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TH 4

Vakula the Smith

Кузнец Вакула

Opera in 3 acts and 8 scenes, Op. 14 (1874).

  • Composed June–October 1874.
  • Libretto by Iakov Polonskii, after Nikolai Gogol's story Christmas Eve [Ночь перед Рождеством].
  • Cast: Vakula (Вакула)—tenor; Solokha (Солоха)—mezzo-soprano; Chub (Чуб)—1st bass; Oksana (Оксана)—soprano; Devil (Бес)—1st bass; Schoolmaster (Школьный учитель)—tenor; Pan Golova (Пан Голова)—2nd bass; Panas (Панас)—2nd tenor; His Highness (Светлейший)—2nd bass; Master of Ceremonies (Церемониймейстер)—2nd bass; Attendant (Дежурный)—2nd tenor; Old Cossack (Старый запорожец)—2nd bass; Wood Goblin (Голос лешего)—2nd bass + SATB chorus.
  • Scored for Piccolo; 2 Flutes; 2 Oboes; 2 Clarinets (B♭, A, C); 2 Bassoons; 4 Horns (F); 2 Trumpets (F, E); 3 Trombones; Tuba; Timpani; Triangle; Tambourine; Cymbals, Bass Drum; Harp; Violins I; Violins II; Violas; Violoncellos; Double Basses + offstage Wind Band.
  • Some numbers were also arranged for voices with piano or for piano duet (4 hands) by Tchaikovsky, 1874.
  • First performed in Saint Petersburg, Mariinskii Theatre, 24 November/6 December 1876, conducted by Eduard Nápravník.
  • Dedicated to the memory of the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna.
  • Average duration : 2h 20m
  • Revised in 1885 as Cherevichki.

History

Composed during June and July 1874 at Nizy, and orchestrated in July and August the same year at Usovo. The Overture was written later, and completed on 5/17 October 1874.

The initiative for the opera Vakula the Smith was a competition organised by the directorate of the Russian Musical Society, to produce an opera on the subject of Nikolai Gogol’s novel Christmas Eve. The libretto had previously been compiled by Iakov Polonskii for the composer Aleksandr Serov, who did not then make use of it.

On 19 February/3 March 1873 the directors of the Russian Musical Society announced the competition to a number of musical artists for their consideration.

In a letter of 7/19 March 1873 to the Vice-Chairman of the Society, Prince Dmitrii Obolenskii, Tchaikovsky wrote of his interest in this project. Recognizing that "the instructions by which the competitors should be guided... were compiled with the utmost expediency and presented clearly and accurately", Tchaikovsky further expressed his views concerning "some problems which might arise when awarding the prize. The Board of Directors will be aware that opera, like all vocal compositions, differs from an overture or a symphony in that it does not haves a traditional form, firmly established by the great masters of classical art. At the present time it is clear that there are differing opinions concerning the manner in which the operatic text should be set. One view is that operas of the past, particularly Italian operas, were guilty of a lack of intelligent application of music to the scenes, while adhering to formal musical set pieces (such as arias, duets and ensembles). Others, in pursuit of the greatest possible reason, have concluded that opera should evolve in an organically integrated fashion, and that to have a series of individual numbers is artistic nonsense because in life, and therefore in opera, people should not speak to each other at the same time; also that recitatives expressing the feelings of a character by slavishly imitating the conversational intonations of voice, must be the only rational form of opera. Regardless of the intrinsic beauty of opera, given that it can be approached with such preconceptions even before consideration is given the merits of the music itself, let alone the practicalities of composition—it is unthinkable that the judges should find themselves in a position to consider all approaches as equally valid. I fear that our composers’ passions would not be deterred by such considerations, and they might well insist that their opera should not be of a form which runs contrary to their aesthetic principles. For this reason such a competition, however generally beneficial it may be, should take account of the fact that operas are not a straightforward type of composition.

So that this difficulty might be overcome, would it not be possible for the Board of Directors to specify that the type of music which predominantly corresponds to Mr Polonskii’s text should either be essentially separate numbers, or on the other hand, it should follow the most modern style of opera?" [1].

The rules for the competition were published in May 1873, but the question raised by Tchaikovsky was not addressed. The composers were given creative freedom, and the rules specified only the closing date for entries (1/13 August 1875) and the overall subject (Gogol’s Christmas Eve). The composers were allowed to alter Iakov Polonskii's libretto, to expand and reduce it at their discretion, and could even use another libretto. There were two prizes of 1500 and 500 roubles, and the rules also stipulated that the winner of the competition would receive the publication rights to the opera [2].

Until mid/late May 1874, Tchaikovsky was occupied with other urgent work, and there are no references to Vakula the Smith in his letters. Only after the production of The Oprichnik which deeply disappointed him, did he turn to Gogol’s subject.

In a letter to Vasilii Bessel of 18/30 May 1874, the composer asked to be sent the rules of the composition for Vakula the Smith: "...it is essential that I receive them as soon as possible" [3]. It would therefore appear that his work on the opera commenced no earlier than May 1874.

On 30 May/12 June 1874 Tchaikovsky informed Bessel [4] that he was travelling to Nikolai Kondrat'ev’s country estate. Here he began work on the opera. It is not possible to establish precisely the dates of the rough draft, apart from a note indicating that Act II was completed on 17/29 June 1874. In a letter to Modest Tchaikovsky of 18/30 June, the composer wrote: "I have dared, contrary to your advice, to write Vakula" [5].

Modest Tchaikovsky asserted that, "in the middle of July [O.S.], Petr Il’ich travelled to Usovo, where he brought the almost-finished rough sketches of the entire opera, so that on his arrival he could set about the instrumentation" [6].

"The opera is completely finished", Tchaikovsky wrote to Vasilii Bessel on 19/31 October, "but the piano score remains to be done. I sat over it all summer, thinking that the closing date for entries was 1 January [O.S.], but it now turns out that I have to wait until next November for the judging to take place" [7].

In 1878, Tchaikovsky recalled from Nizy: "...here over the course of three summer months I wrote the whole of Vakula the Smith" [8].

The date on the manuscript score confirms that the instrumentation was complete by 21 August/2 September 1874, but the piano score was not completed until the end of October when Tchaikovsky, dissatisfied with the efforts of Eduard Langer and Aleksandr Razmadze who had undertaken to make the arrangement, set about this work himself [9]. While composing the opera, Tchaikovsky believed that the closing date for the competition was 1/13 January 1875. On discovering that the closing date was in fact 1/13 August 1875, he approached the theatre via Eduard Nápravník and Gennadi Kondrat'ev to seek permission to withdraw the opera from the competition, but this request was denied [10].

"All my thoughts are presently on my precious child, my dear Vakula You cannot imagine how much I love him! I feels as though I would go out of my mind if he proved to be a failure. The prize does not matter to me—my only wish is for Vakula to be staged in the theatre. The parts have already been copied out, and I’m carefully reviewing everything it before I send it to Petersburg" [11].

On 18/30 May 1875 he wrote to Nikolai Rimskii-Korsakov: "There is no more foolish position for an author than, having written an opera, having to wait until the time is right for it to be recognised. A few days ago I sent this opera to the competition, and I am fiercely tormented with the thought that perhaps at this very moment there are other and better Vakulas than mine. The prize does not interest me at all, but the question of its production is now occupying all my thoughts, and if that does not take place then it seems as though I will go out of my mind" [12].

On 22 November/4 December 1874, at a concert of the Moscow section of the Russian Musical Society, Nikolai Rubinstein conducted the overture, described on the concert bill as "overture to an unfinished opera" [13].

In the competition, the opera Vakula the Smith was submitted anonymously under the motto Ars longa, vita brevis ["Art is long, life is short"]

In October 1875, the Moscow Gazette reported that Tchaikovsky had been awarded the prize of 1500 roubles for the opera.

On 1/13 October 1875, Nikolai Rimskii-Korsakov wrote to Tchaikovsky: "I have carefully gone through your Vakula. I will discuss this in detail when we meet, but I will tell you now that it has much that pleases me and much that displeases me, but nonetheless this is by far the best of your operas (the first two I do not know, but you yourself have disowned them). Its many deficiencies, in my opinion, were solely due to the libretto. I am absolutely sure that you have still written an opera which will go with a crescendo on its own merits. I liked very much the scene with the mayor, schoolteacher, devil and Chub in the first scene of the second act, and also the scene with Chub and Panas in the first during the snowstorm. Solokha and the chorus were marvellous. Oksana’s song in the first act was very sweet, but suffered from an excess of sentimentality that did not sit well with Oksana, but this was the fault of the libretto and not you. The fantastic flight, built around the theme "In the saddle" [Оседлаю помело], was not wholly to my taste, but perhaps it will play better with the orchestra (I still have not seen the full score). I thought the Polonaise was a little heavy-handed. But what an outstanding and, above all, original harmonist you are! I intended to speak with you about the opera when we meet, but I could not restrain myself from expressing my thoughts... Your opera (I do not doubt for a moment) is worthy of the prize" [14].

The standard of the other operas entered in the competition was very poor, Nikolai Rimskii-Korsakov concluded. "Apart from your opera, not one of the other entrants would have been worthy of the prize or of a performance, in my opinion" [15].

In early/mid December, Tchaikovsky received official notification that the opera was scheduled for performance in the next season on the stage of the Mariinskii Theatre in Saint Petersburg [16].

The premiere took place on 24 November/6 December 1876 in Saint Petersburg, conducted by Eduard Nápravník. Afterwards, Tchaikovsky wrote to Sergei Taneev: "Vakula was a spectacular flop. The first two acts passed amid sepulchral silence, with the exception of the overture and the first duet, which were applauded. In the scene with the mayor and especially the clerk there was much laughter, but no applause or calls. After the third and fourth acts (the third was divided into two) I was called for a few times, but with hissing from a substantial part of the public. The second performance fared somewhat better, but all the same it is possible to say with some confidence that the opera did not please, and it will only last for five or six performances. It is worth noting that at the dress rehearsal everyone, including Cui, predicted that it would be an enormous success, and it came as a heavier blow when the opera failed. I won’t pretend that this has badly shaken and discouraged me. The main thing is that it cannot be blamed on the performers or on the production. Everything was done diligently, attentively and even lavishly. The designs were simply splendid... the failure of the opera is my responsibility. It is too damned by details, too densely orchestrated and too poor in vocal effects. Only now do I understand, you remember, when I played Vakula for the first time at Rubinstein’s, why you and all the others remained cool and dissatisfied. The style of Vakula is in no way operatic; it lacks breadth and depth" [17].

When the opera was revived in 1878, Tchaikovsky attended the performance. Evidently, the author discussed the work’s deficiencies with Eduard Nápravník, and on the advice of the latter Tchaikovsky decided to make a number of alterations and cuts in the opera. He wrote of these to Nápravník on 7/19 November 1878: "Here are the changes I have made in Vakula, which conform to your suggestions:

1) At the end of the first scene I am going to make a significant cut which, in my opinion, will greatly enhance the overall effect of this scene, namely the whole scena between Chub and the Mayor, and also the following chorus (a repetition of before). Also from the chorus’ words "head to the clearings" [Ползум на поляны] I am crossing out half a bar and jumping directly to the coda, i.e. on the rough copy of the full score which my brother will pass to you, this cut will begin on bar 5 of page 38, and will end on bar 3 of page 45.

2) At the end of the second scene I want to alter the orchestration a little. Starting from:

I have crossed out all the wind instruments, with the exception of the 1st flute and 1st clarinet, who retain the notes:

Instead of two horns in unison entering on the fourth bars of pages 82 and 83, there should only be the first horn. On pages 85 and 86 I have crossed out all the woodwind, and substituted the second pair of horns and trumpets; instead of f in the strings here, I have put mf.

3) On page 87 permit me to make some cuts and alterations, to which I hope you will be persuaded to agree. This will present no difficulty for the orchestra, but for Oksana the words: "I want to cry, and yet I laugh" [и плакать хочется] need to be set different music, so that this presents no difficulty for Mme Raab. The change occurs after Vakula’s exit, where the orchestra plays five additional bars and stops on the first quaver of the sixth bar. Here Oksana sings recitatives to the words "I want to cry...", after which a quartet plays three chords and then Oksana says "...and yet I laugh". Here the orchestra enters and after a cut plays the last six bars of the scene as of old, but omitting one bar for the sake of rhythmical symmetry. In short, all this will take the following form:

If you find that the three chords for the quartet are too difficult, then it is possible to omit one bar after the words "and I want to cry". But I would strongly urge this insignificant change, to which I hope you and Mme Raab will agree.

4) In the first scene of Act III, page 28, I have changed the instrumentation of two bars:

5) In the third scene of the same act on page 114, I have changed the instrumentation of two bars.

Besides these insignificant changes, I can do no more. Wherever I wanted to substantially alter the orchestral accompaniment in order to enhance the voices, I encountered invincible obstacles, i.e. it was necessary either not only to change the orchestra but the music itself, or to leave it as before. Out of necessity, it had to be the latter. For example, in the scene between Vakula and the Devil after the court dances the words are inaudible because the complex orchestral figurations prevent the singers from speaking freely, but what else could I do here without radically altering the music?" [18].

Tchaikovsky gave a considered view of his opera Vakula the Smith in a letter to Nadezhda von Meck of 30 October/11 November 1878: "Vakula went off as it did on its first production, i.e. smoothly and without a hitch, but it is routine, pallid and colourless. There is one person on who becomes angry every time he hears this opera. That person is me. Lord, how many unpardonable errors in this opera were made not by others, but by me! I did everything I could in order to give a good account of all the places which might themselves be pleasing, but if only I had held my purely musical inspiration in check, and thought more about the staging and decoration that are essential ingredients of operatic style. The whole opera suffers throughout from a layering, a surplus of detail, and tiresome chromatic harmonies, and from a lack of shape and completeness in the individual numbers. C’est un menu surchargé de plats épicés [19]. It has many tasty morsels, but little plain and healthy food. I realize all too well the deficiencies in my operas, which unfortunately are irreparable. But hearing it afresh, I will take something away for the future" [20].

Nevertheless, Tchaikovsky retained an affection for Vakula the Smith: "... while recognizing its deficiencies as an opera, I would still place it amongst the first rank of my creations. I wrote this music with love and with enjoyment, just like Onegin, the Fourth Symphony and the Second Quartet" [21].

The opera was due to be published by Vasilii Bessel, but Tchaikovsky rejected this and instead gave Petr Jurgenson the rights to the edition [22]. In February and March 1876, Tchaikovsky corrected the proofs of the edition. In a letter of 3/15 March to Modest Tchaikovsky he wrote: "I am still pressing on with the never-ending proofs of Vakula, which is due to go to press in two weeks" [23].

The vocal score of the opera was published in April 1876 [24]. The whole full score was never brought out. In 1885, Tchaikovsky reworked the opera Vakula the Smith as Cherevichki, making several fundamental changes and additions to the original version. The full score of fragments of Vakula the Smith which were not later incorporated into Cherevichki were published for the first time in the collected edition of Tchaikovsky’s works, together with the vocal score of the opera [25].

From: Музыкальное наследие Чайковского (1958), pp. 30–37
English text copyright © 2006 Brett Langston

References:
  1. Letter 294 to Dmitrii Obolenskii, 7/19 March 1873 [back]
  2. See Московские ведомости, 8 May 1873 [back]
  3. Letter 352 to Vasilii Bessel, 18/30 May 1874 [back]
  4. Letter 353 to Vasilii Bessel, 30 May/11 June 1874 [back]
  5. Letter 354 to Modest Tchaikovsky, 18/30 June 1874 [back]
  6. M. I. Tchaikovsky, Жизнь Петра Ильича Чайковского, том 1 (1900), p. 440 [back]
  7. Letter 366 to Vasilii Bessel’, 19/31 October 1874 [back]
  8. Letter to 1217 to Nadezhda von Meck, 27 June/9 July 1879. See also letter 850 to Nadezhda von Meck, 6/18 June 1878 [back]
  9. See letter 368 to Modest Tchaikovsky, 29 October/10 November 1874 [back]
  10. See letter 367 to Eduard Nápravník, 19/31 October 1874 [back]
  11. Letter 400 to Anatolii Tchaikovsky, 12/24 May 1875 [back]
  12. Letter 401 to Nikolai Rimskii-Korsakov, 18/30 May 1875 [back]
  13. See letter 372 to Anatolii Tchaikovsky, 21 November/3 December 1874 [back]
  14. Letter from Nikolai Rimskii-Korsakov to Tchaikovsky, 1/13 October 1875 [back]
  15. The formal award noted that Tchaikovsky’s opera was "not only relatively the best, but the only one fulfilling the artistic requirements". None of the remaining four entrants was judged worthy to receive the second prize of 500 roubles [back]
  16. See letter 425 to Anatolii Tchaikovsky, 11/23 December 1875 [back]
  17. Letter 517 to Sergei Taneev, 2/14 December 1876 [back]
  18. Letter 962 to Eduard Nápravník, 7/19 November 1878 [back]
  19. "A menu filled to excess with spicy dishes" [back]
  20. Letter 956 to Nadezhda von Meck, 30 October/11 November 1878 [back]
  21. See letter 1311 to Nadezhda von Meck, 12/24 October 1879 [back]
  22. See letters 396 and 407 to Vasilii Bessel’, 22 March and 8 July 1875 [back]
  23. Letter 450 to Modest Tchaikovsky, 3/15 March 1876 [back]
  24. Passed by the censor on 22 February 1876 [back]
  25. P. I. Tchaikovsky, Полное собрание сочинений, том 35 (1956) [back]