FULL THE ENCHANTED WANDERER (Shchedrin) St.Petersburg 2008 Sergey Aleksashkin, Andrey Popov, Kristina Kapustinskaya
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: The Enchanted Wanderer or Очарованный странник
- Composer: Shchedrin Rodion
- Libretto: Rodion Shchedrin
- Venue & Opera Company: Mariinsky Concert Hall
- Recorded: July 13, 2008
- Type: Concert Semi-staged
- Singers: Sergey Aleksashkin, Andrey Popov, Kristina Kapustinskaya
- Conductor: Valery Gergiev
- Orchestra: Mariinsky Orchestra
- Chorus: Mariinsky Chorus
- Stage Director:
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Format: Unknown
- Quality Video: 3 Audio:3
- Subtitles: nosubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
The opera was commissioned by the American conductor Lorin Maazel and dedicated to him. On 19 December 2002 the New York Philharmonic conducted Maazel’s premiere concert performance of the opera at New York’s Avery Fisher Hall.
On July 10, 2007, in the concert hall of the Mariinsky Theatre, the opera The Enchanted Wanderer was performed for the first time in Russia by the soloists, choir and orchestra of the Mariinsky Theater conducted by Valery Gergiev , also in a concert performance. A year later, the same performers staged the opera. The stage version premiered at the same concert hall on July 26, 2008. Currently, the production is included in the theater’s repertoire.
Act one
Ivan Severyanovich Flyagin, a novice of the Valaam Monastery, recalls his life. In his adolescence, he once “for fun” accidentally killed a monk with a whip. The monk appeared to him in a vision, reproaching him for the fact that Ivan took his life without repentance. He told Ivan Severyanych that he was the son “promised” to God, and gave a “sign” that he would die many times and would never die until the real “death” came to him and he went in fulfillment of his mother’s “promise” to the monastery on Valaam island. Although Ivan Severyanovich did not believe, the monk’s prophecy came true. While wandering, Ivan was captured by the Tatars and lived with them in the very Ryn-sands for ten years. He fled from the Tatars, met shepherds on the way from captivity, and returning to his native places, entered the service of the prince, who appreciated his ability to understand horses well. However, after three years of diligent service, Ivan Severyanovich began to overcome hard drinking. In one of the taverns, Flyagin met a drunken gentleman who had the gift of hypnosis. That same night, in another tavern, Ivan Severyanych squandered all the money left to him by the prince on a beautiful songstress, the gypsy Grushenka.
Action two
When the prince demanded five thousand rubles from Ivan Severyanovich, which were entrusted to him, Flyagin, having obeyed, told about the beautiful gypsy. Having fallen in love with Grusha, the prince gave the camp a huge ransom of fifty thousand rubles in gold and took her to his house. But the prince is a fickle person, and Grusha quickly got bored with him. During a trip to the city, Ivan Severyanovich learned that his master was going to marry a rich noblewoman, and when he returned home, he did not find the gypsy: the prince secretly took her to the forest to the swamp. However, Grusha escaped from prison, met with Flyagin and, taking a terrible oath from him, asked him to kill her, because otherwise she herself would kill the unfaithful prince and his young bride. Ivan Severyanovich, fulfilling Grushin’s request, threw her off the steep slope into the river. In visions, Flyagin hears the voices of the monk and gypsy Grusha he killed.