Customer Reviews

Tchaikovsky: Mazeppa

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Mazeppa is an opera often overlooked in the light of Eugene Onegin and Pique Dame- but some of Tchaikovsky's best music lies within Mazeppa's score.

The finale of Mazeppa is absolutely one of the most beautiful and touching in all of opera. The whole score is full of musical fireworks but they come to a blarring hault in the final pages, making it utterly astounding. The plot has just boiled over. Everyone Maria loves is either gone or dead. Andrey (a friend who is in love with her) is lying wounded. Maria, who has gone crazy with despair, first thinks he is her dead father than a child asleep in the grass. Cradling the dying Andrey she softly and beautifully sings a sleep lullaby as the final notes come to a soft end. It's so beautiful.

The Battle of Poltava is a great opening to ACT III! A bombastic symphonic piece that resembles the timeworn 1812 Overture, but is simply thrilling! Fans of Boris Godounov will recognize music from the Coronation Scene in The Battle of Poltava. No, Tchaikovsky did not steal Moussorgsky's music but rather both composers used 'Slava' a popular Russian folk song. Moussorgsky's is more powerful though- but that battle scene is thriling.

Other favs of mine are Mazeppa's love aira to Maria, and of course all the chorus' and the prision and excecution scenes.

I prefer this recording to the Deutsche Grammaphon recording. The chorus is without a doubt superior in this reading as it is a "Russian" chorus. As well I think this recording has the conducting and orchestral playing edge. Cast wise, I prefer Mazeppa here and have no preference for either Maria- they are both wonderful. I just prefer Russian opera to be done by a Russian conductor, cast, chorus, and company.

This set fits in wonderfully with the other Kirov opera recordings.

GOD BLESS GERGIEV and the KIROV for bringing us the wonderful Russian operas of Tchaikovsky, Moussorgsky, Prokofiev, and Rimsky-Korsakov....all operas so overlook (cept for Boris). KEEP THEM COMING!

I find it hard to understand why Mazeppa is not performed outside of Russia. The only operas of Tchaikovsky that have been embraced are Pique Dame and Eugene Onegin. Mazeppa has a lot going for it: the Girl's Chorus and the energetic Gopka in the first act, the Prison Scene and Finale in the second act and the Battle of Poltava at the start of the third. In addition, there is a lovely duet in the first act between Maria and Andrey, a nice monologue for Mazeppa in the second act, and a duet with Maria and in the third act, the death scene of Andrey.

The story involves the historical figure Mazeppa, the hetman of the Cossacks during the reign of Peter the Great. Maria is the daughter of a nobleman named Kochubey, and has fallen in love with the seventy-year old hetman. She rejects the love of Andrey and goes off to live with Mazeppa. Kochubey discovers that Mazeppa plans to go over to the side of the Swedish King Charles XII. Kochubey informs the Tsar but is disbelieved and handed over to Mazeppa along with Iskra, a friend of Kochubey. Both men are subjected to torture (Act II, Scene I) and are executed at the end of Act II as Maria looks on, having been told by her mother of the treachery of Mazeppa. The Swedes are defeated by the Russians, and Andrey encounters the hetman, who shoots him. Maria appears, driven mad by watching her father's execution. Mazeppa is urged to flee and he leaves her behind. Maria sees Andrey but does not recognize him, taking him for the body of her father and then a child. She sings a lullaby as he dies.

This is a live recording, and there is some stage noise that may be annoying to some people but I found that it adds to the drama. The audience applause is minimal and there is no coughing. The Kirov Orchestra is marvelous, and Valery Gergiev provides a vivid reading of the score. The singers are quite good although at time Irina Loskutova's voice sounds a bit strained. I highly recommend this opera to anyone interested in exploring Russian opera.

As a lifelong lover and student of Classical music I have always regarded Tchaikovsky as one of the all-time great composers (contary to the opinions of some "critics"). I have not spent a lot of time listening to operas, as I have been primarily interested in instrumental and piano music. But, recently I decided to begin exploring the realm of opera to see what I might have been missing.

With this opera, Mazeppa, I discovered that my opinion of Tchaikovsky as a great composer is at once confirmed! Not only is this opera well structured, it contains some of the most sophisticated, profound music that Tchaikovsky ever wrote. Harmonically and orchestrally, this opera looks forward, at times, to the music of Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev (and, even, Debussy!). On the other hand, the intimate partnership of the orchestra and voices is comparable to that observed in the late operas of Wagner.

As Tchaikovsky was a Russian, I am guessing that he was particularly comfortable writing this opera, with its Russian story, folk music influences, and typical Russian harmonies. Much of Tchaikovsky's musical output sounds more Germanic (with Beethoven as a model), French, or Italian, than Russian. But, that is NOT the case with Mazeppa, which is the most Russian sounding piece that I have ever heard by Tchaikovsky. It is a shame that he did not spend more time in his "Russian zone," as his greatness as a composer was so much more apparent when he did.

I will not offer a critique of the singing on this recording, as I am not familiar with the artists. Certainly, the entire opera is beautifully sung, played, and conducted. The only criticism that I have of this recording is that the orchestra is not allowed to finish its final notes (at the very end of Act III) before the audience begins applauding (nb., this is a LIVE performance). The famous ending, with its Russian lullabye, is SO beautiful that it is painful to hear the audience bursting in before the Debussy-like music is allowed to fade away.

If I had to place this opera among the great operas of all times, I would put it AHEAD of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin and Pique Dame, because it is SO much more convincing and emotionally powerful than either of those two. In fact, I personally feel that Mazeppa belongs among the all-time great operas--comparable to Carmen, Faust, Otello, Romeo and Juliet (Gounod), Tosca, etc. I should point out, however, that I have a prejudice for Romantic and nationalistic music, which obviously skews my ranking of "great" operas.

Like Eugene Onegin, Tchaikovsky based Mazeppa on Pushkin's writings. However, Mazeppa differs greatly from Eugene Onegin. Whereas Eugene Onegin is about a few individuals who fall in love with Onegin symbolizing the ennui and decaying aristocratic world, Mazeppa has a large historical scope. Although not much is known about the historical figure Mazeppa, it suffices to say that he rose to power under Peter I and ruled the Ukraine only to fall swiftly (and mysteriously), dying after fleeing from the Ukraine. In Puskin's version Mazeppa's fall is bought about after he secretly courts his goddaughter, Maria. Outraged that his beautiful young daughter should marry a 70 year old man, Maria's father, Kochubey betrays Mazeppa to Peter I, only to be betrayed by the Tsar himself who does not believe Kochubey and turns him over to Mazeppa.

For me, this is the real heart of the opera, the second act which brings together so many conflicting emotions at a breakneck speed. The execution of Kochubey is one of the most heartwrenching scenes with multiple themes, plotwise and musically, culminating with the climatic execution. There are four elements in this scene: the crowd that has gathered to watch a wealthy landowner being executed, a drunken Cossack singing ditties at odds with the tense moment, Maria racing to the execution site in hopes of arriving before her father's death to plead mercy from Mazeppa, and the tender prayer sung by Kochubey and Iskra before their execution. The variations of pace-- the quick pace of Maria's race, the slow pace of Kochubey and Iskra's prayer, the bouncy rhythm of the ditties, the mounting excitement of the crowd-- creates a breathtaking collision of emotions. I've listened to this section of Mazeppa over and over again in awe of Tchaikovsky's mastery. The drunken cossack is a wonderful touch, the grotesque interwoven with the tender and the sensationalistic.

There are other parts of the opera that deserve close attention, particularly the ending with Maria, now driven insane by her father's death, holding her dying young admirer in her arms as Mazeppa flees from the tsar's army, but it's the second act to which I always return. I can't compare the Kirov recording to others as I haven't listened to a different one. Yet, it strikes me as one convincingly sung with emotion and drama.

Tchaikovsky is remembered for his great orchestral works such as the symphonies, overtures, piano and violin concertos, and ballet music. But as people familiar with his life's story know, he was an opera composer at heart and dreamed of being the Russian equivalent of Verdi or Wagner. He had specific favorites. He loved Italian opera and admired Verdi, enjoyed French Grand Opera and mimicked Bizet, but was not as infatuated by Wagner's music as so many of his contemporaries seemed to be. The non-Russian European influence can be seen in works such as EUGENE ONEGIN and PIQUE DAME. Still he composed a great number of operas but very few are staged, and when they premiered, most bombed. The reason: Russian audiences loved opera but wanted Russian composers to write operas on Russian themes and subjects. Often Tchaikovsky's music was considered too Russian outside of Russia and not Russian enough in his homeland, and thus was never fully appreciated.

In some ways MAZEPPA is a combination of what we've come to associate with Russian opera with the elements of French and Italian opera loved by the composer. It's based on a historical subject, the ill-fated seventeenth century ruler of the Ukraine during the early years of Czar Peter I. It contains wonderful arias, large spectacle scenes, orchestral excitement, and some dance scenes. It starts on a powerful note and ends with a heart wrenching duet that ends as a solo effort. Given the beauty of the music, it's hard to understand why it's largely unknown outside of Russia.

This recording is from a live staging by the Kirov staged in 1996, conducted by Valery Gergiev. MAZEPPA has been a regular work in the Kirov's history, so the performers are familiar with the opera which may be why there is such a natural feel to the recording. For me, the standouts vocally are tenor Victor Lutsiuk as Andrey and soprano Irina Loskutova as Maria. This may be due to my instant falling in love with the final duet of Act III. As soon as I heard it, it became one of my favorite scenes in opera. Russian baritone Nikolai Putilin does an admirable job as Mazeppa. He recently starred in the Metropolitan Opera production of this work so his name may be familiar to regular listeners of Saturday afternoon broadcasts.

For a live recording, the background noise is minimal. This is a worthwhile recording and will make people realize there's more to this opera than its well known excerpt, the Hopak.