Бородиннің «Князь Игорь» операсы: Тарих және аяқталуы

Opera by Alexander Borodin
the opera

Prince Igor (Князь Игорь, ) is an opera in four acts with a prologue, written and composed by Alexander Borodin. The composer adapted the libretto from the early Russian epic The Lay of Igor's Host, which recounts the campaign of the 12th century prince Igor Svyatoslavich against the invading Cuman ("Polovtsian") tribes in 1185. He also incorporated material drawn from two medieval Kievan chronicles. The opera was left unfinished upon the composer's death in 1887 and was edited and completed by Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov. It was first performed in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1890.

Borodin died suddenly in 1887, leaving Prince Igor incomplete. Rimsky Korsakov and Stasov went to Borodin's home, collected his scores, and brought them to Rimsky Korsakov's house. Glazunov and I together sorted all the manuscripts In the first place there was the unfinished Prince Igor. Certain numbers of the opera, such as the first chorus, the dance of the Polovtsy, Yaroslavna's Lament, the recitative and song of Vladimir Galitsky, Konchak's aria, the arias of Konchakovna and Prince Vladimir Igorevich, as well as the closing chorus, had been finished and orchestrated by the composer. Much else existed in the form of finished piano sketches; all the rest was in fragmentary rough draft only, while a good deal simply did not exist. For Acts II and III (in the camp of the Polovtsy) there was no adequate libretto – no scenario, even – there were only scattered verses and musical sketches, or finished numbers that showed no connection between them. The synopsis of these acts I knew full well from talks and discussions with Borodin, although in his projects he had been changing a great deal, striking things out and putting them back again. The smallest bulk of composed music proved to be in Act III. Glazunov and I settled the matter as follows between us: He was to fill in all the gaps in Act III and write down from memory the Overture played so often by the composer, while I was to orchestrate, finish composing, and systematize all the rest that had been left unfinished and unorchestrated by Borodin.|Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov, Chronicle of My Musical Life, 1909

The often repeated account that Glazunov reconstructed and orchestrated the overture from memory after hearing the composer play it at the piano is true only in part. The following statement by Glazunov himself clarifies the matter:

The overture was composed by me roughly according to Borodin's plan. I took the themes from the corresponding numbers of the opera and was fortunate enough to find the canonic ending of the second subject among the composer's sketches. I slightly altered the fanfares for the overture The bass progression in the middle I found noted down on a scrap of paper, and the combination of the two themes (Igor's aria and a phrase from the trio) was also discovered among the composer's papers. A few bars at the very end were composed by me.|Alexander Glazunov, memoir, 1891, published in the Russkaya muzikalnaya gazeta, 1896

Central to the opera is the way the Russians are distinguished from the Polovtsians through melodic characterization. While Borodin uses features of Russian folk music to represent his compatriots, he uses chromaticism, melismas and appoggiaturas—among other techniques—represent their 'heathen' opponents. These methods had already been used by Glinka and others to portray Orientalism in Russian music.

"During the season of 1888–9 the Directorate of Imperial Theatres began to lead us a fine dance with the production of Prince Igor, which had been finished, published, and forwarded to the proper authorities. We were led by the nose the following season as well, with constant postponements of production for some reason or other." "On October 23, 1890, Prince Igor was produced at last, rehearsed fairly well by K. A. Kuchera, as Nápravník had declined the honor of conducting Borodin's opera. Both Glazunov and I were pleased with our orchestration and additions. The cuts later introduced by the Directorate in Act 3 of the opera did it considerable harm. The unscrupulousness of the Mariinsky Theatre subsequently went to the length of omitting Act 3 altogether. Taken all in all, the opera was a success and attracted ardent admirers, particularly among the younger generation. "|Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov, Chronicle of My Musical Life, 1909

The world premiere was given in St. Petersburg on 4 November (23 October O. S.), 1890 at the Mariinsky Theatre. Set designers were Yanov, Andreyev, and Bocharov, while Lev Ivanov was balletmaster. Moscow premieres followed in 1892 by the Russian Opera Society, conducted by Iosif Pribik. The Bolshoi Theatre premiere was given in 1898 and was conducted by Ulrikh Avranek

Other notable premieres were given in Prague in 1899 and in Paris in 1909, with a Sergei Diaghilev production featuring Feodor Chaliapin as Galitsky and Maria Nikolaevna Kuznetsova as Yaroslavna. Ivanov's choreography was revived by Mikhail Fokin (and in that form can be seen in the 1969 film. London saw the same production in 1914 conducted by Thomas Beecham, again with Chaliapin as Galitsky. In 1915 the United States premiere took place at the Metropolitan Opera, staged in Italian and conducted by Giorgio Polacco. The first performance in English was at Covent Garden on 26 July 1919, with Miriam Licette as Yaroslavna. In January and February 2009 there was a production at the Aalto Theatre by the Essen Opera. While some aspects of the production may have been unusual, one critic noted that "placing the (Polovtsian) Dances as a Finale is an elegant idea, the director Andrejs Zagars and the conductor Noam Zur have thus presented a musically and dramaturgically coherent Prince Igor. Heartfelt applause for a worthwhile evening at the opera." In 2011 there was a concert performance in Moscow by Helikon Opera, based on Pavel Lamm's reconstruction. A new edition based on 92 surviving manuscripts by Borodin was completed by musicologist Anna Bulycheva and published in 2012. In 2014, the Metropolitan Opera in New York City staged a reconceived version, sung in Russian for the first time there. Director Dmitri Tcherniakov and conductor Gianandrea Noseda removed most of the melodies contributed by Rimsky Korsakov and Glazunov, although they retained those composers' orchestrations. They added many fragments by Borodin that Rimsky Korsakov and Glazunov had omitted, basing their work on many decades of musicological research. They rearranged the order in which some of the material appeared, in some cases taking account of notes left by Borodin. The overall conception made the opera more of a psychological drama about Prince Igor and his state of mind, given the deep depression he went into following his soldiers' loss to the Polovtsians. The entire opera was reordered: after the prologue, in which the solar eclipse was taken as a bad omen, Act 1 presented a dream sequence dealing with the relation of Igor and his son with the Polovtsian general and his daughter in the Polovtsian camp. The second act largely dealt with the antics of Prince Galitsky in Putivyl and ended with the destruction of the city. The third act ended with Prince Igor coming out of his depression to begin the rebuilding of the destroyed city. This production starred Russian bass Ildar Abdrazakov in the title role with Ukrainian soprano Oksana Dyka as Yaroslavna. The performances in New York included a worldwide HD broadcast. The production was jointly produced with De Nederlandse Opera of Amsterdam. At the beginning of the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in February 2014, some of Borodin's music from this opera was played while an eclipsed sun, crescent shaped, drifted across the upper levels of the center of the stadium, showing the basis of Russian history in the Prince Igor story.

Prince Igor is a staple of Russian opera, but has not travelled well abroad. One obvious reason is the Russian language, although translation into Italian was once a solution. Another explanation for the failure to gain acceptance is its lack of unity resulting from its unfinished state. Despite the skill and efforts of editors Rimsky Korsakov and Glazunov, the opera is still episodic and dramatically static, a problem of which the composer himself was aware when he embarked on composition (see quote above in "Composition History"). This is partly a consequence of Borodin's failure to complete a libretto before beginning composition of the music—the same problem that plagued his colleague Mussorgsky in the composition of Khovanshchina. Both composers wrote their librettos piece by piece while composing the music, both lost sight of the overall narrative thread of their operas, and both wound up with pages and pages of music that needed to be sacrificed to assemble a cohesive whole. Also, both died before finishing their operas, leaving the task of completion, editing, and orchestration in both cases to Rimsky Korsakov.

This is a sortable table. Click on the button next to the criterion you would like to use to sort the information. The numbers are given according to the traditional Rimsky Korsakov Glazunov edition. The dates refer to composition, not orchestration. Where a pair of dates differ, a large gap (more than one year) may indicate an interruption of composition or a revision of the musical number. In No.1 (the Prologue), the Eclipse scene (301 bars) was orchestrated by Rimsky Korsakov and the remainder by Borodin. No. ActNumberStartEndComposerOrchestrator – – Overture 1887 1887 Glazunov Glazunov 1 – Prologue 1876 1885 Borodin Borodin* 2a Act 1, Scene 1 Chorus 1875 1875 Borodin Rimsky Korsakov 2b Act 1, Scene 1 Recitative and Song: Galitsky 1879 1879 Borodin Borodin 2c Act 1, Scene 1 Recitative: Galitsky n. a. n. a. Borodin Rimsky Korsakov 2d Act 1, Scene 1 Maiden's Chorus and Scena n. a. n. a. Borodin Rimsky Korsakov 2e Act 1, Scene 1 Scena: Skula, Yeroshka n. a. n. a. Borodin Rimsky Korsakov 2f Act 1, Scene 1 Song in Honor of Prince Galitsky: Skula, Yeroshka 1878 1878 Borodin Rimsky Korsakov 2g Act 1, Scene 1 Chorus n. a. n. a. Borodin Rimsky Korsakov 3 Act 1, Scene 2 Arioso: Yaroslavna 1869 1875 Borodin Rimsky Korsakov 4 Act 1, Scene 2 Scena: Yaroslavna, Nurse, Chorus 1879 1879 Borodin Borodin 5 Act 1, Scene 2 Scena: Yaroslavna, Galitsky 1879 1879 Borodin Rimsky Korsakov 6 Act 1, Scene 2 Finale: Yaroslavna, Galitsky, Chorus 1879 1880 Borodin Rimsky Korsakov 7 Act 2 Chorus of Polovtsian Maidens n. a. n. a. Borodin Rimsky Korsakov 8 Act 2 Dance of Polovtsian Maidens n. a. n. a. Borodin Rimsky Korsakov 9 Act 2 Cavatina: Konchakovna 1869 1869 Borodin Borodin 10 Act 2 Scena: Konchakovna, Chorus 1887 1887 Rimsky Korsakov / Glazunov Rimsky Korsakov / Glazunov 11 Act 2 Recitative and Cavatina: Vladimir 1877 1878 Borodin Borodin 12 Act 2 Duet: Vladimir, Konchakovna 1877 1878 Borodin Rimsky Korsakov 13 Act 2 Aria: Igor 1881 1881 Borodin Rimsky Korsakov 14 Act 2 Scena: Igor, Ovlur n. a. n. a. Borodin Rimsky Korsakov 15 Act 2 Aria: Konchak 1874 1875 Borodin Borodin 16 Act 2 Recitative: Igor, Konchak n. a. n. a. Borodin Rimsky Korsakov 17 Act 2 Polovtsian Dances with Chorus 1869 1875 Borodin Borodin / Rimsky Korsakov / Lyadov 18 Act 3 Polovtsian March 1869 1875 Borodin Borodin / Rimsky Korsakov 19 Act 3 Song: Konchak n. a. n. a. Glazunov Glazunov 20 Act 3 Recitative and Scena n. a. n. a. Borodin Glazunov 22 Act 3 Recitative: Ovlur, Igor 1888 1888 Glazunov Glazunov 23 Act 3 Trio: Igor, Vladimir, Konchakovna n. a. 1888 Borodin / Glazunov Glazunov 24 Act 3 Finale: Konchakovna, Konchak, Chorus 1884 n. a. Borodin / Glazunov Glazunov 25 Act 4 Lament: Yaroslavna 1875 1875 Borodin Borodin 26 Act 4 Peasant's Chorus 1879 1879 Borodin Borodin 27 Act 4 Recitative and Duet: Yaroslavna, Igor 1876 1876 Borodin Rimsky Korsakov 28 Act 4 Gudok Players' Song, Scena and Chorus n. a. n. a. Borodin Rimsky Korsakov 29 Act 4 Finale: Skula, Yeroshka, Chorus n. a. n. a. Borodin Borodin / Rimsky Korsakov