much havoc occurs as well as the famous dream sequence in which Gritsko observes a witches’ Sabbath on Bare Mountain.

SOROCHINSKY FAIR

Comic Opera in 3 Acts

Libretto by the composer based on the same name novel by N.V. Gogol

Mussorgsky’s last opera Sorochinsky Fair was left unfinished. Attempts to complete it were undertaken by A. Lyadov and V. Karatygin, and after that by U. Saknovsky (staged in Moscow 1913, 1925), and by C. Cui (Petrograd 1917), N. Cherepnin (Monte-Carlo 1923, Breslau, 1925), P. Lamm and V. Shebalin (Leningrad 1931, Moscow, 1932, 1952, Berlin 1946, Rome, 1959, Munich, 1983, and the Chamber Theatre Moscow, in the year 2000.)

List of Cast

CHEREVIK—-bass

KHIVRYA——CHEREVIK’S WIFE—-mezzo-soprano

PARASYA——CHEREVIK’S DAUGHTER & KHIVRYA’S STEPDAUGHTER—-soprano

KUM—-GODFATHER—-bass-baritone

GRITSKO—A YOUNG LAD—-tenor

AFANASY IVANOVICH—-PRIEST’S SON—-tenor

THE GYPSY—-bass

CHERNOBOG—THE DEVIL—bass

Male and female merchants, gypsies, Jews, lads, cossacks, girls, guests, devils, witches, and dwarfs.

ACT I

Scene at the Fair

Fair, vendors, tents, carts, a lot of different goods.

Male and female merchants, peasants, draymen (wagon drivers), gypsies, Jews, young lads, and girls.

General animation and bustle.

Hot, sunny, summer day. Evening falls at the end of the scene.

Peddlers at the Fair

Here are pots! Watermelons! Pails and flasks!

Here are red ribbons, red ribbons!

Here are crystal earrings, here are necklaces!

Hey, buy it! Pails! Melons! Ribbons, ribbons, beautiful ribbons!

2nd Group

Melons, eggplants! We have pumpkins from over the seas! Rolling Pins! Hats!

A lot of lovely bonnets!

3rd Group

Wheels! Here are horseshoes! We have crosses, ribbons!

Who needs bags?

Here are metal wheel rims!

Buy it! Melons! Pails!

Hey, lads, hey, come to me!

You will find here Reshetilov’s fleeced hats!

Hey, come sirs, and buy quicker!

4th Group

Hats, hats! Hey, you buy! Call the lads here!

Skirts! Here is flour and wheat!

Hats, rolling pins! Melons and watermelons, pumpkins, and eggplants!

Jews

Welcome gentlemen, welcome to our little shop.

You will find the best of the best wine with us.

All that you want, all you will find with us.

There are no such things that you could not find.

Gypsies

Go to the devil, right into his claws!

You will not give it for free?

Jews

How is that possible to give it for free!

Gypsies (Pilfering the merchandise)

That’s how!

Jews

Aye, aye!

(Cossacks and lads entering.)

Cossacks

Hey, hey, lads, hey, brave lads!

Hey, hey, daring fellows, all young boys!

Hey, hey, play, hey!

Lads

Hey, hey, cossacks!

Hey, you brave lads.

Hey,hey,daring fellows,

You run in the wide plains, countrymen!

Gypsies

Nails, strong nails!

Here are horseshoes, you will not find better ones anywhere else.

Oy, buy!

You will not find any better