Main Stage

12 April

18:00

2013 | Friday

Ruslan and Lyudmila

Opera

Artists	Credits
Opera company Bolshoi Opera Music by Mikhail Glinka

Running time: 4 hours 20 minutes

Ruslan and Lyudmila is an opera in five acts (eight tableaux) composed by Mikhail Glinka between 1837 and 1842. The opera is based on the 1820 poem of the same name by Alexander Pushkin.

Libretto by Mikhail Glinka with the participation of Konstantin Bakhturin, Alexander Shakhovskoy, Valerian Shirkov, Mikhail Gedeonov, Nestor Kukolnik and Nikolai Markevich after the poem by Alexander Pushkin

Music Director: Valery Gergiev
Stage Director: Lotfi Mansouri
Set Designer: Thierry Bosquet
Decorations are restored from the 1904 version of the performance by Alexander Golovin and Konstantin Korovin
Choreography by Michel Fokine, 1917 production
Lighting Designer: Vladimir Lukasevich
Chief Chorus Master: Valery Borisov

Set and costumes provided by the Mariinsky Theatre

Vladimir Odoyevsky called the opera Ruslan and Lyudmila a magnificent flower that had grown in Russian musical soil. Glinka’s score is laden with musical treats just like the tables at the princely feast in Act I. The composer’s imagination, given flight by the genius of Pushkin, came up with one superb melody after another, it created hitherto unknown chords and it suggested the original decisions as to the orchestration. Fully compensating for the losses that inevitably accompanied the literary masterpiece’s transformation into an opera libretto, Glinka produced an epic and magical fairytale opera about the fearless Ruslan and his faithful bride Lyudmila, about trials and temptations and about the battle between Light and Darkness. The opera’s structure is absolutely monumental: in the outer acts there are the immense crowd scenes of Kiev, while between them is a musical “novel-and-journey”, a series of adventures of the three claimants to the hand of the Prince’s daughter: a mighty Russian bogatyr, a dreamy Khazar prince and a boastful Varangian knight. Glinka wrote all of the protagonists with unusual clarity, as he did the destinations to which their laborious paths led them, be these the cave of the magician Finn, a battlefield strewn with bones, the palace of the perfidious Naina or Chernomor’s enchanted gardens. Glinka’s flower was to leave numerous seeds in its wake after blossoming – musical innovations and ideas from which the greatest works in the Russian composition school were subsequently to grow.

Odoyevsky’s words about Ruslan and Lyudmila may also be taken to refer to this production of the opera at the Mariinsky Theatre. Belgian Thierry Bosquet worked for months in the theatre’s artistic workshops, and he personally sourced fabrics for the costumes from shops across the globe, trying, ninety years later, to recreate the mind-boggling colours and ornamentation of the legendary 1904 production. Back then, in what was the hundred-year anniversary of Glinka, the designs for Ruslan were supervised by Konstantin Korovin and Alexander Golovin. The luscious Russo-Byzantine art nouveau of their set designs amazes even today, both as a whole and in its details, examining which is a joy in and of itself. The opera’s scenes follow one after another, just like the pages of some gigantic illustrated book of fairytales. The dances deserve special mention; these recreate another anniversary production, that of 1917, when the Mariinsky Theatre was commemorating seventy-five years since the first performance of Ruslan and Lyudmila. That was staged using the familiar sets, though with new dances choreographed by Michel Fokine. Pushkin’s humour, having eluded the opera’s librettists, was restored in the dances and processions staged by Fokine, particularly in the culminating March of Chernomor.

In 2021 Ruslan was moved to the new stage of the Mariinsky Theatre; its lighting has been revived and the cast has been refreshed. This production is not merely a unique museum exhibit, not just a historic reconstruction, but also a living artistic organism with indefatigable energy and unfading beauty.

Khristina Batyushina

Synopsis

ACT ONE

Svetozar is holding a sumptuous wedding feast for his favorite daughter Lyudmila and her Chosen One, Ruslan.
Also invited to the feast are the suitors whom Lyudmila has rejected – Farlaf and Ratmir.
Svetozar approves of his daughter’s choice, and Bayan’s wedding song predicts that the young couple are in for a hard time.
At the height of the festivities, all realize that the bride has vanished.
In despair, Svetozar promises his daughter’s hand to the man who brings her back.
Ruslan, Ratmir and Farlaf set off in search of Lyudmila.

Finn who all his life has loved just one woman, Naina, in his attempts to win her love even resorting to magic, eventually discovers at the end of his life that his beautiful and inapproachable Naina is now consumed by hatred for him and wants to take her revenge. She has been unable to love him. And even now, after a long life lived, they continue to bicker and sort out their relationship: Finn maintaining that his love for Naina has been the meaning of his whole life, Naina arguing that love does not exist. In search of proof with which to back up their arguments, they interfere in the fate of the happy couple Ruslan and Lyudmila, forcing them to undergo a whole series of tormenting trials. These trials have begun – Lyudmila has been abducted.

In his search for the abducted Lyudmila, Ruslan meets Finn who tells him of his unhappy love for Naina.
Shocked by Finn’s tragic fate, Ruslan learns from the latter the name of the person who has absconded with Lyudmila – it is the mighty Chernomor.
As they part, Finn warns Ruslan of the danger which might originate from Naina, and urges him to fight for his love.

In the meantime, Naina has promised Farlaf her protection in his search for Lyudmila and battle with Ruslan. Farlaf rejoices at the prospect of a speedy and easy victory.

His search for the lost Lyudmila, brings Ruslan to a sinister spot, which is strewn with human bones. Ruslan is horrified.
A huge head, one of Chernomor’s victims, threatens and mocks Ruslan who, getting the better of his fear, finds the strength within himself to soldier on and continue the fight.

ACT TWO

Naina is waiting for Ruslan to show up. She gathers together seductive and pretty girls, who are to lure and entice traveler Ruslan and deprive him of his willpower.
Ratmir is also here. Suddenly the latter comes across his rejected and forgotten love, Gorislava. Gorislava had spent a long time seeking for her lost Ratmir and this sudden meeting awakens her former sentiments for him. Ratmir is irritated and embarrassed.
The maidens greet Ruslan as a long awaited guest. They comfort him, entertain him, tempt him.
Ruslan is touched by the tears and sufferings of the rejected Gorislava. He first sympathizes with her plight and is then overcome with desire for her.
Only a bit of sharp action from the suddenly appearing Finn saves everyone from committing fatal mistakes.

ACT THREE

In the meantime, Lyudmila is under lock and key in enchanted surroundings, apparently created for her by a certain Chernomor who is in love with her. Ever since she has been abducted, she has undergone trial after trial, the aim being to get her to give up her love for Ruslan.
Lyudmila is deeply unhappy and even attempts to commit suicide.
Ruslan, Ratmir and Gorislava discover where Lyudmila is being kept prisoner. They break into the ‘prison’ in search of the abducted Lyudmila. Victory is close at hand.
Overcoming fierce resistance, Ruslan finds Lyudmila but her appearance and condition horrify him. She does not recognize Ruslan, does not react to anything and cannot move. The awful state Lyudmila is in does not repel Ruslan, on the contrary, he begins to love her even more.
In despair, Ruslan tries to bring her back to consciousness. His attempts are unsuccessful and he decides to take Lyudmila home.

With Naina’s help, Farlaf kidnaps Lyudmila so as to later act the role of rescuer and return her to Svetozar.
Ruslan sets off in pursuit of his again lost bride. Ratmir and Gorislava are at a loss to know what to do and put all their hopes on assistance from Finn.
Finn is crushed by the goings on. He feels guilty because the plot thought up by himself and Naina, has got out of control and now lives are even at danger. He decides to interfere in the situation and help save Lyudmila.

Farlaf takes the unconscious Lyudmila home. Svetozar tries to revive her. But in vain.
Only the suddenly appearing Finn manages to find a way of bringing Lyudmila back to life. Ruslan, Ratmir and Gorislava come running in and witness Lyudmila’s awakening.
Ruslan and Lyudmila are happy, they are back together again.
A stung to the quick and furious Naina leaves Svetozar’s house. In her argument with Finn, she is the loser.

Main Stage 1 Teatralnaya ploschad (1 Theatre Square), Moscow, Russia

New Stage Bol'shaya Dmitrovka Street, 4/2, Moscow, Russia