Okay, so the Kentucky Derby is today. But I’m not here to write about that. I’m here to write about Tchaikovsky and the Devil.
Opera aficionado Sandy Steiglitz will be broadcasting Tchaikovsky’s “Cherevichki” (“The Slippers”), tomorrow on WPRB’s “Sunday Morning Opera with Sandy.”
Part fairy tale and part farce, Yakov Polansky’s libretto features such incidentals as the theft of the moon, amorous peasants secreting themselves in burlap sacks, and a ride through the air on the Devil’s back to collect the Tsarina’s slippers (hence, the title). All this takes place against the backdrop of a Ukrainian Christmas.
“Cherevichki” (sometimes spelled “Tcherevichki”) is Tchaikovsky’s reworking of an earlier opera, “Vakula the Smith,” which the composer believed unjustly ignored. Even in its revised form, the work is arguably more obscure than Rimsky-Korsakov’s neglected gem, “Christmas Eve,” which was drawn from the same source material (a story from Nikolai Gogol’s collection, “Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka,” of which you will hear more on June 23, Saint John’s Eve).
Fun fact: there was a complicated rivalry between Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, each composer supportive of the other in public, while in private nagged by suspicion and envy. Though Tchaikovsky was sufficiently awed to swear his publisher to secrecy about his use of the then-new celesta in “The Nutcracker,” lest Rimsky steal his thunder, Rimsky had no qualms about following in Tchaikovsky’s footsteps when setting “Christmas Eve.” His version of the Gogol tale appeared ten years later, in 1895.
The only thing crazier than airing a Christmas opera in May is writing a Christmas opera about the devil. Needless to say, I can resist neither.
Check out “Cherevichki” on WPRB’s “Sunday Morning Opera with Sandy,” tomorrow at 6:45 a.m. ET. If you’re an early riser, tune in around 5:30. Sandy’s there spinning arias and duets at a time when the roosters are still wiping the sleep out of their eyes.
You can hear the show locally (Princeton, NJ) at 103.3 FM, or anywhere online at wprb.com. While you’re listening, visit her Facebook page – Sunday Morning Opera with Sandy – and leave nice comments.
PHOTO: Ivan Mozzhukhin in a silent film version of Gogol’s tale, “The Night Before Christmas” (1913)