Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov is perhaps best known for the popular "The Flight of the Bumblebee" and few will realize that it is a fragment from one of his imaginative operas, The Tale of Tsar Saltan. It is gratifying that the Muntschouwburg has both this opera and The Golden Cockerel in its repertoire, but we did not want to miss the opportunity to see Christmas Eve in the opera of Frankfurt.
Naval officer becomes composer
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was born in 1844 into an old but impoverished aristocratic family. He was destined for a career in the navy. He receives training at the cadet school in Sankt-Petersburg and music is passionate leisure activity. He does receive piano lessons and joins in 1861 as the youngest of the group the "Mighty Handful", which includes Modest Mussorgsky, César Cui and Alexander Borodin. After completing his naval studies, he sails around the world for about two years. On these travels he is fascinated by various natural phenomena and cosmological occurrences. This has an impact on his opera stories.
Fairy-tale fantasy and color richness are thus the two main characteristics of his work, whether it is the symphonic suite Sheherazade or his fifteen operas. In his opera oeuvre we find historical drama alongside fairy tale, magic play alongside legend and satire. He does not compose an opera set in realistic everyday life with intimate emotional events, as Peter Tchaikovsky does in Eugene Onegin or The Queen of Spades. No passion, no exploration of psychology, but he opts for a fairy-tale tone, the fantastic, landscape painting and the mystical.
Christmas Eve, a fantastic love story
Christmas Eve goes back to stories by Nikolai Gogol that contain motifs from Ukrainian folklore and mix events from everyday village life with fantastic elements. The story takes place on Christmas Eve. In the Ukrainian village of Dikanka, the blacksmith Vakula is madly in love with Oxana, the daughter of a landowner. She will only marry him if he can give her the tsarina's golden slippers. In despair, Vakula calls on the devil for help, who helps him fly to the capital, but of course also has false intentions. But when he arrives at the tsarina's, she gives him her most beautiful pair of slippers. Back in Dikanka, Oxana regrets her strict condition and realizes her love for Vakula. Now nothing stands in the way of their marriage.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov interweaves Christian Christmas celebration with pre-Christian customs of the winter solstice. Thus behind the reality of village peasant life with its songs and dances, a second archaic world appears. The Kolyada songs of the winter solstice give Rimsky-Korsakov the opportunity for colorful, vital scenes. Nature magic, invocation of the supernatural and musical folklore – such as in the dance of the stars or the witches' ride – are a typical aspect of Rimsky-Korsakov's style, alongside poetry and drastic humor.
Christoph Loy: once again a fantastic director.
It is right up the alley of director Christoph Loy. This production (in Russian) of Die Nacht vor Weihnachten in Frankfurt is once again proof that Christoph Loy understands the spirit of the work he stages and stages it with insane inspiration but always with respect! The curtain of the stage is for the occasion a cosmic tableau with celestial bodies and stars. Loy thus refers to the natural phenomena that inspire Rimsky-Korsakov for the color richness and light play he transforms into sound in his operas. It stimulates the fairy-tale fantasy with which the performance is full. The characters who each receive a characteristic intonation in the music, Loy depicts with the right diversity and fantasy, such as the simple Vakula and the complex witch, the delightfully attractive girl Oxana and the wicked devil. And yes, the witch can fly on her broomstick and sweep through the airspace together with the devil. No shortage of acrobatics, what a feat of the actors!At the same time, the staging shows that Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov is anything but a naive storyteller of fairy tales, for human wickedness also comes into play, for instance when Oxana's rival makes Vakula swear that he can never obtain the tsarina's slippers to have a chance at his bride. In the scene where the witch Solokha and the devil plot against Vakula and repeatedly stuff the arriving guest into a sack, Loy fully exploits the story for mockery, humor and satire. The happy ending likewise receives a delightful portrayal, both funny and moving.
Compelling musicality
This production was first seen in 2021 in Frankfurt and was then praised by Opernwelt as "production of the year". At this revival, the young conductor Takeshi Moriuchi takes the baton and creates a musical feast with the orchestra. Every scene receives its proper orchestral intonation, from exuberant to serene, from devilish to heavenly, with the beautiful love confession of Oksana emphasizing the emotional cello. The solo parts are performed by singers from the ensemble of Oper Frankfurt and it testifies to what a wealth of talent is present there. The Polish soprano Monika Buczkowska-Ward sang Oksana with crystal-clear voice, Enkelejda Shkoza was a chilling witch (Solocha), Georgy Wasiliev a moving Vakula. The folk scenes that Rimsky-Korsakov paints with musical color richness are delightful choral passages.
Let us hear from the important musicologist of Russian music Richard Taruskin: "Rimsky-Korsakov is a composer who does not easily lend himself to transplantation. But for those who approach him with the proper openness, it can be the most exciting and captivating music in the world". In doing so, Taruskin makes an appeal to intendants, dramaturges and directors to bring his work into the spotlight!