Prince Igor (, ) is an opera in four acts with a prologue, written and composed by Alexander Borodin.
The composer adapted the libretto from the early Russian epic The Lay of Igor's Host, which recounts the campaign of the 12th-century prince Igor Svyatoslavich against the invading Cuman ("Polovtsian") tribes in 1185. He also incorporated material drawn from two medieval Kievan chronicles. The opera was left unfinished upon the composer's death in 1887 and was edited and completed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov. It was first performed in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1890.
Composition history
Original composition: 1869–1887
After briefly considering Lev Mei's The Tsar's Bride as a subject (later taken up in 1898 by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, his 9th opera), Borodin began looking for a new project for his first opera. Vladimir Stasov, critic and advisor to The Mighty Handful, suggested The Lay of Igor's Host, a 12th century epic prose poem, and sent Borodin a scenario for a three-act opera on 30 April 1869.Abraham and Lloyd-Jones (1986: p. 51). Initially, Borodin found the proposition intriguing, but daunting:
After collecting material from literary sources, Borodin began composition in September 1869 with initial versions of Yaroslavna's arioso and Konchakovna's cavatina, and sketched the Polovtsian Dances and March of the Polovtsy. He soon began to have doubts and ceased composing. He expressed his misgivings in a letter to his wife: "There is too little drama here, and no movement ... To me, opera without drama, in the strict sense, is unnatural."Malkiel and Barry (1994: p. 16). This began a period of about four years in which he proceeded no further on Prince Igor, but began diverting materials for the opera into his other works, the Symphony No. 2 in B minor (1869–1876) and the collaborative opera-ballet Mlada (1872).
The Mlada project was soon aborted, and Borodin, like the other members of The Mighty Handful who were involved – César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov – thought about ways to recycle the music he contributed. Of the eight numbers he had composed for Act 4 of Mlada, those that eventually found their way into (or back into) Prince Igor included No. 1 (Prologue: The opening C major chorus), No. 2 (material for Yaroslavna's arioso and Igor's aria), No. 3 (Prologue: The eclipse), No. 4 (Act 3: The trio), and No. 8 (Act 4: The closing chorus).Abraham and Lloyd-Jones (1986: p. 67).
Borodin returned to Prince Igor in 1874, inspired by the success of his colleagues Rimsky-Korsakov and Mussorgsky in the staging of their historical operas, The Maid of Pskov (1873) and Boris Godunov (1874). This period also marks the creation of two new characters, the deserters Skula and Yeroshka, who have much in common with the rogue monks Varlaam and Misail in Boris Godunov.
In his memoirs, Rimsky-Korsakov mentions an 1876 concert at which Borodin's "closing chorus" was performed, the first public performance of any music from Prince Igor identified by him:
The idea of a choral epilogue in the original scenario was no doubt inspired by the example of A Life for the Tsar by Mikhail Glinka, to whose memory Prince Igor is dedicated.
Borodin's primary occupation was chemistry, including research and teaching. However, he also spent much time in support of women's causes, much to the consternation of his fellow composers, who felt he should devote his time and talent to music.Rimsky-Korsakov (1923: p. 194) In 1876, a frustrated Stasov gave up hope that Borodin would ever finish Prince Igor, and offered his scenario to Rimsky-Korsakov.Rimsky-Korsakov (1923: p. 134) Rimsky-Korsakov instead assisted Borodin in orchestrating important numbers in preparation for concert performance; for example, the Polovtsian Dances in 1879:
Borodin worked on Prince Igor, off and on, for almost 18 years.
Posthumous completion and orchestration: 1887–1888 Borodin died suddenly in 1887, leaving Prince Igor incomplete. Rimsky-Korsakov and Stasov went to Borodin's home, collected his scores, and brought them to Rimsky-Korsakov's house.
The often-repeated account that Glazunov reconstructed and orchestrated the overture from memory after hearing the composer play it at the piano is true only in part. The following statement by Glazunov himself clarifies the matter:
Musical analysis Central to the opera is the way the Russians are distinguished from the Polovtsians through melodic characterization. While Borodin uses features of Russian folk music to represent his compatriots, he uses chromaticism, melismas and appoggiaturas—among other techniques—represent their 'heathen' opponents. These methods had already been used by Glinka and others to portray Orientalism in Russian music.
Performance history
The world premiere was given in St. Petersburg on 4 November (23 October O.S.), 1890 at the Mariinsky Theatre. Set designers were Yanov, Andreyev, and Bocharov, while Lev Ivanov was balletmaster. Moscow premieres followed in 1892 by the Russian Opera Society, conducted by Iosif Pribik. The Bolshoi Theatre premiere was given in 1898 and was conducted by Ulrikh Avranek
Other notable premieres were given in Prague in 1899 and in Paris in 1909, with a Sergei Diaghilev production featuring Feodor Chaliapin as Galitsky and Maria Nikolaevna Kuznetsova as Yaroslavna. Ivanov's choreography was revived by Mikhail Fokin (and in that form can be seen in the 1969 film.Alexander Shiryaev is quoted in Wiley, Roland John: "Dances in Opera: St. Petersburg" (Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research Winter 2015, Vol. 33, No. 2; p. 246): "By us it was accepted to think that the entire merit of the composition of these dances belonged exclusively to Fokine. In point of fact he only strengthened, enlivened, sharpened and embellished in various details the motifs of dances composed by L. Ivanov…" London saw the same production in 1914 conducted by Thomas Beecham, again with Chaliapin as Galitsky. In 1915 the United States premiere took place at the Metropolitan Opera, staged in Italian and conducted by Giorgio Polacco. The first performance in English was at Covent Garden on 26 July 1919, with Miriam Licette as Yaroslavna.Charles A Hooey, "Miriam Licette" on Music Web International
In January and February 2009 there was a production at the Aalto Theatre by the Essen Opera. While some aspects of the production may have been unusual, one critic noted that "placing the (Polovtsian) Dances as a Finale is an elegant idea, ... the director Andrejs Zagars and the conductor Noam Zur have thus presented a musically and dramaturgically coherent Prince Igor. Heartfelt applause for a worthwhile evening at the opera."Dr. Eva Maria Ernst on www.operapoint.com 3 February 2009
In 2011 there was a concert performance in Moscow by Helikon Opera, based on Pavel Lamm's reconstruction. A new edition based on 92 surviving manuscripts by Borodin was completed by musicologist Anna Bulycheva and published in 2012.Parin A. Innere Logik. Opernwelt, 06/2011
In 2014, the Metropolitan Opera in New York City staged a reconceived version, sung in Russian for the first time there. Director Dmitri Tcherniakov and conductor Gianandrea Noseda removed most of the melodies contributed by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov, although they retained those composers' orchestrations. They added many fragments by Borodin that Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov had omitted, basing their work on many decades of musicological research. They rearranged the order in which some of the material appeared, in some cases taking account of notes left by Borodin. The overall conception made the opera more of a psychological drama about Prince Igor and his state of mind, given the deep depression he went into following his soldiers' loss to the Polovtsians. The entire opera was reordered: after the prologue, in which the solar eclipse was taken as a bad omen, Act 1 presented a dream sequence dealing with the relation of Igor and his son with the Polovtsian general and his daughter in the Polovtsian camp. The second act largely dealt with the antics of Prince Galitsky in Putivyl and ended with the destruction of the city. The third act ended with Prince Igor coming out of his depression to begin the rebuilding of the destroyed city. This production starred Russian bass Ildar Abdrazakov in the title role with Ukrainian soprano Oksana Dyka as Yaroslavna. The performances in New York included a worldwide HD broadcast.Pasachoff, J. M., and Pasachoff, N., "Eclipse of Power", Nature, vol. 506, 27 February 2014, p. 432Kandell, Leslie, "Met's Prince Igor: An Exotic Romp Among the Poppies" on classicalvoiceamerica.orgTommasini, Anthony, "A New Vision for Prince Igor at the Met", The New York Times, February 7, 2014 The production was jointly produced with De Nederlandse Opera of Amsterdam.
At the beginning of the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in February 2014, some of Borodin's music from this opera was played while an eclipsed sun, crescent-shaped, drifted across the upper levels of the center of the stadium, showing the basis of Russian history in the Prince Igor story.
Publication history 1885, three arias, piano-vocal score, edition by Borodin, W. W. Bessel, St. Petersburg 1888, piano-vocal score, edition by Rimsky-Korsakov & Glazunov, M. P. Belyayev, Leipzig 1888, full score, edition by Rimsky-Korsakov & Glazunov, M. P. Belyayev, Leipzig 1953, piano-vocal score, edition by Rimsky-Korsakov & Glazunov, Muzgiz, Moscow 1954, full score, edition by Rimsky-Korsakov & Glazunov, Muzgiz, Moscow 2012, piano-vocal score, the original version, edited by Bulycheva, Classica-XXI, MoscowSee Laura Kennedy's review in: Nineteenth-Century Music Review, vol. 10, issue 2, pp. 387–390.
Roles RoleVoice typeSt. Petersburg premiere,4 November (23 October O.S.) 1890,(Conductor: Karl Kuchera)Moscow premiere,1892(Conductor: –)Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow,1898(Conductor: – )Igor Svyatoslavich, Prince of Novgorod-SeverskybaritoneIvan MelnikovIvan GoncharovPavel KhokhlovYaroslavna, his wife by his second marriagesopranoOlga OlginaYelena TsvetkovaMariya Deysha-SionitskayaVladimir Igorevich, Igor's son from his first marriagetenorMikhail Dmitrievich VasilyevMikhaylovLeonid SobinovGalitsky (Vladimir Yaroslavich), Prince of Galich, brother of Princess Yaroslavnalisted as "high bass"Stepan VlasovKonchak, Polovtsian khanbassMikhail KoryakinAleksandr AntonovskyStepan TrezvinskyGzak, Polovtsian khansilent, daughter of Khan KonchakcontraltoMariya SlavinaAzerskayaOvlur, a Christian PolovtsiantenorUspenskySkula, a gudok-playerbassFyodor StravinskyVasiliy TyutyunnikYeroshka, a gudok-playertenorGrigoriy UgrinovichKonstantin Mikhaylov-StoyanYaroslavna's nursemezzo-sopranoA Polovtsian maidenmezzo-sopranoDolinaChorus, silent roles: Russian princes and princesses, boyars and boyarynas, elders, Russian warriors, maidens, people, Polovtsian khans, Konchakovna's girlfriends, slaves of Khan Konchak, Russian prisoners, Polovtsian sentries
Note: The actual given name of the historical Yaroslavna is Yefrosinya (, ). Yaroslavna is a patronymic, meaning "daughter of Yaroslav". Konchakovna's name is similarly derived. Yaroslavna's brother, Vladimir Yaroslavich, is often called "Prince Galitsky" (), leading to the misconception that he was a prince by the name of Galitsky. In fact, he was a son of Prince of Galich Yaroslav Osmomysl. Prince Galitsky is a title meaning "Prince of Galich".
Synopsis Time: The year 1185
Place: The city of Putivl (prologue, Acts 1 and 4); a Polovtsian camp (Acts 2 and 3)
Note: As discussed in this article, Borodin's final decision on the order of the first two acts is unclear. The traditional grouping presented here is that of the Rimsky-Korsakov-Glazunov edition. In many productions, Act 3 is omitted.
Prologue The cathedral square in Putivl