FULL Zaporozhets Beyond the Danube (Hulak-Artemovsky) Kiev 2019 Dec 11
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Zaporozhets za Dunayem aka Zaporozhets Beyond the Danube
- Composer: Hulak-Artemovsky Semen
- Libretto: Semen Hulak-Artemovsky Libretto Text, Libretto Index
- Venue & Opera Company: Opera Studio of the National Academy of Music of Ukraine, Kiev
- Recorded: December 11, 2019
- Type: Staged Opera Live
- Singers: unknown
- Conductor: unknown
- Orchestra:
- Stage Director:
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: Yuriy Panytsia
- Date Published: 2020
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: nosubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Quote from Wikipedia:
Zaporozhets za Dunayem (Ukrainian: Запорожець за Дунаєм, translated as A Zaporozhian (Cossack) Beyond the Danube, also referred to as Cossacks in Exile) is a Ukrainian comic opera with spoken dialogue in three acts with music and libretto by the composer Semen Hulak-Artemovsky (1813–1873) about Cossacks of Danubian Sich. The orchestration has subsequently been rewritten by composers such as Reinhold Glière and Heorhiy Maiboroda. This is one of the best-known Ukrainian comic operas depicting national themes.
It was premiered with a Russian libretto on 26 April [O.S. 14 April] 1863, in St Petersburg (at the time the capital of the Russian Empire). However, it is now normally performed in a Ukrainian translation.
Synopsis
The story is based on a historical event: when the Zaporizhian Sich was overwhelmed by the Russian army, the Zaporizhian Cossacks and their families headed across the Danube River to the apparently safe haven of the Ottoman Empire (this area is now part of Romania) and established the Danube Sich (see Zaporozhian Host: Russian rule).
The comedy arises from the efforts made by a Cossack clan to adjust to their new home, and from the eccentric behaviour of an amorous Turkish Sultan. The plot revolves around a chance encounter between Ivan Karas, an old Dnieper Cossack and the Turkish Sultan travelling incognito, resulting in permission for all the “Cossacks beyond the Danube” to resettle on Imperial Russian land, back in Ukraine.