Composers Datebook for December 9, 2009

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Wednesday, December 9 Play today's show | How to listen Glinka's Russian operas For fans of Russian opera, today is a red-letter day. On December 9, 1836,* the first performance of Mikhail Glinka's opera "A Life for the Tsar" took place in St. Petersburg, and, in the same city and on the same date in 1842, Glinka's second opera, "Russlan and Ludmilla." These two operas are credited with being the first great Russian national operas, and between them set the tone for many subsequent Russian opera composers. Glinka's "A Life for the Tsar" tells the story of Ivan Susanin, a patriotic Russian peasant, who pretends to betray a newly-elected Tsar by revealing his whereabouts to an invading Polish army, only to lead them deeper and deeper into a snowy forest, allowing ample time for the Tsar to escape danger. When they discover his trickery, the Poles kill Susanin, who accepts his fate with patriotic resignation. This opera proved to be the model for many Russian historical operas, ranging from Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov" to Prokofiev's "War and Peace." Glinka's opera, "Russlan and Ludmilla," is based on a fairy-tale by Pushkin. It's a sprawling, fantastic tale, and is the ancestor for both the extravagant fairy-tale operas of Rimsky-Korakov and the fantastic fairytale ballet scores of Tchaikovsky. Glinka was a member of the Russian petty nobility, with the leisure, resources and inclination to be largely self-taught. On his travels to the West, he met both Bellini and Donizetti, two of the great Italian opera composers of his day, and upon his return to Russian set about creating his own, distinctly Russian, variation on their model. *These are the Gregorian calendar dates for both premieres. The Julian calendar date (still used in Russia at that time) would have been November 27.		Music Played on Today's Program: Mikhail Glinka (1804 - 1857): A Life for the Tsar Overture Armenian Philharmonic; Loris Tjeknavorian, cond. ASV 1075 & Ruslan and Ludmilla Overture Bavarian Radio Symphony; Esa-Pekka Salonen, cond. Philips 416 288 Additional Information: On Glinka and his operas About the Program Composers Datebook is a daily program about composers of the past and present, hosted by John Zech. Support Composers Datebook Purchase music from Composers Datebook from Amazon. Or shop Public Radio Market. Your purchases help support the American Composers Forum and public radio. Your support makes our online services possible. Contribute Now. Fostering artistic and professional development
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