MLADA St.Petersburg 2019 Vadim Kravets, Anastasia Schegoleva, Sergei Skorokhodov, Vladislav Kupriyanov
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Mlada
- Composer: Rimsky-Korsakov Nikolai
- Libretto: Viktor Krylov
- Venue & Opera Company: Mariinsky II, St.Petersburg, Russia
- Recorded: May 25, 2019
- Type: Concert Live
- Singers: Vadim Kravets, Anastasia Schegoleva, Sergei Skorokhodov, Vladislav Kupriyanov, Yekaterina Sergeyeva, Anna Kiknadze, Oleg Losev, Alexander Gerasimov, Yevgeny Chernyadiev, Alexander Timchenko
- Conductor: Valery Gergiev
- Orchestra: Mariinsky Orchestra
- Chorus: Mariinsky Chorus
- Chorus Master: Andrei Petrenko
- Stage Director:
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: @KULTURA108
- Date Published: 2019
- Format: Unknown
- Quality Video: 3 Audio:3
- Subtitles: nosubs
- This Recording is NOT AVAILABLE from a proper commercial or public source
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Mlada (Russian: Млада, tr. Mláda) is an opera-ballet in four acts, composed between 1889 and 1890 by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, to a libretto by Viktor Krylov that was originally employed for an aborted project of the same name from 1872.
In the middle of Mlada, a fantasy tale about ancient pagan Slavs, Cleopatra emerges in a scene that exudes sensuality. Rimsky-Korsakov said “Among my musical impressions of Paris [at the World Exhibition, summer 1889] I reflect on music in Hungarian and Algerian cafes. The virtuoso playing of a Hungarian orchestra on tsevnitsas (Pan flutes) gave me the idea of introducing this ancient instrument… during the dances at Cleopatra’s. In an Algerian cafe, I was attracted to the beat of a large drum… This effect I also borrowed for the scene of Cleopatra.”
Performance history
The St. Petersburg premiere of Rimsky-Korsakov’s setting of the libretto was given on 1 November 1892 and conducted by Eduard Nápravník. The scene designers were Ivan Andreyev and Mikhail Bocharov; balletmasters were Lev Ivanov and Enrico Cecchetti. The first production of Mlada was not a success, and it did not become a regular repertory item. (The decor, however, was reused for Petipa’s 1896 revival of the ballet adaptation of the scenario by composer Ludwig Minkus, which had premiered in 1879.)
Other notable performances of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Mlada were given in 1904 in St. Petersburg in the Great Hall of the St. Petersburg Conservatory by Tsereteli’s opera company; in 1913 in Moscow by the Zimin Opera; and in 1923 in Petrograd at the State Theatre of Opera and Ballet.
A production from the 1990’s of the opera-ballet at the Bolshoi Theatre was recorded on video
Synopsis
Time: The ninth or tenth century
Place: The Slavic lands of the Baltic sea-coast, in the city of Rethra, near the Labe (Elbe) River, in modern-day Germany.
Act 1
Voyslava has killed Mlada, Yaromir’s bride, to have him for herself. With the help of Morena, the goddess of the underworld, she has captivated Yaromir. But he sees the murder in his dreams.
Act 2
At the midsummer festival the people dance, while the spirit of Mlada intervenes between Yaromir and Voyslava.
Act 3
By night Mlada leads Yaromir up Mount Triglav, where the dead gather, before the Witches’ Sabbath in which Yaromir is shown a vision of Cleopatra.
Act 4
Yaromir, at the Temple of Radegast, is shown by the spirits that Voyslava is guilty. She confesses her sin and he kills her. Morena, with whom Voyslava had made a compact, destroys the temple and the city of Rethra, but Yaromir is united with Mlada in heaven.
Quoted from Wikipedia