Opera "The Demon": content, video, interesting facts, history

A. Rubinstein opera "The Demon"

M.Yu. Lermontov wrote the poem "The Demon" for 10 years, having finished it literally six months before his death. The attractive force of this work was so strong that A.G. Rubinstein created on its basis a full three-act opera in just 3 months.

Summary of the opera Rubinstein "Demon"and many interesting facts about this work read on our page.

Summary of "Demon"

During a storm in the mountains of the Caucasus, a chorus of evil spirits calls on the Demon to destroy the beauty of God's world. The demon speaks of his hatred of the universe and rejects the request of the Angel to reconcile with the heavens.

Tamara walks by the river. There the Demon sees her and falls in love. He promises the girl that the whole world will be at her feet if she shares his love. Meanwhile, Prince Synodal is going to the wedding with Tamara, but his path is blocked by a landslide. While he sleeps is a demon, predicting trouble. The caravan of the Synodal is attacked by the Tatars, the duel ends with the death of the prince. He asks the servant to deliver his body to the bride.

Preparations for the wedding ceremony have already begun at Hudal's castle, but the news comes about the delay in the groom's caravan. Tamara feels that the demon is somewhere nearby. When the body of Synodal is brought to the castle, she continues to hear a terrible and at the same time attracting voice and wants to find salvation in the monastery. The demon goes after her and there, hoping that the love that burns in him, opened his soul for good. The angel tries to stop him, but the Demon is so determined that he retreats.

Tamara prays in her cell, but all the time she turns her thoughts to the Demon, whom she sees in dreams. Suddenly, the Demon appears in front of her, begging for love. She cannot resist his charms. Seeing this, the Demon kisses the girl, but she breaks free from his arms and drops dead. The angel takes her soul to heaven, and the Demon is doomed to eternal loneliness.

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Interesting Facts

• S. Rachmaninov recalled one of the performances at the Bolshoi Theater. At the console was AG. Rubinstein, in the hall there was a notable Moscow public. In the second picture, after the curtain was raised, it became obvious that the scene was poorly lit. Rubinstein stopped the orchestra and expressed his displeasure with the amount of light. After all the spotlights were turned on, the conductor continued the performance.
• A.G. Rubinstein wrote 13 operas, part in German. His frequent practice was translating operas into German and selling them to German theaters. He also planned to do the "Demon" if he was not accepted for staging in Russia. Today "The Demon" is the most popular opera of the composer, the rest are practically not performed.
• I. Melnikov and F. Komissarzhevsky sang together and at the premiere "Boris Godunov" Mn Mussorgsky - the title party and the Pretender, respectively.

• Viskovatov Rubinstein ordered another libretto, according to Gogol's "Terrible Revenge." He managed to create 3 of 5 actions, but after a conflict with the composer, he stopped working and flatly refused to give him what he had written.
• The last performances of "The Demon" in two capitals were staged by dramatic directors - M. Efremov in 1999 in the "New Opera", G. Trostyanetsky in 2008 in the Musical Theater named after. K.S. Stanislavsky and V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko and L. Dodin in 2003 at the Mariinsky Theater.

The best numbers from the opera "The Demon"

"Do not Cry, Child" - Demon's aria (listen)

"On the ocean of air" - the Demon's romance (listen)

"The night is warm, the night is quiet, I can not sleep" - Tamara's romance (listen)

The history of the creation and productions of "The Demon"

In 1871 Anton Grigorievich Rubinstein decided to write an opera on the plot of one of his favorite works - Lermontov's "Demon". The search for the librettist led him to A. Maikov, then to Ya. Polonsky, but both of them rejected the offer, but Maikov advised him to the well-known Lermontoologist, Professor of the University of Derpt, Pavel Alexandrovich Viskovatov. He agreed, though not without hesitation — the need to correct the Lermontov syllable seemed to him almost sacrilege. Difficulties in co-creation came to light immediately - Rubinstein was in a hurry to present the opera to the theater for the next season, that is, less than six months after the start of work, and Viskovat could not write at that pace. One of his principal conditions was that he would finish the libretto and only after that would pass it on to the composer. But the impatient Rubinstein almost every day began to appear to his house, literally snatching the text from under the pen. It got to the point that he simply wrote many scenes himself. Then the co-authors shared the space - Viskovatov went to Berlin, and in the work of correspondence there was a fair inconvenience. Finally, on August 15, they met. Rubinstein played the third act, according to which it became clear that he completely redrew all the librettos, and now it seemed to Viskovatov that it was ridiculous, illogical, and sometimes primitive. He persuaded the composer to break the score and redo everything. But Rubinstein refused. Pavel Alexandrovich, in turn, refused to subscribe to this work and asked not to give the libretto to the press without his final visa.

Meanwhile, September came, and the Directorate of the Imperial Theaters received the completed “Demon” for consideration. The first verdict on the opera - to refuse the production because of its anti-religious nature. A year later, when the Angel was renamed the Good Genius and removed all the cult symbols, the censor agreed to the "Demon". The score and the libretto were published, the name Viskovatova appeared on both, although he never received them for the final proofreading. Rubinstein, however, claimed that he had instructed his music publisher Bassel to send the libretto to Dorpat. In recognition of Viskovatov, who had already read the printed copy, he wrote only the first act of the opera, the other two make a chaotic compilation of his text, the original lines of Lermontov and the additions of Rubinstein himself.

Finally, on January 13, 1875, the premiere took place. Leading soloists took part in the performance: Ivan Melnikov (The Demon), Wilhelmina Raab (Tamara), Fedor Komissarzhevsky (Synodal). Prince Hudal sang truly legendary bass Osip Petrov - he was the first performer of Ivan Susanin's parts in "Life for the king", Ruslana in"Ruslana and Lyudmila“Glinka. Despite such a composition, the public was not too impressed with the opera, the criticism was not at all amiable. Partly in their words was a grain of truth,“ Demon ”is the most famous opera of Rubinstein, but in the musical part it has a loose score and inexpressive orchestration. Viskovatova's poems were ridiculed, no one knew that he had nothing to do with some of them.

Harassment in the press led the librettist to write a letter to Rubinstein with a request to publicly acknowledge his edits to the libretto. The composer ignored him, like a few more. Then Viskovatov spoke in the newspaper "Voice", where he described in detail the situation. Rubinstein did not enter directly into the dialogue, but asked the same Bassel to post a refutation of the charges in Golos. The only thing that Viskovatov managed to do was remove his surname from the libretto. However, he thereby lost part of the fee due to him, which the Mariinsky Theater paid out after the premiere of The Demon, legally the only author, and therefore the recipient of money, became Rubinstein. The composer chose to keep the entire amount to himself, since the librettist had not returned his debt to him before. A few years later, Anton G. confessed that he did not remake the opera primarily because it ceased to interest him. He would not have been able to write music with the same inspiration.

"Demon" found a rebirth when PA appeared in the title role. Khokhlov, who created a piercing, sad and romantic image. F.I. Chaliapin considered the singer his teacher, so this party later became the leader in his repertoire. In the entire history of the opera, the Mariinsky Theater staged it 6 times, twice before the revolution, three times in Soviet times. The last production took place in 2003.

"Demon" in the cinema

In 1960, the opera-film "The Demon" was released, in which the main roles were played by Georg Ots (The Demon), Sergey Lemeshev (The Prince Synodal) and Olga Kashevarova (Tamara). At the time of filming, Lemeshev was 58 years old, and Kashevarova was 55. The film was shot by Vitaly Golovin, son of the famous opera singer Dmitry Golovin. In the 1930s, they lived in the same house with V.E. Meyerhold and were falsely accused of the murder of his wife, Z.N. Reich. Vitaly Golovin spent 8 years in the camps and was rehabilitated in 1953. "The Demon" was his first work on television.

There were no other domestic screen versions or video versions of the opera until 2015, when the Kultura TV channel recorded the semi-performance “Demon” in the Moscow PI Concert Hall. Tchaikovsky, dedicated to the 140th anniversary of his premiere. The director was D. Bertman, conducted by M. Tatarnikov. The main parties were occupied: D. Hvorostovsky (Demon), A. Grigoryan (Tamara), I. Morozov (Prince Synodal). The party of the Angel, usually performed behind the stage, here has acquired a visible image, in which the usual contralto was replaced by the countertenor V. Volkov.

Among foreign productions, one can mention the performance of the Latvian National Opera (2004), in which S. Izyumov (The Demon), K. Opolais (Tamara), G. Rungis (Sinodal) sang.

The opera, created under the influence of feeling, turned out to be very uneven in quality - alongside the genius romances of the title character, dramatically weak episodes and unjustified musical lengths coexist. Nevertheless, there is hardly a Russian baritone who has never performed arias. The demon - they are full of feeling, memorable melodies and the opportunity to demonstrate vocal skills.