Mlada

Mlada (Russian: Млада, the name of a main character) was a project originally envisioned as a ballet to be composed by Alexander Serov and choreographed by Marius Petipa. The project was later revised in 1872 as an opera-ballet in four acts, with the composition of the score to be divided between César Cui, Léon Minkus, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, and Aleksandr Borodin. The libretto was written by Viktor Krylov. The project was never completed, and no performing edition is in use. An admirably exhaustive study of this opera has been made by German musicologist Albrecht Gaub (see bibliography below) and provides much relevant information for this article. Rimsky-Korsakov composed his own opera, Mlada, in 1890, using the same libretto, but with all new musical materials.

Composition history

Conception The scenario was conceived in 1870 by Stepan Alexandrovich Gedeonov (1815-1878), who was the Director of the Imperial Theatres at the time. It was originally to be a ballet, with choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Alexander Serov, who died in 1871 before composing anything for the work. Gedeonov revised his conception as an opera-ballet, and it became a grand collaborative effort with a libretto by Viktor Krylov and music by five Russian composers: César Cui, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Modest Mussorgsky and Alexander Borodin – all members of The Five – were to write music for the sung portions of the libretto and dramatic action. Léon Minkus, at that time the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre's First Imperial Ballet Composer, was to write the ballet music. Here is how the members of The Five divided up the work:

• Act I -- Cui, ballet music -- Minkus
• Separate portions of Acts II and III -- Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov
• Act IV -- Borodin

Although the music was essentially completed, Gedeonov's plans ultimately fell through, however, and the collaborative work was never staged. Fate of the Composed Music Most of the composers used their music from the 1872 project in later works. To this date there is no published edition that collates the original manuscripts containing all the extant music composed for the Mlada of 1872. The only extended unrecycled music from The Five's collaborative Mlada is Act I, which was composed by Cui (except for inserted dance music assigned to Minkus). Although Cui borrowed a terzett therefrom for his revision of Prisoner of the Caucasus in 1881-1882, the remainder of the act was not appropriated for other works. Late in life (1911) he edited and published Act I and dedicated it to the memory of Borodin, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov. Mussorgsky's contribution involved his producing a new version of his Night on Bald Mountain for use in the scene of the witches' sabbath in Act III. Among other changes, this revision saw the addition of a chorus to what had previously been a purely orchestral score. (Mussorgsky was later to produce a third version – also with chorus, but featuring a new, quiet ending – for the unfinished opera Fair at Sorochintsy; none of the three versions was performed in his lifetime). After Borodin's death, Rimsky-Korsakov edited and published the Finale from Act IV as an orchestral concert piece. In addition, Rimsky-Korsakov used his own contributions, from Act III, to compile a lengthy symphonic poem for orchestra entitled Night on Mount Triglav. This work, which runs to roughly a half-hour in duration, recycles much of the material from Act III but dispenses with any specific storyline or explicit connection to the original opera.

Roles and setting

Source: A libretto printed in Gaub's study

Roles

• Princess Voyslava, daughter of Mstivoy
• Mstivoy, Prince of Retra
• Svyatokhna, later transformed into the goddess Morena
• Yaromir, Prince of Arkona, Voyslava's fiancé, formerly betrothed to Mlada
• A Ruthenian
• Lumir, a Czech singer
• A Priest
• The High Priest
• Chernobog [The Black God]
• Mlada (non-singing, ballet-pantomime dancer)
• Maidens, people, hunters, merchants, Polabians, Novgorodians, devils, witches, dwarves
• Corps de ballet

Setting

• Time: The 9th–10th century
• Place: Among ancient Polabian Slavs near the Elbe River.

Synopsis

Note: The basic plot of Mlada, with different place and time, is adapted from a ballet by Filippo Taglioni entitled The Phantom, which premiered in 1839 in Saint Petersburg. Certain elements of the plot below are not attested by surviving documents from the 1872 project, but are interpolated from the plots of Minkus' ballet and Rimsky-Korsakov's complete operatic setting. Act I. Voyslava has killed Mlada, Yaromir's bride, to have him for herself. With the help of Morena, the goddess of the underworld, she has captivated Yaromir. But he sees the murder in his dreams. Act II. At the midsummer festival the people dance, while the spirit of Mlada interves between Yaromir and Voyslava. Act III. By night Mlada leads Yaromir up Mount Triglav, where the dead gather, before the Witches' Sabbath in which Yaromir is shown a vision of Cleopatra. Act IV. Yaromir, at the Temple of Radegast, is shown by the spirits that Voyslava is guilty. She confesses her sin and he kills her. Morena, with whom Voyslava had made a compact, destroys the temple and the city of Retra, but Yaromir is united with Mlada in heaven.

Versions by other hands

A pure ballet adaptation of the scenario was later realized by Marius Petipa and Léon Minkus, premiering on December 2, 1879, the year after Gedeonov's death, at the St. Petersburg Imperial Bolshoi Kammeny Theatre by the Imperial Ballet. A revival of the ballet, mounted by Petipa, was presented on September 25, 1896. In 1889-1890 Rimsky-Korsakov dusted off the libretto for Mlada and composed his own complete setting of the opera-ballet anew. Its first production was not a success, and it did not become a regular repertory item (the decor, designed by Ivan Andreev and Mikhail Bocharov, was also used for Petipa's 1896 revival of the ballet adaptation). The orchestral suite from the Rimsky-Korsakov's opera includes the well-known "Procession of the Nobles" from Act II.

Bibliography

• Abraham, Gerald. "The Collective Mlada," in On Russian Music: critical and historical studies of Glinka's operas, Balakirev's works, etc., with chapters dealing with compositions by Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Glazunov, and various other aspects of Russian music. London: W. Reeves, 1939; rpt. New York: Books for Libraries, 1980.
• Cui, César. Млада: опера-балет, первый акт. [Mlada: an opera-ballet, Act I]. Partition de piano. Leipzig: Belaieff, 1911.
• Gaub, Albrecht. Die kollektive Ballett-Oper "Mlada": ein Werk von Kjui, Musorgskij, Rimskij-Korsakov, Borodin und Minkus. Studia slavica musicologica; Bd. 12. Berlin: Kuhn, 1998. ISBN 3-928864-53-X
• Gozenpud, A. A. Русский оперный театр на рубеже XIX-XX веков, и Ф.И. Шаляпин, 1890-1904 [Russian Operatic Theater at the Boundary of the 19th and 20th Centuries, and F. I. Chaliapin, 1890-1904] (Ленинград: Музыка, Ленинградское отделение, 1974), p. 82.
• Rimsky-Korsakov, N.A.. My Musical Life. Ed. with an introduction by Carl van Vechten; trans. by Judah A. Joffe. 3rd American ed. A. A. Knopf, 1942.