A Life for the Tsar

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 923, 18 April 1957, Page 4

A Life for the Tsar

F, in the past, you have found Russian opera gloomy and forbidding, this month’s YC opera broadcast of Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar will come as a surprise, for it is much lighter than the massive works of Moussorgsky or Rim-sky-Korsakov, although it does share their liking for length. In Russia A Life for the Tsar is given the respect and worship due to it as the first truly Russian opera. Glinka’s work brought to an end a long period of groping, of tentative attempts to found a native Russian opera, and it was later to be followed by a great national outburst of musical activity. Glinka (1804-57) was a wealthy amateur of music more gifted than his predecessors, who, after musical studies in his own country, set off on a voyage to Italy in 1830. Here he fell under the spell of Italian opera lounging in the theatres and concert Tooms of Italy listening to Italian singers he began to realise that his real place was back home in Russia. "Homesickness gtadually led me to the idea of i¢ in Russian," he wrote.

Eventually he returned to Russia, where he set about finding a story that ap pealed to him. In 1835, shortly after his marriage, he set about composing a patriotic Russian plot. His choice of plot fell on an incident supposed to have happened during the Polish invasion of Russia in 1611-13. In the story the Poles who have been supporting the claims of their own candidate for the Russian throne form: a conspiracy against the life of the young Romanov Tsar, who already occupies it on behalf of the Russians. A Polish Army Corps is despatched to Moscow, supposedly on a peaceful mission, but in reality to carry out their own sinister designs. On the march they enter the hut of a loyal peasant, Ivan Susanin, and compel his services as a guide. Susanin suspects their treachery and sends his adopted son, the orphan Vanya, to warn the Tsar of his danger. In order to gain time Ivan Susanin misleads the Poles in the depths of the forest only to fall a victim to their vengeance when they discover the trick that has been played upon them. Ivan Susanin became in Russia the very embodiment of the loyalty felt by

the Russian peasant towards his Tsar, and the opera, successful from its first performance, has always been regarded with great affection. After the Communist Revolution this national work became something of an embarrassment. A story dealing with the Romanoy Dynasty could no longer be _ tolerated, although the well-known music could hardly be altered. For many years nothing was done. Then in 1939 S. M. Gorodetsky produced a libretto which left the historic setting unchanged, but now focused the interest of the opera on the actual leaders of the national uprising against the Poles, instead of on the young Tsar. The name of the Tsar disappeared completely from the opera. This version is the one now performed in all Communist countries, and is the one produced by the National Opera, Belgrade, in the recording to be broadcast. The NZBS, in their presentation of the opera, have decided, however, to restore the original plot. As it does not affect the music in any way, this can easily be done, Glinka uses many native Russian melodies in the work, and tries to contrast the characters of the two nations, Russia and Poland, by means of their national music. The brilliant festival in the second act is wholly Polish, and here his knowledge of Polish ballroom music serves him well. But his knowledge of Polish music seems limited to dance music. For when the Polish soldiers burst into Susanin’s cottage and order him to act as their guide the strains of a stately polonaise can be heard; and when the soldiers have lost their way in the forest and the situation becomes increasingly tense, their danger and alarm is expressed in mazurka rhythm. These musical mannerisms do not, however, obscure the fact that A Life for the Tsar is of more than history book interest, as listeners will discover. (Sunday, April 28, 7.0 p.m., all YCs.)