Руслан и Людмила: Опера Михаила Глинки

Opera by Mikhail Glinka

Ruslan and Lyudmila ( ) is an opera in five acts (eight tableaux) composed by Mikhail Glinka between 1837 and 1842. The libretto was written in Russian by Valerian Shirkov, with minor contributions by Mykola Markevych, Nestor Kukolnik, and the composer based on the 1820 narrative poem of the same name by Alexander Pushkin. Pushkin's death in the famous duel prevented him from writing the libretto himself as planned. Today, the best known music from the opera is its overture.

The premiere took place in Saint Petersburg on 27 November(Old Style) 1842 at the Bolshoi Kamenniy Teatr. The initial lack of enthusiasm for this Russian inspired production has been attributed to the Saint Petersburg's audience's growing taste at the time for Italian opera, which was so pronounced that in 1843, Tsar Nicholas I established an Italian opera company in the Bolshoi Kamenniy Teatr, and the Russian opera company lost its home. Four years later, the opera was given its Moscow premiere at the Bolshoi Theatre in 1846. The opera has been a mainstay of the Bolshoi, having staged over 700 performances in 9 different productions over the past 165 years. The opera was first performed in the UK on 4 June 1931 at the Lyceum Theatre in London and in the US as a concert version in New York on 26 December 1942. It was given its first staged performance in the US by Sarah Caldwell's Opera Company of Boston on 5 March 1977.

+RoleVoice typeSaint Petersburg premiere,27 November(Old Style) 1842Conductor: Karl AlbrechtMoscow premiere, 1846Conductor: Ivan IogannisSvetozar, Great Prince of KievbassSergey BaykovLyudmila, his daughtersopranoMariya StepanovaMariya StepanovaRuslan, a Kievan knight, Lyudmila's betrothedbassOsip PetrovSemen Hulak ArtemovskyRatmir, a Khazar princecontraltoAnfisa PetrovaAnna Petrova VorobyovaFarlaf, a Varangian knightbassDominic ToziOsip PetrovGorislava, a captive of RatmirsopranoEmiliya LileyevaEmiliya LileyevaFinn, a good sorcerertenorLev LeonovLev LeonovNaina, an evil sorceressmezzo sopranoYelizaveta Rïkalova (Marcel)Bayan, a bardtenorN. LikhanskyChorus, silent roles: the evil sorcerer Chernomor, the Head, Sons of Svetozar, knights, boyars and boyarynyas, chamber maids and nurse maids, page boys, bodyguards, cupbearers, stolniks, the Prince's armed force, people, maids of the magic castle, blackamoors, dwarves, slaves of Chernomor, nymphs, water nymphs

In Svetozar's banquet hall, the wedding feast for Ruslan and Lyudmila is taking place. The guests listen to Bayan sing a song foretelling misfortune for the bride and groom, followed by happiness from true love. Lyudmila, saddened by the prospect of leaving her father, offers words of comfort to her unsuccessful suitors, Farlaf and Ratmir, and then pledges herself to Ruslan. Svetozar blesses the couple. All of a sudden everything goes dark and there is a crash of thunder. The people are paralysed by a spell while two monsters carry Lyudmila away. When light returns and everyone recovers, they panic over Lyudmila's disappearance. Svetozar promises half his kingdom and Lyudmila's hand to the man who brings her back. The three suitors ready themselves for the journey to find Lyudmila.

Young maidens are luring passing travelers to enter Naina's magical castle. Gorislava appears, looking for Ratmir, who had taken her captive and then abandoned her. After she goes away for a moment, Ratmir himself comes on the scene and falls under the spell of the maidens, who seduce him with dance. The final guest attracted to the castle is Ruslan, who finds himself forgetting Lyudmila upon seeing Gorislava. Suddenly Finn appears; and, after pronouncing a happy fate for Ratmir with Gorislava, and for Ruslan with Lyudmila, the castle turns into a forest as they resolve to rescue Lyudmila.

Within Chernomor's magical gardens, Lyudmila longs for Ruslan and resists the influence of the enchanted surroundings. Chernomor with his retinue arrives; dances are performed. A trumpet call signals a challenge from Ruslan. Chernomor puts Lyudmila under a sleeping spell and goes off to fight Ruslan, who shortly comes on the scene triumphantly wearing Chernomor's beard around his helmet. Although he is disheartened by Lyudmila's condition, Ruslan, along with Ratmir and Gorislava, resolve to return to Kiev with Lyudmila to seek the aid of the magicians there. Chernomor's former slaves freely come along.

As with A Life for the Tsar, Ruslan employs some aspects of Russian folk music; it is also noted for imaginative use of dissonance, chromaticism, and Eastern elements. Of particular consequence is the use of the whole tone scale for the first time in Russian music. It is particularly associated thematically with Chernomor and, as a result, became so popular among Russian composers for suggesting evil or ominous personages or situations, that even today Russian musicians refer to the whole tone scale as gamma Chernomora, or "Chernomor's scale". The rollicking overture is one of the best known orchestral showpieces in the West and known for being a nightmare for bassists. An orchestral feature of act 1 is the use of piano and harp to suggest the timbre of the gusli. Glinka's debt to Western operatic models is abundantly apparent in Farlaf's Rondo, a Russian emulation of Figaro's "Largo al factotum" from Rossini's The Barber of Seville. Glinka's variation treatment of folk melody crystallized in Ruslan into what has been called his influential "changing background technique", used, for example, in Finn's ballad and the Head's narrative, but seen to best advantage in the Persian Chorus that opens act 3, where the tune remains intact through five statements while the orchestral background is changed completely on each repetition. Along with its counterpart A Life for the Tsar, this second opera by Glinka confirmed a Russian national operatic foundation that was to be built upon by the next generation of Russian composers. In particular, Ruslan served as the model for Russian operatic fairy tales, particularly those of Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov.

1938: Samuil Samosud (conductor), Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra and Chorus, Maksim Mikhaylov (Svetozar), Valeria Barsova (Lyudmila), Mark Reizen (Ruslan), Yelizaveta Antonova (Ratmir), Vasiliy Lubenchov (Farlaf), Yelena Slivinskaya (Gorislava), Nikander Khanayev (Finn), Lyudmila Stavrovskaya (Naina), Solomon Khromchenko (Bayan). 1952: Kirill Kondrashin (conductor), Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra and Chorus, Vladimir Gavriushov (Svetozar), Vera Firsova (Lyudmila), Ivan Petrov (Ruslan), Eugenia Verbitskaya (Ratmir), Alexei Krivchenya (Farlaf), Nina Pokrovskaya (Gorislava), Georgi Nelepp (Finn), Elena Korneyeva (Naina), Sergei Lemeshev (Bayan). 1979: Yuri Simonov (conductor), Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra and Chorus, Valeri Yaroslavtsev (Svetozar), Bela Rudenko (Lyudmila), Evgeny Nesterenko (Ruslan), Tamara Sinyavskaya (Ratmir), Boris Morozov (Farlaf), Nina Fomina (Gorislava), Aleksei Maslennikov (Finn), Galina Borisova (Naina), Alexander Arkhipov (Bayan). 1995: (DVD) Valery Gergiev (conductor), Kirov Orchestra, Opera Chorus and Ballet, St. Petersburg, in association with San Francisco Opera, Mikhail Kit (Svetozar), Anna Netrebko (Lyudmila), Vladimir Ognovenko (Ruslan), Larissa Diadkova (Ratmir), Gennady Bezzubenkov (Farlaf), Galina Gorchakova (Gorislava), Konstantin Pluzhnikov (Finn), Irena Bogachova (Naina), Yuri Marusin (Bayan). 2011: (DVD) Vladimir Jurowski (conductor), Orchestra and Choir of the Bolshoi Theatre, Albina Shagimuratova (Lyudmila), Mikhail Petrenko (Ruslan), Yuriy Mynenko (Ratmir), Almas Svilpa (Farlaf), Alexandrina Pendatchanska (Gorislava), lt=Charles Workman (Finn/Bayan), Vladimir Ognovenko (Svetozar), Elena Zaremba (Naina).

The 1992 video game Tetris Classic incorporated the opera's overture as its title theme, and arranged selections of the opera are featured throughout the game. The overture was also used as the theme tune for the TV series Mom, the children's TV series Oscar's Orchestra, and the BBC Radio 4 sitcom Cabin Pressure.