The Decembrists (opera)
The Decembrists (Russian: Декабристы, Dekabristi) is an historical opera by Yuri Shaporin with libretto by Vsevolod Rozhdestvensky, Aleksey Tolstoy and others.
[4] Polina Gyobel’ had a libretto by the historian Pavel Shchegolev [ru] and Shaporin's close friend Aleksey Tolstoy, one of whose poems he had previously set.
This version culminated in a battle-scene conceived on a huge scale which could only be produced by an opera house boasting a very large stage and an almost unlimited budget for sets and extras.
[8] By September 1952, having met all the authorities' demands for revision, Shaporin had completed his score and a production had been prepared by the Bolshoi, but no-one dared to stage it until Joseph Stalin had seen and approved it.
Dimitri enters and raises the question of whether their insurrection should be in St Petersburg or in the south, and when Bestuzhev arrives with the news that the Tsar has killed himself they decide by a majority that the time for revolution has come.
On the road to Siberia the party of exiled Decembrists passes a group of disconsolate serfs and sings a final Hymn to Liberation.
[12] Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and particularly the Borodin of Prince Igor are among the composers seen as being most influential on its style and structure, though Shaporin's work is more than a mere pastiche.
[13] Harmonically, it draws on Shaporin's encyclopedic knowledge of music history, sometimes, it has been said, sounding like "a grousy Grieg or an attenuated Wagner",[14] and at other times reminding the listener of the harmonies of Borodin, Tchaikovsky and, if only faintly, of Prokofiev.
[15] The Decembrists has been a popular work in Russia,[8] and for many years in the Soviet era it was the only contemporary opera in the Bolshoi's permanent repertoire.
[1] Soviet critics were largely agreed that The Decembrists was a great achievement, accessible, dramatic and in keeping with the Russian national tradition.
Dimitri and Elena were thought to be successful Romantic creations, and there was praise for his vision of the Russian masses and of the various Decembrist leaders, even if the latter were not particularly differentiated musically.
[18] There was wide agreement that the composer should have made the rebellion itself the climax of the opera, but the final scene, in which the Decembrists and the peasants express their hope for the future together, was nevertheless praised.
The phrase "optimistic tragedy" was coined to summarise Shaporin's conception of his theme, and one critic wrote that he had successfully translated the lofty tone of the Decembrists' civic feelings and intentions, the historical optimism of their struggle, and instilled in the listeners deep sympathy for the heroes who gave their young lives for the happiness of future generations.
[6] Stanley Krebs was disappointed by the shift of focus in the libretto's final version from the love story to the history of the Decembrist revolt; both he and Ludmilla Trigos believed that the opera struggles to solve the problem of how to make the people the centre of the action, as socialist realist orthodoxy demands, when historically they were not.
[1][15][6] Stephen Johnson has written that "the vocal writing is sympathetic, the orchestral contribution has colour, atmosphere and, in places, real intensity of feeling"; however, he had to agree with Gerald Abraham in missing "some element that can be isolated and labelled 'unmistakable Shaporin'".
[22][2] The Orchestra and Chorus of the Bolshoi Theatre under Alexander Melik-Pashayev, who were entrusted with the opera's premiere in 1953, made the only complete recording of The Decembrists the following year.
