“How intoxicating, how magnificent is a summer day in Little Russia!” begins Gogol’s Sorochintsy Fair, with several masterstrokes further depicting a truly enchanting scene of Ukrainian nature “on a hot day in August.” On just such a day in August 1879 Musorgsky – arriving in Ukraine for the first time (he was accompanying the singer Daria Leonova as an accompanist and pianist on a concert tour) – wrote to his friends in admiration: “But if you saw the vast expanses of the Ukrainian steppes, if you saw the twinkling sky, all adorned with stars, through the air all light and at the same time dark as a sapphire, if you breathed the southern Russian air that almost draws one’s lungs and heart out of one’s chest, so gentle that one wants to live and live forever and ever!” Musorgsky was proud that the music of Sorochintsy Fair (1874–1881) which he composed at that time was close to and understood by Ukrainians, that it was acclaimed as “truly of the people” and “was highly approved of everywhere.” The composer heard and took down Ukrainian folk songs, learned the particular nature of the Ukrainian dialect and its creative depiction in Gogol’s prose. But Musorgsky saw his opera not just as a complex artistic task; it is believed that composing it brought its creator spiritual repose and joy. Sorochintsy Fair is Musorgsky’s lightest and most poetic work, filled with humour and warm lyricism. The composer called his opera “comical” and this is indeed the case: everything presented in it (the trading at the market, the love intrigues of Parasya and Khivrya, the “terrifying” fantastical scenes of the witches’ Sabbath in the Lad’s dream-like vision, not to mention the scene of Popovich and Khivrya) is bathed in Gogol and Musorgsky’s gentle humour. I use the word “presented” deliberately: in the manuscript score, the composer added the jokey note to the role of the Gypsy “director of comedy”. The varied scenes that unfold in the opera to a great extent take place because of the Gypsy and his presence as a “stage director” so that he can subsequently tell the tale as well as the tale of Krasnaya Svitka.
Sorochintsy Fair remained uncompleted; as with two other operas by Musorgsky – Salammbô and Khovanshchina – not everything he composed has survived to the present day (for example, two – according to Vladimir Stasov – “brilliant” gypsy choruses). Of all the versions created by other composers, that with the greatest stage life has been that of Vissarion Shebalin, who completed and orchestrated the opera in 1931–1932. It is this version that is currently performed at the Mariinsky Theatre.
Vladimir Goryachikh
Running time: 2 hours 10 minutes
The performance has two intervals
The highlighting of performances by age represents recommendations.
This highlighting is being used in accordance with Federal Law N436-FZ dated 29 December 2010 (edition dated 1 May 2019) "On the protection of children from information that may be harmful to their health"