Cherevichki, and: Der Zwerg, and: Der zerbrochene Krug (review)

Cherevichki was Tchaikovsky’s 1887 revision of one of his earliest operas, Vakula the Smith (1876). Based on Nikolai Gogol’s tale Christmas Eve, it is said to have been one of Tchaikovsky’s own favorite works, but it has remained outside the standard repertory, even in Russia. Part of the problem may be the earthy peasant humor which is abundant in the libretto. This was never Tchaikovsky’s forte, but he excelled in the more human, introspective passages, in particular a duet for Oxana and Solokha at the beginning of Act 4, and the ballet numbers find him in his element. This 2009 revival at London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, which billed itself as The Tsarina’s Slippers, could change the opera’s reputation. Cast mostly with Russian singers and designed by Russian book illustrator Mikhail Mokrov (whose style recalls Maurice Sendak), this production is absolutely wonderful. Director Francesca Zambello eschews any conceptual reinterpretation and presents us with a colorful fairy tale which could turn into a seasonal family favorite for Covent Garden. The singers are uniformly excellent, notably tenor Vsevolod Grivnov in the central role of Vakula the love-sick blacksmith, soprano Olga Guryakova as the capricious Oxana who sends him on his quest for the golden slippers of the title, and alto Larissa Diadkova, who appears to be having the time of her life as the witch Solokha. Mariinsky Theatre veteran Sergei Leiferkus makes a welcome return to the stage in the cameo role of Potemkin in Act 3. The ballet numbers are performed brilliantly by members of The Royal Ballet, and the gravity-defying Cossack dancers are spectacular. The production was filmed in High Defi nition, offers stereo or DTS sound options, and is absolutely state of the art. This delightful DVD belongs in every collection.

Conductor James Conlon has made a special effort to revive and re-evaluate musical compositions that were labeled “degenerate” and banned by the Nazis. In 2008 he conducted a double bill of two such one-act operas at Los Angeles Opera. The more substantial of the two, Alexander Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg, receives top billing however it is preceded on the program by Viktor Ullmann’s Der zerbrochene Krug.

Ullmann’s libretto strips Heinrich von Kleist’s play The Broken Jug to its bare essentials and a running time of less than 40 minutes. The plot is intact but all of the rich character development is gone, including that of the Falstaffian central figure Judge Adam. Ullmann may have had concerns about portraying such a morally bankrupt figure of authority, but toning Adam down kills much of the play’s humor. Stage director Darko Tresnjak has attempted to compensate for this by giving us a mime show in silhouette during the overture, but it is not enough. Bass-baritone James Johnson does what he can with the role of Adam, and he is well supported by dicthe rest of the ensemble, but in spite of its slender charm, this opera is not likely to enter the standard repertory.

Der Zwerg, on the other hand, could achieve that status. Based on Oscar Wilde’s fairy tale The Birthday of the Infanta, it is a tale human cruelty told in an idiom that recalls Strauss and Korngold at their most opulent. Soprano Mary Dunleavy is outstanding as the pampered princess who rejects the love of the dwarf, seeing him merely as a new toy. Her bright voice sails above the heavy orchestration and negotiates the high tessitura with ease. Sadly, the same cannot be said of tenor Rodrick Dixon as the dwarf. He...