Opera "Ruslan and Lyudmila" - Facts, video, content

M. I. Glinka opera "Ruslan and Lyudmila"

The opera "Ruslan and Lyudmila" is practically the first performance that students of children's music schools get to know in music literature classes. The famous "March of Chernomor" from the fourth act is well known not only to professionals, but also to music lovers. So much wide the polarity of the performance of M.I. Glinka is due to the fact that it is filled with wonderful, lyrical and such “Russian” music, fabulous, fantastic images and an exciting plot based on the work of another great Russian creator - A. S. Pushkin.

The summary of Glinka's opera Ruslan and Lyudmila and many interesting facts about this work are on our page.

Summary

At the wedding feast of Ruslan and Lyudmila a strange thing happens, suddenly two monsters appear and carry away the bride, leaving all the guests to stand in silent daze. The inconsolable father has nothing left to do but promise the one who will find Lyudmila to give her to a lawful spouse. Three knights are sent in search: Ruslan, Ratmir and Farlaf.

Young and brave warriors are waiting for a lot of detractors and helpers on the way. So, thanks to the wizard Finn, Ruslan finds out who kidnapped his beloved, it turned out to be the evil Black Sea. The mysterious well-wisher tells Ruslan that Lyudmila still loves him and is waiting for him to rescue her from the captive of the magician.

Not all the knights turned out to be as brave as Ruslan. Farlaf, despite his beautiful bass voice, is in fact just an ordinary coward, who is already ready to abandon the search altogether. He is confronted by the sorceress Naina, who wants to help, and prevent Ruslan from winning.

The next fairy-tale character that gets in the way of the protagonist is a huge Head turned out to be Chernomor's brother. He gives the brave warrior a sword with which he can defeat the villain.

Meanwhile, the treacherous sorceress Naina did not lose time in vain, and she cunningly lured travelers to her castle with the help of beautiful maidens and visions. Only through the help of Finn, they manage to avoid death and destroy the spell. In the deadly duel of Ruslan and Chernomor, thanks to the magic sword, the knight triumphs and it would seem that here it is a victory! But, the treacherous villain bewitched Lyudmila and the girl sleeps with a sleepless sleep.

Ruslan went with her and his loyal friends to Kiev. But another cowardly warrior set off to find Lyudmila, didn't you forget? Farlaf waited for the retinue to stop for the night and stole the girl, hurrying soon to go to Kiev and get a long-awaited reward. Here are the only spells for Lyudmila under Ruslan only, because he has a magic ring, handed by kind Finn. Appearing in the palace, the brave warrior destroys the charms of Chernomor and all the guests cheer, praising the brave Ruslan and his lovely bride Lyudmila.

A photo:

Interesting Facts

• Glinka said that comedian Shakhovsky was the first to give him the idea to write an opera on one of Zhukovsky's evenings.
• Work on the opera lasted about five years.
• When the author began to work on the work, there was not even a libretto yet.
• Interestingly, the country Lukomorye, in which the action takes place, was depicted on maps of the XVI-XVIII centuries. It was a terrain in Siberia, located on the right bank of the Ob River.
• The opera was written by the composer in the walls of his house, located on Gorokhovaya, 5.
• For the film "Ruslan and Lyudmila" it took 300 birds - parrots. However, their purchase would be very expensive for the film studio, so it was decided to go for a trick. A few dozen parrots bought it, and the rest of the birds were “played” by the pigeons painted under them.
• It is curious that the legendary prologue “At Lukomorye”, which many A. Pushkin included in the poem only 8 years after it was written, at the time of editing.
• Despite the huge work done, the premiere of the opera was greeted rather coldly. This is partly due to the libretto, around which many rumors circulated. Moreover, the culprit of these conversations is the composer himself. He wrote in one of his stories that at the next meeting, Bakhturin drunk in just half an hour of work sketched out a plan for the future performance.
• The original manuscript of the opera has not been preserved since it burned down in a fire at the Mariinsky Theater in 1859. N. Rimsky-Korsakov, M. Balakirev and A. Lyadov had to restore it.
• The long-awaited premiere of the performance was timed to the sixth anniversary of the first performance of the opera "Life for the Tsar".
• Especially for this opera, Glinka invented a technique that allows you to show the sound of gusli. A little later, this idea was used by Rimsky-Korsakov in his fairy operas: The Snow Maiden, Sadko.
• In his opera M. I. Glinka for the first time applied a unique device - the "Chernomor scale". This is the sound range, which is located on the whole tones - the whole gamma. The author specially invented such an original scale to emphasize the image of Chernomor. Later, Dargomyzhsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin used this technique.
• For all the time of its existence, the opera was performed on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater about 700 times.

Popular arias and numbers

Overture (listen)

Bayan's song "The affairs of bygone days" 1 act (listen)

Rondo Farlaf "The hour of my triumph is near now" from 2 pictures 2 acts (to listen)

Ruslan's aria "About the field, field, who littered you with dead bones" from 3 pictures 2 acts (to listen)

March of Chernomor 4 act (listen)

History of creation

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka drew attention to the poem "Ruslan and Lyudmila" during the life of the great poet. It was then that the composer decided to write an opera on this plot, which was very interesting for Pushkin, who actively began to participate in the discussion of the plan for the work. However, the sudden death of the poet interrupted this collaboration. Later on, K. Bakhturin, V. Shirokov and the composer himself worked on the libretto. In addition, Glinka's friends, N. Kukolnik, worked on the text of the opera, on whose verses many romances were written, the historian Markevich and the censor M. Gedeonov. As a result of the work done, the plot of the play was greatly changed. So, in the first place came the epic beginning, and the lyrics greatly deepened. In addition, the main character has only two real opponents. As for the Khazar prince, he became an assistant Ruslan. The image of Bayan is now significantly enlarged.

As a result, all the careful work on the play lasted for several years. In 1837 the composer completed the first act completely and even presented it to the directorate of theaters. About a year later, separate rooms were performed in the Kachenovka estate, which were very warmly received by the audience. Work on the whole score ended in 1842.

The epic opera of the five acts turned out really impressive. It praised heroism and true nobility. In addition, cowardice, anger and cruelty were mercilessly ridiculed and criticized. In addition, this is a fairy tale, which means that its main idea is the victory of good over evil. Another distinctive feature of the opera is an amazing gallery of images created by Glinka. Among them are the courageous Ruslan, the cowardly Farlaf, the cruel Black Sea, the kind Finn and other heroes, distinguished by their bright characters.

Production history

The performance premiered on November 27, 1842 at the Bolshoi Theater. The performance was decided to coincide with the anniversary of the premiere of the first opera of the composer - "Life for the Tsar". Moreover, Glinka's second opera was put on the same stage, at the same time, but this did not help her. The performance was not particularly successful. And many reproached Glink for not taking the libretto with due seriousness, but this is not at all the case. The well-known critic Serov noted that the libretto of the opera was written without a plan, piece by piece, and even by different authors. However, the surviving evidence confirms that Glinka worked very carefully and painstakingly on this work, including paying attention to the libretto. This confirms another critic - Stasov, who noted how hard and carefully Glinka worked on even the smallest details of the opera.

Nevertheless, at the premiere, during the third act, the public lost interest, and at the end of the fifth, the imperial family left the theater completely, without waiting for the final chords. After the curtain fell, Glinka did not know whether he should go on stage. Moreover, the departure of the emperor influenced the reception of the opera by the public. Despite this, for the first season the performance was staged a total of 32 times.

However, gradually, with each new formulation, the success of the work only increased. Among the bright and noticeable prime ministers is the version of 1904, which was successfully staged at the Mariinsky Theater. It was dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the famous composer M. Glinka. Among the soloists were such eminent singers like Slavina, Chaliapin, Ershov and others.

Among the modern productions is the premiere, held in April 2003 at the Bolshoi Theater, worked on by Viktor Kramer. And even before the performance was presented to the public, he positioned himself as an opera of the 21st century. Original scenery, the play of light, "dancing" double basses, special direction - made this production special. However, this version was a failure and sustained only three submissions.

A rather scandalous production took place at the Bolshoi Theater. On November 5, 2011, the public was able to get acquainted with the work of director Dmitry Chernyakov, who has long been famous for his provocative works. But this time his idea turned out to be a failure, and many viewers left the hall without waiting for the final, the rest shouted “shame” at all. If the first action of the opera was performed rather conservatively, then in the second, innovations began. Lyudmila ended up in the villain’s camp, and tempted her with a Thai massage. On the characters there is very little clothing, and the scenery and does resemble a beauty salon. Everything is unusual in this version: corporate party, scenery for the cinema, with the leaving "corpses" after work, a reminder of the country's hot spots. But the main character in this production is not Ruslan, but Finn.

The opera was fallen in love not only in Russia, but also abroad, where it was repeatedly presented to the public. Foreign connoisseurs of art first met the opera Ruslan and Lyudmila in 1906 in Ljubljana, then in 1907 in Paris, London, Berlin and other European cities. Among them, the work of C. McKeras, which he presented in Hamburg in 1969, stands out the most. This time Balanchine played the role of choreographer. The hall warmly welcomed the singers and appreciated the work of the great composer.

Such an interesting plot is very interested and filmmakers. So, for the first time the poem was filmed in 1914 by Vladislav Starrevich. A little later, Viktor Nevezhin and Ivan Nikitchenko took up the film "Ruslan and Lyudmila", which was released in 1938. The third film adaptation was conceived by director Alexander Ptushko in 1972. The two-part fairy-tale film immediately won the viewers with its magnificent plot, luxurious costumes and unsurpassed play of actors. Interestingly, the non-professional actress Natalya Petrova was invited to the role of Lyudmila, for whom this role became her debut and almost the only one. By the way, Chernomor also played not a professional.

For more than a hundred years, the magnificent opera by Glinka captivates the hearts of classical music lovers, and this applies even to the smallest admirers of the performance. Awesome plot, great music of the composer fascinates literally from the first chord, forcing, together with the actors, to plunge into this fabulous atmosphere. We offer to watch the opera "Ruslan and Lyudmila" and, together with the main character, try to overcome all difficulties and rescue the beloved from captivity of Chernomor. Watch Glinka's opera right now in excellent quality and original production.

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