Taras Bulba is an opera in four acts by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko. The libretto was written for Lysenko by his cousin, the playwright Mykhailo Starytsky, and is based on the novella Taras Bulba, written by the Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol, himself of Ukrainian origin. The story is about a Cossack who discovers his son has betrayed his people, and kills him.
The opera, which was left unrevised and unperformed at the time of the composer's death in 1912, was first produced in 1924. Present-day performances are based on revised versions of the opera made during the 1930s and 1950s.
Composition
The Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko worked on his opera Taras Bulba from 1880 to 1891. Intent on elevating Ukrainian culture to a level commensurate with European standards, he refused to allow the opera to be translated, and insisted that all performances of the work should be sung in Ukrainian. This prevented performances of the work from taking place during his lifetime. Lysenko maintained the opera might be too ambitious for Ukrainian opera houses, but it was eventually performed for the first time in Moscow during the Soviet period, after having been reorchestrated by the Ukrainian composer Levko Revutsky.
Lysenko was reputedly a descendant of the 17th century Cossack leader Vovgura Lys, so Taras Bulba may have had a special significance for him. Shortly after completing the work, he played the score to Tchaikovsky, who reportedly "listened to the whole opera with rapt attention, from time to time voicing approval and admiration. He particularly liked the passages in which national, Ukrainian, touches were most vivid... Tchaikovsky embraced Lysenko and congratulated him on his talented composition."
Performance history
A piano score of Taras Bulba was published in 1913. The prelude to the fourth act was first given at a concert in Kyiv in 1914, when the performance was conducted by the Russian composer Reinhold Glière. The first performance of the full opera took place in 1924 in Kharkiv. This performance was a failure, but others were more successful, and further productions took place in Kyiv in 1927, and in Tbilisi in 1930. These performances led to the work being revised in 1937 before being performed in Moscow—the libretto was revised by the Ukrainian poet Maksym Rylsky, and Lysenko's pupil Revutsky and the Ukrainian composer Borys Lyatoshynsky collaborated to re-orchestrate the work. This new version of the opera was criticized for departing too far from Lysenko's original intentions. It was not until after World War II that Rylsky, Revutsky, and Lyatoshynsky reworked the opera once more, producing the version of the work that is nowadays performed, and which was premiered in Kiev in 1955. The opera is part of the repertoire of the National Opera of Ukraine, based in Kyiv, which also performed it at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden in Germany in 1982, Dresden's Semperoper in 1987, and in Zagreb the following year. Much of Lysenko's original orchestration has been lost. The National Opera of Ukraine has traditionally performed the opera at the end of each operatic season in Kyiv.
The work's perceived structural defects may to a large extent be because Lysenko was never able to adjust the work after hearing it being performed. The opera marks an advance on the composer's earlier works, such as Natalka Poltavka and Utoplena. Its folklore and nationalistic elements, which are more closely integrated in a continuous musical framework, show that Lysenko was influenced by Tchaikovsky.
Problems relating to the opera include the episodic nature of the libretto, the dances, patriotic marches and choruses, which are detached from the plot, and a long scene in the third act, when Kudryiaha is chosen to lead the Cossacks, but then does not reappear. Other issues include the compression of the historical events that the opera is based upon into a single scene in the opera, and the lack of emotional or musical transition from the death of an important character to the triumphant (and unsung) final scene.
Amongst those who have sung the role of Taras is the Ukrainian singer Boris Gmyrya, who also featured in a recording of the opera.
Roles
Synopsis
Taras Bulba is set in Kyiv, Taras's village in Ukraine, the Zaporozhian Sich, and Dubno, in the 17th century, at a time when Poland sought supremacy in the region. This synopsis is based on the version which was first produced in 1955. The opera is preceded by an orchestral overture.