Opera "War and Peace" opera in two acts by Sergei Prokofiev World famous Mariinsky Ballet and Opera - Mariinsky II (New Theatre)
Running time: 3 hours 55 minutes
The performance has 1 intermission
Schedule for "War and Peace" opera in two acts by Sergei Prokofiev 2022
Composer: Sergei Prokofiev Set Designer: George Tsypin Costume Designer: Tatiana Noginova Principal Chorus Master: Andrei Petrenko Musical Director: Maestro Valery Gergiev Musical Preparation: Irina Soboleva Stage Director: Andrei Petrov Director: Irkin Gabitov Set Designer: Paul Brown Director: Graham Vick Stage Director: Andrei Konchalovsky Choreography: Sergei Gritsai Piano: Irina Soboleva
Orchestra: Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra
Opera in 2 act
Performed in Russian with synchronised English supertitles
Premiere of this production: 11 March 2000, Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg, Russia
opera in two acts (2000 Production)
Music: Sergey Prokofiev
Production by Andrei Konchalovsky
Libretto: Sergey Prokofiev and Mira Mendelson-Prokofieva
after the novel of the same name by Lev Tolstoy
Musical Director: Valery Gergiev
Director: Andrei Konchalovsky
Set Designer: George Tsypin
Costume Designer: Tatiana Noginova
Lighting Designer: James Ingalls
Principal Chorus Master: Andrey Petrenko
Musical Preparation: Irina Soboleva
Co-production with the Metropolitan Opera
2000 Production
… It was a performance about Russia and her vast lands and history. An opera
about both Tolstoy and Prokofiev that has a contemporary
Weltanschauung.
Irena Leina. Kultura
Konchalovsky's solution is brilliant: the action takes place on a convex dome
like the curved surface of the Earth. This nicely reflects the circularity of
the waltz music in the “peace” themes, while its ceaselessly changing landscape
gives the “war” theme a dizzy, global feel. All this is splendidly cinematic:
under swirling Turner skies , the battling armies and oppressed multitudes shunt
endlessly to and fro while acts of casual brutality and hopeless heroism suggest
war's pity, terror and confusion. Prokofiev's atmospheric music emerges in all
its glory thanks to Gergiev's magic in the pit.
Michael Church. The Independent
Konchalovsky has brilliantly met the fundamental task: to stage a vivid,
dynamic, visually intense production, to embody the heroic and patriotic idea of
the opera without any false pathos. An entire gallery of Russian characters,
living, unpretentious, natural and life-like, comes to life, contemplates,
suffers and acts within the space of the opera. On the huge stage of the
Mariinsky Theatre, rigged out with the new imported rotating circle, the stage
director stealthily, like an army commander, has mixed up Russian and French
regiments, a partisan division and the peasant militia, one after another
recreating the Battle of Borodino, the Shevardino Redoubt, Moscow streets aflame
and the shooting of French “arsonists”. The auditorium burst into applause when
the pure starry sky was reproduced on the white synthetic back curtain of the
stage, the Universe with its myriad stars, the impetuously rushing clouds of
smoke, the white stone walls and golden cupolas of Moscow illumined by the
flame. Also effective was the rousing “red cockerel” of the fire with its
spreading wings.
Larisa Kazanskaya. Russian Music
Gazette
This is a serious effort, influenced no doubt by the perceived tastes on the
international audience that awaits it. And Konchalovsky has shunned any imposed
outside “interpretation”. George Tsypin's sets emphasize the opera's cosmic
nature by placing the action on a convex surface, apparently the top of a huge,
mostly unseen globe. Tatyana Noginova's period costumes – especially the
soldier's uniforms – are spectacular in their detail. The singing was
splendid by any standard and little short of astonishing when one bears in mind
that all 57 roles (after the cuts) are cast solely from the company.
George Loomis. Musical America
Your heart thumps when you hear the delicate, inexpressibly tender melody of
the waltz and suddenly the stage rumbles and flies upwards under the feet of the
dancing Natasha and Andrei, carrying off strange faces, figures frozen still,
Sonya, Pierre, Akhrosimova, the entire disordered world in all its varied
colours… And the director’s discovery so stuns us with its unexpected subtlety
and the psychological truth comprising the very essence of Tolstoy’s deep words.
Olga Gladkova. Smena
Synopsis
Part 1 (Peace)
The Overture or the Epigraph usually precedes the action
Scene 1: After dark, in the garden of Count Rostov's country estate, May, 1806
Andrei, who is a guest there, is depressed by the loss of his wife. Natasha, who also cannot sleep, looks out of her window and tells Sonya how beautiful the garden looks in the moonlight, and Andrei recovers his spirits.
Scene 2: New Year's Eve, 1810
At a ball in St Petersburg attended by the Tsar, Pierre encourages Andrei, who is attracted to Natasha, to ask her to dance. Anatole, also attracted to her, asks Hélène to arrange an introduction.
Scene 3: Town house of Prince Nikolai, February 1812
Count Rostov and Natasha visit Prince Nikolai's home. He is the father of Andrei, to whom she is engaged. Andrei has been abroad for a year. Princess Marya indicates that her father will not see them, and Count Rostov departs. However, the Prince, dressed eccentrically and behaving boorishly, does appear, and Natasha realises that he does not approve of the marriage.
Scene 4: Pierre's Moscow house, May 1812
Hélène tells Natasha that Anatole is attracted to her, and, after some hesitation, Natasha hears his declaration of love and agrees to meet him.
Scene 5: Dolokhov's apartment, 12 June 1812
Dolokhov has made the arrangements for his friend Anatole's elopement with Natasha. The coach-driver Balaga, Dolokhov and Anatole drink to the escapade and to the latter's mistress Matriosha.
Scene 6: Later that night
Natasha discovers that Sonya has given away her secret to Madame Akhrosimova, with whom they are staying. Anatole and Dolokhov are sent away by Gavrila, and Akhrosimova reduces Natasha to tears. Pierre arrives, reveals that Anatole is married, and agrees to ask Andrei to forgive Natasha. He shyly admits that he himself would want to marry her if he were free. Natasha makes her peace with Sonya.
Scene 7: Later still
Hélène is entertaining Anatole, Metivier and an Abbé. Pierre, returning home, upbraids Anatole and demands that he leave Moscow immediately. He agrees, and Pierre is left alone to bemoan his own circumstances. Denisov arrives with the news that Napoleon and his army are crossing into Russia. War is inevitable.
Part 2 (War)
The Epigraph is usually performed here if it was not used at the start of Part 1.
Scene 8: Near Borodino, 25 August 1812
Amid preparations for the defence of Moscow, Andrei and Denisov discuss utilising partisans to make life difficult for Napoleon's army. Pierre, wanting to observe the scene, arrives, and he and Andrei embrace, perhaps for the last time. Field-Marshal Kutuzov offers Andrei a position on his staff, but Andrei prefers to go into battle with his own regiment. The battle starts.
Scene 9: Later that day
Napoleon ponders his position, first refusing to commit more men, then agreeing. An unexploded cannonball lands at his feet and he kicks it away.
Scene 10: Two days later
Kutuzov and his generals are holding a Council of War at Fili, near Smolensk. The army will be at risk if Moscow is to be defended to the last - but if the army retreats, Moscow will be at the mercy of the French. Kutuzov decides that only by retreating, and potentially sacrificing Moscow, will there be any hope of victory.
Scene 11: Moscow is burning
The city is on fire because its citizens try to avoid a surrender. Pierre is caught up among some Muscovites, including the veteran Platon Karataev, who are accused by the French of fire-raising. As the asylum and theatre burn, lunatics and actresses flee - but Napoleon has to admit that the courage of the people has frustrated his plans.
Scene 12: In a peasant's hut at Mitishi
The wounded Prince Andrei, delirious, has been evacuated with the Rostovs from Moscow. Natasha, who had been unaware that he was among her fellow evacuees, visits him. She tries to apologise for her conduct, but he again declares his love for her, and they sing of their happiness as Natasha reassures him that he will live. He falls asleep, and his heartbeat (conveyed by an offstage chorus) stops for ever.
Scene 13: November, 1812
On the road to Smolensk, the retreating French are escorting a group of prisoners through a snow-storm. Karataev cannot keep up and is shot, but Pierre and the others are rescued by the partisans. Denisov tells Pierre that Andrei is dead but that Natasha is alive and well. Kutuzov and his men rejoice in their victory, and celebrate the indomitable will of the Russian people.
Schedule for "War and Peace" opera in two acts by Sergei Prokofiev 2022
|