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Tchaikovsky |
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TH 223 The Captain's DaughterКапитанская дочкаProjected opera (1885-88).
HistoryThe subject of The Captain’s Daughter was suggested to Tchaikovsky by Ivan Vsevolozhskii, the Director of the Imperial Theatres, in January 1885. Vladimir Pogozhev later recalled that "Apparently there were considerable limitations for creativity in this work, since it was impossible to avoid a musical development of the Pugachev rebellion, a sensitive topic at that time. This problem caused the composer continual doubt and hesitation. Vsevolozhskii, notwithstanding his customary modesty and shyness when dealing directly with the Emperor, was so carried away with the idea of staging The Captain’s Daughter, that he decided to discuss with the Emperor the creative difficulties presented by the Pugachev rebellion... The permission was granted. But Petr Il´ich was totally absorbed at this time in his ideas for reworking his opera Vakula the Smith as Cherevichki and, primarily, in composing The Enchantress. The plot of The Captain’s Daughter apparently did not inspire him" [1]. On 21 April 1885, Tchaikovsky wrote to Pavel Pereletskii regarding The Captain’s Daughter "I have had discussions with people from the theatrical world -- but they were not welcome discussions, because although there are many things in Pushkin which please me, the Pugachev incident frightens me, and after careful consideration I have decided to abandon the idea of writing an opera on this subject" [2]. However, Vsevolozhskii continued his attempts to persuade Tchaikovsky to write the opera, and he even engaged Ippolit Shpazhinskii to write the libretto. Reports appeared in the press that after Tchaikovsky had completed work on The Enchantress, he would be starting work on The Captain’s Daughter. "Everything that is written in the newspapers concerning my new works is false", Tchaikovsky told Nadezhda Von Meck on 24 April 1888. "I really did once consider, and am still considering, an opera on the subject of The Captain’s Daughter; I really also considered taking up a suggestion from the Director of Theatres to write music to a ballet Undina, but these are just possibilities, and I have not decided anything" [3]. On 11 May 1888, Tchaikovsky wrote to Ivan Vsevolozhskii: "On the subject of The Captain’s Daughter, something strange happened to me recently: I suddenly, and I believe irrevocably, feel cold towards it. This happened after I re-read the story while I was in Tiflis, and from that moment I could not feel warmly or inspired by the characters in The Captain’s Daughter. And without such warm feelings, I can produce nothing. Besides this, Shpazhinskii alarmed me, writing that he could not produce a libretto for The Captain’s Daughter with fewer than 5 enormous acts!!!’ [4]. From: The Tchaikovsky Handbook, vol. 1 (2002), p.
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