Revelry
The upper room in the house of the guardsman Grigory Gryazny. Grigory is in thought: he passionately fell in love with Martha, the daughter of the merchant Sobakin, but she was betrothed to the young boyar Ivan Lykov. To forget himself, Gryaznoy decided to throw a feast, where he invited the royal physician Bomelius; Gryaznoy has important business with him. Guests arrive: guardsmen led by Malyuta Skuratov, a friend of Gryaznoy, Ivan Lykov and the long-awaited Elisey Bomeliy. Lykov talks about foreign lands from which he recently returned. Everyone praises Emperor Ivan the Terrible, feasts and has fun. Malyuta remembers Lyubasha. “Who is this... Lyubasha?” - asks Bomelius. “Dirty’s mistress, miracle girl!” - Malyuta answers. Gryaznoy calls Lyubasha, who, at Malyuta’s request, sings a song about the bitter lot of a girl forced to marry someone she doesn’t love. The guests disperse, Gregory detains Bomelius. Lyubasha, sensing something bad, overhears their conversation. Gryaznoy asks Bomelius for a love potion - “to bewitch the girl to himself.” The doctor promises to help.
After Bomelius leaves, Lyubasha bitterly reproaches Gregory for having stopped loving her. But Gryaznoy does not listen to the girl. They call for matins. Gregory leaves. Lyubasha vows to find the homewrecker and turn her away from Gryaznoy.
Act II
Love potion
Street in Alexandrovskaya Sloboda. The parishioners leave the monastery after Vespers. Marfa tells her friend about her fiance Ivan Lykov. Suddenly a detachment of guardsmen appears from the gates of the monastery. She does not recognize Tsar Ivan the Terrible at the head of the detachment, but his gaze frightens Marfa. Only after seeing her father and groom does Martha calm down. Sobakin invites Lykov into the house, the girls follow them. Lyubasha appears at the Sobakins' house. She wants to see her rival and looks into the lighted window. Lyubasha is amazed by Marfa's beauty. In desperate determination, she rushes to Bomelius and asks him to sell a potion that could lime human beauty. Bomelius agrees in exchange for her love. Indignant Lyubasha wants to leave, but the doctor threatens to tell Gryazny about her request. Marfa's laughter coming from the Sobakins' house forces Lyubasha to agree to Bomelius's condition.
Act III
Friend
The upper room in the house of the merchant Sobakin. The owner tells Lykov and Gryaznoy that Marfa, along with Dunyasha and other boyar daughters, has been summoned to the Tsar’s palace for a viewing.
Lykov is alarmed, and Gryaznoy is alarmed. Sobakin tries to calm the groom down. Gryaznoy volunteers to be a groomsman at Lykov’s wedding.
Domna Saburova, Dunyasha’s mother, enters and talks about the Tsar’s bride viewing party. The king barely glanced at Martha, but was very affectionate with Dunyasha. Lykov sighs with relief. Grigory pours two glasses to congratulate the bride and groom, and he pours a love potion into Marfa’s glass. As soon as Martha enters the upper room, Gregory congratulates the newlyweds and brings them glasses. Martha, according to the ancient custom, drinks her glass to the bottom. Saburova sings a majestic song, which is picked up by the bridesmaids.
Malyuta solemnly appears with the boyars and announces the will of Ivan the Terrible - Martha has been chosen to marry the sovereign and become queen.
Act IV
Bride
Tsar's tower. Sobakin is saddened by his daughter’s illness: a serious unknown illness is tormenting her. Dirty comes with with the king's word and reports to Marfa that Lykov allegedly repented of his intention to kill Marfa with a potion and the king ordered his execution, which he, Gryaznoy, did with his own hand. Martha falls unconscious to the floor. When she wakes up, she doesn’t recognize anyone: she mistakes Gryaznoy for Lykov, speaks affectionately to him, remembering her time with her fiancé. happy Days. Shocked, Gryaznoy confesses that he slandered Lykov and killed Marfa himself by giving her a love potion. Gryaznoy, in despair, is ready to accept a “terrible judgment,” but before that he wants to “divorce” Bomelius, who deceived him. “Divorce me,” Lyubasha, who appears, tells him. She says that she replaced the love potion that was given to Marfa with poison. Gregory kills her with a knife.
But Martha does not notice anything. All her thoughts are in the past, with Lykov.
Duration - 03:30, the performance has two intermissions
Buy tickets for the opera The Tsar's Bride
Opera N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tsar's Bride is a large-scale work, it embodies the traditions of Russian classical music, directing, and scenography. Seeing the names of famous conductors and singers on the poster, the viewer understands that there is a bright performance ahead. Its premiere took place in 2014, directed by Yulia Pevzner, music director and conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky, set designer Alona Pikalova staged it based on the set design by Fyodor Fedorovsky. In the title roles, viewers will see the famous bass Vladimir Matorin, Kristina Mkhitaryan, Ksenia Dudnikova. Opera The Tsar's Bride at the Bolshoi Theater- a notable event in the capital's music scene.
Buy tickets for The Tsar's Bride
The beautiful Marfa Sobakina is betrothed to Ivan Lykov, the young people are in love and happy. However,
The image of the girl haunts Grigory Gryazny, in an attempt to win her heart, he turns to the doctor Bomelius for a love potion. Lyubasha, Gryazny’s mistress, overhears this conversation and plans to harass her rival. At this time, the news spreads around the area that Tsar Ivan the Terrible is organizing a brideshow, Martha and other girls are invited to the palace. But everything seems to be working out, but while congratulating the newlyweds, Marfa accepts a glass from the hands of Gryaznoy, where instead of a potion Lyubasha has added poison. Lykov is accused of poisoning her and is executed, and his beautiful bride dies.
Everyone can attend a beautiful performance, hurry up order tickets for the opera The Tsar's Bride.
I ended my theatrical season as a spectator at the Bolshoi Theater, just as a good host leaves the most expensive wine for the end of the feast. I bought tickets two months in advance on the Internet and was looking forward to this day.
I wanted to go to the opera, and I chose Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tsar's Bride. And of course I wanted to see the Historical Stage after reconstruction.
An hour before the start of the performance is not enough to fully explore the theater, which is why it is so big.
The theater has 7 floors up and 3 floors down - a total of 10 floors! 10 floors of elegant classic style with the conveniences of modern comfort and technology.
I was pleased that during the reconstruction the designers were not afraid to sacrifice some outdated structures and equipped the theater with elevators, three buffets and toilets on all levels.
Well, the historical interiors are magnificent.
The central white foyer, two luxurious red halls with sofas, mirrors and vases, marble staircases and entrance areas to the hall have preserved the imperial artistic taste of the 19th century.
Each floor is unique and has its own color scheme.
The main buffet is located on the 7th floor, occupies all of its space and is designed in accordance with modern design principles. Here you can sit in cozy corners on the sofas, or you can stand at the counter tables. The prices at the buffet are also high, but as they say: bargaining is not appropriate here.
Auditorium Bolshoi Theater– this is a special world.
Each box has two areas: a room closed with velvet curtains with a sofa and a mirror, and the box itself with seats.
My box No. 2 on the mezzanine “hangs” just above the orchestra pit. I could see all the musicians and the conductor.
Watching them create music is also very interesting. Illuminated only by the illumination of the music stands, wind instrument musicians, during pauses in their parts, manage to clean their clarinets, oboes and bassoons with a special scarf, pulling it through the pipe. Violinists place their bows on the shelf of the music stand to rest. All the musicians’ attention, even in moments of rest, is focused on the conductor’s movements, and they are ready to join the musical wave.
On the stage of a theater of the highest rank, the scenery must be convincing to the point of material reality. The opera "The Tsar's Bride" is good for the scope of creativity of stage artists.
This edition of the production is based on the scenery of Fyodor Fedorovsky, whose exhibition is currently taking place in Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val, dedicated to the 130th anniversary of the artist. An oak merchant's mansion with a huge tiled stove with colored windows, the royal red chambers, the whole street of Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, along which a real live horse rode twice - an amazingly tall, beautiful horse of an aristocratic horse breed, appeared in turn on the stage. Ivan the Terrible himself rode on a horse, an ominous figure hanging over the fate of the main characters of this sad story. The king did his formidable job: three deaths and one madwoman - this is the ending of the opera. Simple human happiness cannot break through in this cruel world of violence and slander. Love did not last long on stage. But this a short time, allotted to the libretto, the composer included all the passion, joy and despair of love. Anxiety for subtle feelings and short moments of sweet hope are embedded by Rimsky-Korsakov in music and voices.
Another special pleasure is the costumes of the performers. Women's sundresses, men's caftans made of painted patterned fabrics, kokoshniks covered with pearls of a wide variety of shapes and styles.
Against the backdrop of a terrible time, the beauty of the Russian costume delights and amazes with its beauty. artistic taste. For foreign viewers, the opera “The Tsar's Bride” is an opportunity to see the very essence of Russian culture in its most vivid manifestation. But there were also serious moments to perceive. It’s interesting how numerous foreign spectators perceive the scene of the guardsmen’s revelry in the settlement.
This scene struck me with its historical cruelty, when a detachment of guardsmen in black cloaks with hoods tormented a husband in front of his wife and hung the corpse of a huge wolf on a swing. Horror with a gun!
But then the golden curtain closed.
Spectators are also given the opportunity to slowly disperse and take photographs for memory.
As you leave the theater, you are greeted by a warm Moscow evening.
Fountain on Theater Square strewn with people. Beautiful, calm Moscow.
It's good that there is great music, great theater, beautiful opera artists. Let this live forever. Just let there be no subjects for tragic works in our lives. Let beauty save the world.
A couple of minutes before the start of the performance, accompanied by the theater’s general director Vladimir Urin, Tugan Sokhiev appeared in the hall, having officially taken over the post of chief conductor on February 1st. But he looked more like an honored guest than an executive at his workplace. It is clear from everything that Mr. Sokhiev, visiting the Bolshoi in the pauses between his overseas contracts, is still far from Everyday life theater and its pressing problems.
For more than the first season, the Bolshoi Theater has been suffering not only from behind-the-scenes squabbles, but, above all, from a lack of creative concept. And only the upcoming “cleansing” of the old repertoire, planned by the director, will not do. A series of seemingly random premieres brings only episodic success. This time it was decided to take a win-win step. Taking as the basis for the production not the director's idea, but the scenography of Fyodor Fedorovsky's 1955 performance - a large-scale, sovereign spectacle of golden Soviet era Bolshoi Theater. And the public, indeed, greets the “picture” with constant delight.
From “The Tsar's Bride” you can learn about the history of Russia - it is about the third wife of Ivan the Terrible, Marfa Saburova, who was poisoned by envious people two weeks after the wedding. In opera, the story of a crime naturally takes on a romantic character. Much space is devoted to the unfortunate Marfa, her fiancé Ivan Lykov, the royal guardsman Grigory Gryazny, who coveted the beauty, and her rival Lyubasha. The composer, who was not too fond of melodramatic plots, decided to try himself in this genre in 1899, taking literary basis Mei's drama of the same name. And he created an absolute musical masterpiece.
So the only hero who is deprived of any words in the opera turned out to be Ivan the Terrible. But the USSR-born Israeli Yulia Pevzner, who was involved in the revival of the production as director, put the Tsar on a real zealous horse. And it should be noted that she famously collected in one performance a solid collection of not only directorial cliches, but also “imported” banalities about Russia, without any attempt to build a dramatic relationship between the characters. Drunken dancing, stabbing and forced love, naturally, in bearskin, are the hits of her directorial thought.
In such a situation, it was especially difficult for the young soloists, to whom the premiere was mainly given. They do not have much personal experience and their personality has not yet been formed, and, naturally, they cannot yet saturate the action with the internal tension of their own experiences. Therefore, despite the director’s stunt work being modest by modern standards, what is essentially achieved is a concert performance in extremely spectacular costumes.
The girls - Agunda Kulaeva (Lyubasha), Olga Kulchinskaya (Marfa) - have very beautiful, full-voiced voices. Almost all the men, unfortunately, were, to put it mildly, out of voice on the day of the premiere: especially Alexander Kasyanov (Gryaznoy). There were a lot of mistakes in the vocals of Roman Shulakov (Lykov), and the famous Bolshoi bass Vladimir Matorin (Sobakin) performed his entire part off-key. And only Marat Gali (doctor-poisoner Bomelius) was successful in his role.
At the same time, it is impossible not to notice that the 82-year-old master Gennady Rozhdestvensky, who stood behind the conductor’s stand and urgently replaced Vasily Sinaisky, who extravagantly refused to continue working at the Bolshoi Theater on one day last December, does not pay special attention on the capabilities and needs of soloists. He gives Rimsky-Korsakov's score a slow-paced, meditative sound, rich in a huge palette of colors. It turns out very sensual and beautiful. It’s just a pity that the singers are sometimes separated from the orchestra for an eternity.
That very eternity that the Bolshoi Theater still has to overcome in order to become that “heraldic” pride of the country that we all so need. But only the reincarnation of past, even the most wonderful pages from legendary history theater, this cannot be achieved.