TCHAIKOVSKY: Cherevichki.(Review)

TCHAIKOVSKY: Cherevichki [] Morosova, Schemtchuk; Popov, Schagidullin, Ognovenko; Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, Rozhdestvensky. Text and translations. Dynamic CDS 287/1-3 (Qualiton, dist.)

Tchaikovsky considered his eighth opera, Cherevichki (The Slippers), to be his finest work. Many Tchaikovsky-lovers, unfamiliar with the piece, will find this pronouncement startling, but one need listen no further than the overture to hear some truly glorious writing. Much that is similarly arresting follows. Tchaikovsky, whose conservatory training gave him a thorough grounding in Western composition techniques, has never had the reputation of being an explicitly nationalistic composer like his contemporaries, the "Moguchaya Kuchka," but Cherevichki has a decidedly Russian flavor. Certainly the magical and unearthly elements in the libretto (adapted by Y. P. Polonsky from a short story by Nicolai Gogol) led the composer to Ruslan and Lyudmila as a model. In addition to this Glinka influence, there is a liberal use of Russian folk music, most of it free of the more "refined" Western harmonizations Tchaikovsky favored elsewhere.

The story concerns Vakula, a smith; his mother, Solocha, a witch; Bes, one of hell's devils; Oksana, Vakula's beloved; and Chub, Oksana's father and one of Solocha's suitors. Vakula has mocked Bes with a satirical drawing of him, and in revenge, Bes has vowed to thwart Vakula's courtship of Oksana. This isn't particularly difficult, as Oksana is coy, elusive and petulant, given to providing Vakula ...