The Fair at Sorochintsï
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The Fair at Sorochintsï (Russian: Сорочинская ярмарка, Sorochinskaya yarmarka, Sorochintsï Fair) is a comic opera in three acts by Modest Mussorgsky, composed between 1874 and 1880 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The composer wrote the libretto, which is based on Nikolay Gogol's short story of the same name, from his early (1832) collection of Ukrainian stories Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka. The opera remained unfinished and unperformed upon Mussorgsky's death in 1881.
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[edit] Composition history
Mussorgsky worked on the opera between 1874 and 1880, in competition with his work on Khovanshchina (1872–1880); both were incomplete at the time of his death in 1881. He reused some music that he had written previously (such as the "Market Scene" from Act II of the ill-fated Mlada of 1872, used for the opening scene of Fair). Incorporation of the music of Night on Bald Mountain as a dream sequence involving the hero was a late addition to the scenario in the course of composition, despite the fact that such an episode is not suggested by the original story. Although Mussorgsky managed to complete some numbers and even some of the orchestration, significant portions of the scenario were left without any music at all or only in bare sketches.
Several subsequent composers and editors (cited below) played partial or maximal roles in bringing the work into a performable state. The first staged performance, with spoken sections, occurred in 1913; beginning in 1917, the first of several fully sung versions reached the stage.
[edit] Roles
| Russian | English | Description | Voice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Черевик | Cherevik | A peasant | Bass |
| Хивря | Khivrya | Cherevik’s wife | Mezzo-Soprano |
| Парася | Parasya | Cherevik’s daughter, Khivrya’s stepdaughter | Soprano |
| Кум | Kum | Cherevik’s crony | Bass-Baritone |
| Грицько | Gritsko/Hrytsko | A peasant lad | Tenor |
| Афанасий Иванович | Afanasiy Ivanovich | The priest’s son | Tenor |
| Цыган | Tsïgan | The gypsy | Bass |
| Чернобог | (Chernobog) | The devil | Bass |
| Merchants, Gypsies, Jews, Cossacks, lads, maidens, guests, (demons, witches, dwarfs) | Chorus | ||
| (Kashchei, Worm, Topelets, Plague, Death)* | Silent Roles | ||
(*) = Supernatural characters appearing only in the Shebalin Edition, which incorporates the Dream of the Peasant Lad/Night on Bald Mountain music.
[edit] Synopsis
(Note: Those scenes completed by Mussorgsky are given in bold-face type.)
Act I. At the fair, merchants are peddling their wares to the crowd of visitors arriving from all around. The Gypsy makes reference to a red jacket that the devil is looking for, while the lad Hrytsko woos Parasya. Her father, Cherevik, at first is indignant at this forwardness, but, after realizing that Hrytsko is the son of a close friend, he agrees to let Hrytsko marry his daughter. The two men go into the tavern to celebrate, as evening settles and the people disperse.
Cherevik and his buddy, Kum, comes out of the tavern in a drunken state. After they wander around in the dark, Khrivya, Cherevik's wife, comes out of their house, and he announces Parasya's engagement. But Khivrya objects, and, while Hrytsko overhears, drunken Cherevik concedes that the wedding will not happen. Hrytsko, alone, bemoans his sadness. The Gypsy enters, and the two make a pact: Hyrtsko will give the Gypsy his oxen for fifteen rubles if the latter can make Cherevik change his mind.
Act II. Inside Kum's house, where they are lodging, Khivrya quarrels with Cherevik, getting him to leave, so that she may keep her secret rendezvous with Afanasy Ivanovich, the son of the village priest. When the latter arrives, she offers him her culinary delicacies, which he devours. In the midst of their amorous encounter a knock is heard at the door. Afanasy hides on a shelf, and in walk Cherevik and Kum, with friends, alarmed by a rumor that someone has seen the red jacket and the devil. Kum begins to give more of the legend, concluding with the remark that the devil appears every year at the fair with a pig's face, looking for the red jacket. Suddenly a pig's snout is seen in the window, and everyone runs about in confusion.
Act III, Tableau 1. On a street, as a result of the superstitious confusion of the previous scene, Cherevik and Kum are being chased by the Gypsy and some lads. The latter accuse the two older men of stealing a mare, and tie them up. Hrytsko enters, extracting a promise from Cherevik to have the wedding to Parasya the next day, and the two older men are released.
Alone, Hrytsko falls asleep and has a dream involving witches and devils. They are dispelled by church bells.
Act III, Tableau 2. On a street in front of Kum's house, Parasya at first is sad about Hrytsko, but then cheers herself up with a little hopak, in which Cherevik joins without her noticing. Kum and Hrytsko enter, and Cherevik blesses the two lovers, only to be met by Khivrya's rage, which prompts the Gypsy to call on the lads to restrain her. The people celebrate the wedding with a gopak.
[edit] Principal Numbers
- Orchestral Introduction (especially the version by Lyadov)
- Parasya's Dumka (Act III)
- Gopak (Act III, finale)
[edit] Versions by other hands
In 1881 Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov suggested to Lyadov to finish composition of the work, the libretto to be completed by Mussorgsky' old friend A.A. Golenishchev-Kutuzov. However, Liadov only orchestrated five numbers (published in 1904) and did not finish the opera. Vyacheslav Gavrilovich Karatygin later edited some fragments of Mussorgsky's manuscripts; these passages were orchestrated by Lyadov and performed in 1911. The next year Vladimir Alekseevich Senilov published his orchestration of Parasya's dumka from Act III. Yury Sergeevich Sakhnovsky edited and orchestrated some fragments which, together with material edited by Liadov, Karatygin, and Rimsky-Korsakov (i.e., the Night on Bald Mountain music) constituted a staged "premiere" of sorts, performed at the Moscow Free Theatre on 8 October 1913 (Old Style), with spoken dialogue inserted for scenes that had no music by Mussorgsky.
In an act of commemoration of his late comrade from The Mighty Handful, César Cui became the first to complete the composition and orchestration of Mussorgsky's The Fair at Sorochintsï during 1914-1916. This fully sung version -- which omits the Night on Bald Mountain sequence, by the way -- was staged on 13 October 1917 (Old Style), at the Theatre of Musical Drama in Petrograd. The foreword to Cui's edition, dated October 1916, explains the state of affairs at the time, and translates thus:
"The comic opera Sorochintsi Fair was begun by Mussorgsky in 1875 [sic], was composed slowly and in fragments, and after the composer's death in 1881 remained unfinished. Originally only five excerpts were published: the Introduction to the opera (adapted according to the preliminary draft by A.K. Lyadov), the Lad's Dumka (ed. by Lyadov), the Gopak, the Scene of Khivrya expecting Afanasiy Ivanovich, and Parasya's Dumka (the orchestral edition of all five numbers belongs to Lyadov). Mussorgsky's manuscripts nevertheless still afforded a substantial quantity of musical material, namely, the "scene of the fair" which begins the opera and the first half of the second act. This material was adapted by V.G. Karatygin, supplemented and orchestrated by C.A. Cui. Nevertheless the remainder, in particular the scene of Cherevik and Khivrya and the scene of the Lad and the Gypsy in Act 1, 2nd half, and all of the third [act], with the exception of Parasya's Dumka and the Gopak, is added and orchestrated by C.A. Cui, and consequently Mussorgsky's posthumous labor is completed."
[edit] Sketch of early performance history
Completed versions
| Date | City | Opera House | Conductor | Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Oct 1917 | Petrograd | Theatre of Musical Drama | Cui | |
| 17 Mar 1923 | Monte Carlo | Cherepnin | ||
| 10 Jan 1925 | Moscow | Bolshoy Theater | Sakhnovsky | |
| 12 Dec 1931 | Moscow | Little Theater | Shebalin | |
| 03 Nov 1942 | New York | Kuper |
[edit] Repertory status
The Fair at Sorochintsï is not a part of the standard operatic repertoire in the West. The best-known numbers from Fair are the orchestral Introduction and the closing Gopak, both of which were composed by Mussorgsky, who also arranged the Gopak for piano solo.
Two of the Ukrainian folk tunes that Mussorgsky incorporated into this opera (Act I) were used also by Rimsky-Korsakov in his own Christmas Eve, which was likewise based on a story by Gogol.
[edit] Discography
- Aranovich, Moscow Radio Orchestra and Chorus, 1969
- Esipov, Chorus and Orchestra of the Stanislavsky Theater, 1983
[edit] Bibliography
- 100 опер: история создания, сюжет, музыка. [100 Operas: History of Creation, Subject, Music.] Ленинград: Издательство "Музыка," 1968, pp. 318-322.
- Abraham, Gerald. "The Fair of Sorochintsy and Cherepnin's Completion of It," his On Russian Music. London: W. Reeves, 1939; rpt. New York: Books for Libraries, 1980.
- _______. "Modest Musorgsky," The New Grove Russian Masters 1. New York: W.W. Norton, 1986, p. 129.
- Bernandt, G.B. Словарь опер впервые поставленных или изданных в дореволюционной России и в СССР, 1736-1959 [Dictionary of Operas First Performed or Published in Pre-Revolutionary Russia and in the USSR, 1836-1959]. Москва: Советский композитор, 1962, pp. 279-280.
- "Double Bill Given by the New Opera," New York Times, 4 November 1942.
- Gusin, I.L. Editorial commentary in Cui, Избранные письма [Selected Letters]. Ленинград: Гос. муз. изд-во, 1955, p. 694.
- Mussorgsky, Modest. Сорочинская ярмарка (по Гоголю): опера в 3-х действиях. Издание посмертное, закончено в 1916 г. Ц. Кюи. Вновь исправленное издание. [Sorochintzy Fair (after Gogol). Posthumous edition, finished in 1916 by C. Cui. Newly corrected edition.] Москва: Гос. изд-во, музыкальный сектор.
- _______. Сорочинская ярмарка: опера в трех действиях по Гоголю, недостающие сцены досочинил В. Шебалин. Клавираусцуг. [The Fair at Sorochintsy: opera in three acts after Gogol, missing scenes composed by V. Shebalin. Piano-vocal score] (Soviet ed., rpt. New York: E. F. Kalmus, [n.d.]). (With editorial notes by P. Lamm.)
- Taruskin, Richard. "Fair at Sorochintsï, The", Grove Music Online (Accessed 17 December 2005), <http://www.grovemusic.com> (subscription required)
