Customer Reviews

Yuri Shaporin: The Decembrists

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Yuri Shaporin (1887-1966) spent a quarter of a century on his grand opera The Decembrist, an opera that bears audible homages to the great operatic tradition of Russia, from Glinka's Ruslan & Lyudmila, through Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov to Prokofiev - and it sticks to those models. In terms of style, Shaporin was, like Kabalevsky, never in danger of being denounced by the regime - the musical material is thoroughly conventional, tuneful and wears its influences on the sleeve, but is - also like Kabalevsky - hugely enjoyable and rather imaginative within the bounds Shaporin sets for himself. Shaporin's worklist contains much dramatic music (over 80 film scores and the important trilogy of Symphony-cantatas which have been recorded by Svetlanov, but which is currently not very easily available), but the Decembrists, the final version of which appeared 1953, was supposed to be his magnum opus.

The plot of the opera is of course in alignment with the official policies of the day, but the story is still surprisingly absorbing. It is based on true events (the Decembrist revolt of 1825). Prince Dmitri, unhappy about the living conditions of his serfs and in love with Elena, joins a plot to remove the tsar. They are betrayed and in a dramatic scene the artillery opens fire at the crowd of conspirators and ordinary protestors. Many are killed and Dmitri is taken prisoner and shipped to Siberia. The climax of the work (dramatically) concers Elena cunning entrance into the Tsar's palace during the ball, managing to dance with the tsar himself and at the same time convincing him to let her go with Dmitri into exile. The ending is of course an optimistic one, with the crowd singing the Hymn of Liberation - they may have failed to overthrow the tsar, but their names will live on as the first attempt.

From the introduction the music is deeply Russian, employing varied range of folk music influences, skillfully woven together to maximal effect. Shaporin was certainly an able melodist, and there are plenty of truly memorable tunes in the opera. There's plenty of stirring drama as well (the Tavern scene, for instance), and some astoundingly effective, blazing crowd and choral scenes, and the whole opera moves with spirit and flair to the desolate final act and radiant conclusion. In short, the atmospheres and resources Shaporin effectively deploys are variegated, imaginative, thematically distinguished and ingeniously put together in a convincing overall structure, leading to an overall very enjoyable and memorable work - maybe not a masterpiece, but not too far away etiher.

The performances are overall really good, and if there are some rough edges to some of the singing it is more than made up for by the spirit and intensity they achieve. There's a pretty extensive cast list, but Pokrovskaya's Elena stands out for her generally well sung and wonderfully varied characterization. Of the male roles, the lower voices are overall the most impressive (Ivanov, Pirogov, Petrov and others - Nelepp in particular), but Ivanovsky's Prince Dmitri has a more than satisfactory tenor voice. The Orchestra and Chorus of the Bolshoi play their hearts out under the dramatic, almost visionary approach of Melik-Pashaev (whose opera recordings are almost uniformly among the best in the catalogue). The sound quality (1953 mono) is so-so, however, and probably the main drawback. Preiser has done a pretty good job, it seems, and the balance is pretty good - but there isn't much dynamism to the sound picture, and some of the effects one suspects would have been achieved in a staging (distant choruses, approaching crowds) are lost. Still, I don't want to complain too loudly - for the most part, the drama and colors come across pretty well. The other main drawback is the absence of a libretto; there is only a (detailed) English synopsis, but the notes are good. One could dream of a modern recording, of course, but I suggest it would be hard to equal the fervor and blazing spirits of this one; not an essential acquisition perhaps, then, but still a very rewarding release, strongly recommended to lovers of Russian opera.

The recording gives us a peak into the singers that were hidden behind the "Iron Curtain."So many great voices that we in the west did not get a chance to hear during their lifetime.

Through other readings I have learned more about the opera and how it met with the approval of the "powers to be."

Since my Russian is extremely limited I do wish there had been an available libretto.

Listen to that wonderful voice of Georgy Nelepp. No matter how checkered his political dealings were he could sing his heart out.