Met Opera Discoveries (a birthday post from Leo to Arta)

One of the definite positives to the last several weeks of relative isolation is getting to watch Operas from the Met. These are re-broadcasts of productions that would normally be projected in cinemas live from New York. Going to these screenings is something that Arta introduced us to, and I am so grateful she did. While part of me wishes that I could watch and Opera every night, that is probably a little too much to digest. I’ve been enjoying at least one a week.

One of the very best discoveries was “Prince Igor” by the Russian composer Alexander Borodin. For those of you who don’t know much about him, his primary career was as a chemist, but he was also a medical doctor. He just happened to compose in the grand Russian tradition on the side. Incidentally, he was also a noted Women’s Rights activist.

Borodin composed “Prince Igor” based on an epic which recounts the prince’s campaign against the invading Polovtsian tribes in 1185. (A fascinating history should you choose to look into it further. The Polovtsians were led by Khans who were descendants of Ghengis himself.) The main flaw of the opera was that Borodin was trying to compose the libretto around the music rather than the other way around. As such, he never had a complete narrative arc for which to unite the music and story. Although he worked on the opera off and on for 18 years, it was left incomplete when he died suddenly at the age of 53. His friends and colleagues, the great composers Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov, with whom he had collaborated on numerous occasions, took it upon themselves to finish the opera.

Despite their best efforts, a definitive version of the opera never really solidified. Glazunov essentially inserted the entire third act with his own material, and there is still a debate as to the order of the first and second acts. Because of this, the opera is almost never performed. And this is truly a shame, because the underlying material, particularly for the chorus, is absolutely brilliant.

You might be surprised how much music from the opera you recognize. The entire conclusion to the second act was turned into an orchestral suite (The Polovtsian Dances) which is frequently performed as part of the repertoire. The music in the musical “Kismet” is entirely taken from the opera (with very little credit given to poor Borodin). The song “Stranger in Paradise” from the musical is a tune to which most of us could easily hum along.

In any case, this production from the Met is a complete re-imagination of the plot, with extensive modifications to the score based on Borodin’s original notes. Quite an undertaking. While my personal opinion is that they took too many liberties with the plot so that the narrative is a bit obscured,  I still appreciate it. As always, the production was glorious. The entire second act is set in a poppy field with over 12,000 hand-made poppies.  

All this to say once again - what a discovery! It is a new favorite Opera for me, maybe in my top 5. I think the musical material is as compelling and as Carmen, and nearly as memorable. The big difference would be that the music is undeniably Russian. There are many moments that are reflected in Rachmaninov’s Vespers (one of my very favourite choral compositions), and the depictions of the exotic Polovtsian Dancers could be something taken right out of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade.

On the occasion of Arta’s Birthday, I decided I wanted to write about this because I knew she would appreciate it. I hope she had the chance to see it. Maybe we can watch it together sometime – and bribe the grandkids into watching it with us with bags of candy and popcorn.