Firma Melodiya presents a recording of a wonderful but now so rarely performed lyric and comic opera - Tchaikovsky’s Cherevichki.

The opera was initially named 'Vakula the Smith'. In 1874, Tchaikovsky won a competition announced by the Russian Music Society for the best opera to a libretto by Yakov Polonsky based on the famous story 'Christmas Eve' by Nikolai Gogol from his collection 'Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka'. However, Tchaikovsky was left displeased with his piece and reworked it in 1887. The opera was then staged at the Bolshoi Theatre, and the first night of Cherevichki became Tchaikovsky’s debut as a conductor.

Gogol was one of Tchaikovsky’s favourite authors. The composer liked to stay in the Ukraine, in his sister’s manor Kamenka. Tchaikovsky brought to life the characters from Gogol’s story, their lives, legends and emotions, with the help of folk tunes, dance rhythms and expressive lyric intonations. The opera also has a gallant intermezzo – the scene at St Petersburg court in the 18th century which also attracted the composer in a later opera, 'The Queen of Spades'.

This recording of Cherevichki was realized in the late 1940s by the Bolshoi troupe led by the outstanding conductor Alexander Melik-Pashayev and featured some of the best performers of the Bolshoi of the time, such as Elena Kruglikova, Elizaveta Antonova, Georgy Nelepp, Andrei Ivanov, Maxim Mikhailov and others.

Artists

Georgy Nelepp (Vakula), Elizaveta Antonova (Solokha), Andrei Ivanov (Devil), Maxim Mikhailov (Chub), Elena Kruglikova (Oksana), Sergei Krasovsky (Pan Golova), Fyodor Godovkin (Panas), Alexandr Peregudov (Schoolmaster), Olga Insarova (Tsarina), Alexei Ivanov (His Highness), I Ionov (Master of Ceremonies), Veniamin Shevtsov (Attendant), Ivan Sipayev (Old Cossack), Mikhail Skazin (Wood Goblin)

Bolshoi Theatre Choir and Orchestra, Alexander Melik-Pashayev