Verstovsky Askold's Grave
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Alexey Nikolayevich Verstovsky
Label: Consonance
Magazine Review Date: 1/1997
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 118
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 810015
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Askold's Grave |
Alexey Nikolayevich Verstovsky, Composer
Alexey Nikolayevich Verstovsky, Composer Moscow Academic Large Choir Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra Yuri Nikonenko, Conductor |
Author: John Warrack
Asked to name the most frequently performed Russian opera of the nineteenth century, most people would probably turn their thoughts to Glinka or Tchaikovsky. The answer is in fact Askold’s Grave, by a now largely forgotten composer and theatrical functionary, Alexey Verstovsky. Born in 1799, five years before Glinka, he produced Askold’s Grave in 1833, three years before A Life for the Tsar, and never ceased to complain that he had got in ahead with the first real Russian opera. He had a case, in that some of the tried effects of German romantic opera were recomposed into a Russian milieu, where Glinka drew more upon French and Italian opera in similar interests; but genius will always claim precedence over talent, and for all its unevenness, there is genius in A Life for the Tsar.
All the same, Askold is a work of talent, and a fascinating one well worth hearing. The plot is muddled, and has been further confused in various versions, but what happens in this one concerns events in tenth-century Kiev during the reign of Svyatoslav. His adopted son Vseslav, betrothed to Nadezhda, is informed by a mysterious figure simply called The Unknown that he is descended from Askold and must overthrow Svyatoslav. Nadezhda is abducted by one of Svyatoslav’s agents, whom Vseslav is then outlawed for killing. He rescues her with the help of the minstrel Torop. The witch Vakhrameyevna discovers their whereabouts through a magic incantation, and they are about to leap to their deaths in the Dnepr when a pardon arrives, and it is The Unknown who is now swallowed up by the river. Running through the plot, which is further obscured on this record by the absence of dialogue, is a tension between Christian and pagan worlds.
There are certain obvious debts, most directly to Weber in the example of the melodrama with voice and orchestra in the Incantation Scene and in the style of some of the arias and choruses; but there is a genuinely Russian voice sounding through much of the work, as with the choruses for the fishermen and the maidens, and the chanting of the Christians. There is also, Verstovsky could fairly claim, an example for later Russian opera with Nadezhda as suffering heroine, Torop as a cheerful, rather wild tenor, and especially The Unknown, a morose, morally ambivalent bass who looks forward past Glinka to Rubinstein’s Demon, Tchaikovsky’s Mazeppa and Rachmaninov’s Miserly Knight, among much else. This is a remarkable creation, handsomely sung here by Vladislav Verestnikov. Vseslav is less well characterized, and indeed is given no real aria to sing. However, the opera is erratically paced, with miscalculations that include a very long opening aria for Nadezhda, well delivered as this is by Galina Simkina: she is stronger still in her Act 3 aria, with its moving turn to the major for a central gleam of hope of rescue. However, Verstovsky could take justifiable pride in the dramatic impetus of the Act 2 finale. The quite large cast includes a good Torop from Lev Kuznetsov, who discharges his cheerful numbers with much spirit, and a murky witch from Raisa Kotova.
It is a pity that this pioneering issue (there have only before been excerpts on record) should be marred by lax presentation. There is a transliteration, with translations into English, French and German, but inconsistencies abound, with some odd divagations in the German (including the small point that when other nations quaff mead, the Germans stick to beer), and with the English including a number of eccentricities (“Little bastard, brawler, madcap”, Vseslav is reproached). Worse, the tracks on the discs bear little relationship to the listing given in the booklet, and one number (the Act 3 chorus of Christians) is included twice. The actual recording is undistinguished. Nevertheless, those who persevere will find much to reward them here, and certainly no one with any love of Russian opera can afford to miss a messily presented but worthwhile issue.'
All the same, Askold is a work of talent, and a fascinating one well worth hearing. The plot is muddled, and has been further confused in various versions, but what happens in this one concerns events in tenth-century Kiev during the reign of Svyatoslav. His adopted son Vseslav, betrothed to Nadezhda, is informed by a mysterious figure simply called The Unknown that he is descended from Askold and must overthrow Svyatoslav. Nadezhda is abducted by one of Svyatoslav’s agents, whom Vseslav is then outlawed for killing. He rescues her with the help of the minstrel Torop. The witch Vakhrameyevna discovers their whereabouts through a magic incantation, and they are about to leap to their deaths in the Dnepr when a pardon arrives, and it is The Unknown who is now swallowed up by the river. Running through the plot, which is further obscured on this record by the absence of dialogue, is a tension between Christian and pagan worlds.
There are certain obvious debts, most directly to Weber in the example of the melodrama with voice and orchestra in the Incantation Scene and in the style of some of the arias and choruses; but there is a genuinely Russian voice sounding through much of the work, as with the choruses for the fishermen and the maidens, and the chanting of the Christians. There is also, Verstovsky could fairly claim, an example for later Russian opera with Nadezhda as suffering heroine, Torop as a cheerful, rather wild tenor, and especially The Unknown, a morose, morally ambivalent bass who looks forward past Glinka to Rubinstein’s Demon, Tchaikovsky’s Mazeppa and Rachmaninov’s Miserly Knight, among much else. This is a remarkable creation, handsomely sung here by Vladislav Verestnikov. Vseslav is less well characterized, and indeed is given no real aria to sing. However, the opera is erratically paced, with miscalculations that include a very long opening aria for Nadezhda, well delivered as this is by Galina Simkina: she is stronger still in her Act 3 aria, with its moving turn to the major for a central gleam of hope of rescue. However, Verstovsky could take justifiable pride in the dramatic impetus of the Act 2 finale. The quite large cast includes a good Torop from Lev Kuznetsov, who discharges his cheerful numbers with much spirit, and a murky witch from Raisa Kotova.
It is a pity that this pioneering issue (there have only before been excerpts on record) should be marred by lax presentation. There is a transliteration, with translations into English, French and German, but inconsistencies abound, with some odd divagations in the German (including the small point that when other nations quaff mead, the Germans stick to beer), and with the English including a number of eccentricities (“Little bastard, brawler, madcap”, Vseslav is reproached). Worse, the tracks on the discs bear little relationship to the listing given in the booklet, and one number (the Act 3 chorus of Christians) is included twice. The actual recording is undistinguished. Nevertheless, those who persevere will find much to reward them here, and certainly no one with any love of Russian opera can afford to miss a messily presented but worthwhile issue.'
Verstovsky Askold's Grave
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