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The Golden Cockerel

The Golden Cockerel (Russian: Золотой петушок, romanized: Zolotoy petushok ) is an opera in three acts, with short prologue and even shorter epilogue, composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, the last opera he completed before his death in 1908. Its libretto written by Vladimir Belsky derives from Alexander Pushkin's 1834 poem The Tale of the Golden Cockerel. The opera was completed in 1907 and premiered in 1909 in Moscow, after the composer's death. Outside Russia it has often been performed in French as Le coq d'or.

The Golden Cockerel

Zolotoy petushok (Золотой петушок)

Le coq d'or

  • Russian
  • French
7 October 1909 (1909-10-07)
Solodovnikov Theatre, Moscow, Russia

Composition history[edit]

Rimsky-Korsakov had considered his previous opera, The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya (1907) to be his final artistic statement in the medium, and, indeed, this work has been called a "summation of the nationalistic operatic tradition of Glinka and The Five."[1] However, the political situation in Russia at the time inspired him to take up the pen to compose a "razor-sharp satire of the autocracy, of Russian imperialism, and of the Russo-Japanese war."[2] Also, Rimsky-Korsakov's previous works inspired by Alexander Pushkin's poems, especially Tsar Saltan (1899-1900), had proved to be very successful.


The work on The Golden Cockerel was started in 1906 and finished by September 1907. By the end of February 1908 the director of Imperial Theatres Vladimir Telyakovskiy passed the score to the censorship agency in order to get an approval for the Bolshoi Theatre. It was returned unedited, yet suddenly taken back the next day. This time many changes were requested to be made to the libretto as well as the original Pushkin's text. Rimsky-Korsakov suspected someone's denunciation and resisted any changes. He continued the work on orchestration while fighting with progressive illness. In June 1908 Telyakovskiy informed him that the Moscow Governor-General Sergei Gershelman was highly against the opera. In his last letter Rimsky-Korsakov asked his friend and music publisher Boris Jurgenson to contact Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi and suggest him to stage The Golden Cockerel in Paris. He died two days later and thus never witnessed the premiere of his last opera.[3]

: 1 Piccolo, 2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 1 Cor anglais, 2 Clarinets (in A-B), 1 Bass Clarinet (in A-B), 2 Bassoons, 1 Contrabassoon

Woodwinds

: 4 French Horns (in F), 2 Trumpets (in C), 1 Trumpet contralto (in F), 3 Trombones, 1 Tuba

Brass

Other: , 2 Harps

Celesta

Pushkin spelled Dodon's name as Dadon. The association of the revised spelling Dodon in the libretto with the bird is likely intentional.

dodo

is a noun, denoting a place. Shemakhan is an adjectival usage.

Shemakha

Note on names:

Introduction and Wedding Procession from the opera The Golden Cockerel (1907)

Rimsky-Korsakov made the following concert arrangement:


After his death, A. Glazunov and M. Shteynberg (Steinberg) compiled the following orchestral suite:


Efrem Zimbalist wrote Concert Phantasy on 'Le coq d'or' for violin and piano based on themes from the suite.

Inspiration for other works[edit]

Marina Frolova-Walker points to The Golden Cockerel as the fore-runner of the anti-psychologistic and absurdist ideas which would culminate in such 20th century 'anti-operas' as Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges (1921) and Shostakovich's The Nose (1930). In this, his last opera, Rimsky-Korsakov had laid "the foundation for modernist opera in Russia and beyond."[1]


In 1978–79 the English composer Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji wrote "Il gallo d’oro" da Rimsky-Korsakov: variazioni frivole con una fuga anarchica, eretica e perversa.

1951, Aleksey Korolev (Tsar Dodon), Pavel Tchekin (Tsarevich Gvidon), Levon Khachaturov (Tsarevich Afron), Sergey Krassovsky (General Polkan), Antonina Kleshcheva (Amelfa), Pavel Pontryagin (Astrologer), Nadezhda Kazantseva (Shemakhan Tsaritsa), Lina Shukhat (Golden Cockerel). The Great symphony orchestra of All-Union Radio and The Great choir of All-Union Radio. Choirmaster: Ivan Kuvykin. Alexander Gauk (conductor). This recording was discovered and released for the first time in any format in 2011 by the Russian label Aquarius. It is now considered the best recording of this work.

1962, Aleksey Korolev (Tsar Dodon), Yuri Yelnikov (Tsarevich Gvidon), Aleksandr Polyakov (Tsarevich Afron), Leonid Ktitorov (General Polkan), Antonina Klescheva (Amelfa), (Astrologer), Klara Kadinskaya (Shemakhan Tsaritsa), Nina Polyakova (Golden Cockerel). Moscow Radio Orchestra and Chorus. ' Aleksey Kovalev & Yevgeny Akulov (conductor).[11]

Gennady Pishchayev

1971 (sung in English, live performance), (Tsar Dodon), Beverly Sills (Tsaritsa Shemakha), Enrico di Giuseppe (Astrologer), Muriel Costa-Greenspon (Amelfa), Gary Glaze (Gvidon), David Rae Smith (Afron), Edward Pierson (Polkan), Syble Young (Le Coq d’or). Orchestra and Chorus of the New York City Opera. Julius Rudel

Norman Treigle

1985, Nikolai Stoilov (Tsar Dodon), Ljubomir Bodurov (Tsarevich Gvidon), Emil Ugrinov (Tsarevich Afron), Kosta Videv (General Polkan), Evgenia Babacheva (Amelfa), Lyubomir Diakovski (Astrologer), Elena Stoyanova (Shemakhan Tsaritsa), Yavora Stoilova (Golden Cockerel). Orchestra and Chorus, Dimiter Manolov. In German.

Sofia National Opera

1987, (Tsar Dodon), Vyacheslav Voinarovsky (Tsarevich Gvidon), Vladimir Svistov (Tsarevich Afron), Alexei Mochalov (General Polkan), Raisa Kotova (Amelfa), Boris Tarkhov (Astrologer), Elena Ustinova (Shemakhan Tsaritsa), Olga Shalaeva (Golden Cockerel). Academic Symphony Orchestra of Moscow State Philharmonic and All-Union Radio and Television Academic Grand Choir, Dmitri Kitaenko.

Evgeny Nesterenko

1988, (live performance), (conductor), Bolshoy Theatre Orchestra and Chorus, Artur Eisen (Tsar Dodon), Arkady Mishenkin (Tsarevich Gvidon), Vladimir Redkin (Tsarevich Afron), Nikolay Nizinenko (General Polkan), Nina Gaponova (Amelfa), Oleg Biktimirov (Astrologer), Yelena Brilova (Shemakhan Tsaritsa), Irina Udalova (Golden Cockerel)

Yevgeny Svetlanov

Abraham, Gerald (1936). "XIV. – The Golden Cockerel". Studies in Russian Music. London: William Reeves / The New Temple Press. pp. 290–310.

Holden, Amanda (Ed.), The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York: Penguin Putnam, 2001.  0-14-029312-4

ISBN

Metropolitan Opera House libretto of Le Coq d'Or at archive.org

Libretto at Google Books

Pushkin's tale of The Golden Cockerel