Tsar Saltan
was Rimsky's Pushkin opera. Christmas
Eve (1895) was his Gogol opera. It was based on the tales
Gogol set in the imaginary Ukranian village of Dikanka, stories still
so well known in Russia that a video game has been made of them.
Tchaikovsky had written an opera on the same theme, but
Rimsky's is the one that stayed in the Russian repertory, for its
color, beauty, humor, and charm.
There's nothing Christmaslike about the piece, really, and the only
spot of religion comes when the hero Vakula terrifies the Devil by
making the sign of the cross. Instead, there's a great deal of humor, a
ballet of stars, a procession of comets, a visit to St. Petersburg
(with the familiar Polonaise), and a happy ending. God, witches,
devils, and the pagan deities of old Russia seem on good terms here,
and a clever and hard-working man like Vakula can outwit the Devil and
get the village beauty to marry him.
If you're in any doubt about Rimsky as an opera composer this might be
a good place to start. It's the best riposte I know to fatuities like
Wilfrid Mellers's dismissal of Rimsky as "a spiritual nullity." Vakula
is at least as human as Nemorino, many of the minor characters are
wittily and warmly drawn, and the entire village is lovingly seen. To
me this is a great opera, worthy of being spoken of along with Falstaff and Ariadne auf Naxos, to name two other great comedies.
It's a pity the recording is from 1948, but at
least it has the volcanic conducting of Nicolai Golovanov and a keen
sense of ensemble. Listen to the expansiveness of the magnificent
choral scene at the opening of Act 2, Scene 4--next to this the modern
recording (see below) sounds pallid and detached. Golvanov's lovers
are Dmitri Tarkhov and Natalia Shpiller, not the most youthful of
voices but strong and communicative. The minor parts are taken well,
and the Moscow Radio forces play like demons.
There's also a 1995 recording with fine sound and decent youthful
voices, under the baton of M. Yurovski. It's also more complete; a few
passages are shortened in the 1948 version, perhaps to accommodate
78-rpm sides. If you join MusicWeb for a year (it costs
$25.00) you can download this recording along with many other files. I thought it was worth
it, personally, but the Golovanov is still the better performance....
Download Christmas Eve
(MP3
mono in zip archive, with synopsis, ca. 78 Megs)