Prokofiev: Semyon Kotko, Op. 81: (complete opera)

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Gergiev draws soloists, orchestra and the fine chorus into an opera which, for all its five acts, is taut and gripping in its emotional thrust. — BBC Music Magazine, July 2009 More…

Catalogue No: 4646052
Label: Philips
Series: Opera Sets
Length: 2 hours 16 minutes

Prokofiev: Semyon Kotko, Op. 81

Work length2:16:02

$43.35

$58.65

Miomir Nikelic (bass), Yuri Laptev (bass), Andrei Karasev (bass), Ludmilla Filatova (mezzo-soprano), Grigory Karassev (bass), Evgeny Nikitin (bass), Viktor Lutsiuk (tenor), Evgeny Akimov (tenor), Gennadi Bezzubenkov (bass), Mikhail Petrenko (bass), Tatiana Pavlovskaya (soprano), Viktor Chernomortsev (baritone), Nikolai Gassiev (tenor), Andrei Khramtsov (bass), Valery Borisov, Viktor Vikhrov (tenor), Olga Markova-Mikhailenko (contralto), Mikhail Nikanorov (baritone), Andrei Karabanov (baritone), Lia Shevtzova (mezzo-soprano), Natalia Ushakova (soprano), Lyudmlla Kasianenko (mezzo-soprano), Olga Savova (mezzo-soprano), Zlata Bulycheva (mezzo-soprano), Mikhail Kit (bass), Vladimir Zhivopistsev (tenor), Fyodor Kuznetsov (baritone), Yuri Laptev (baritone)
Chorus of the Mariinsky Theatre
Valéry Gergiev, Mariinsky (Kirov) Orchestra
Recorded: 1999-11
Recording Venue: Grossersaal, Konzerthaus, Vienna (Wien)

Introduction

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Shol soldat s fronta (Tableau 1 Scene 1)

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Kovo nado? (Tableau 1 Scene 2)

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Prishol soldat Semyon Kotko (Tableau 2 Scene 1)

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Prosnulsa, odelsa (Tableau 2 Scene 2)

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Den dobriy, tovarischchi sosedi (Tableau 2 Scene 3)

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Ochen nam priyatno vnov uvidet vas (Tableau 2 Sc.4)

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Shol soldat s fronta (Tableau 2 Scene 5)

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Shto, moyo serdenko? (Tableau 2 Scene 6)

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Zdrastvuy, soldat! (Tableau 2 Scene 10)

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I shumit, i gudit (Tableau 2 Scene 11)

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Frosya! ... Mikola? (Tableau 2 Scene 12)

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Mamo ... Mamo dumayu ya (Tableau 2 Scene 13)

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Shto eto takoye, ne ponimayu (Scene 1)

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Khivrya! Shto eto? (Scene 2)

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A mi do vas, Nikanor Vasilievich (Scene 3)

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Klanyaetsa vam molodoy knyaz (Scene 4)

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Popadilis i u nas v Chyornom more (Scene 5)

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Zhenskiye slyozi (Scene 6)

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Zhenikh idyot, zhenikh idyot (Scene 7)

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Morgen! (Scene 21)

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Kushat? ... Chem bog poslal

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Videli? Chuyete, shto eto znachit?

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I snitsa mne opyat (Scene 1)

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Sonya! Tse tï? (Scene 2)

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Nu shto ti skazhesh? (Scene 3)

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I snitsa mne, Mikola, son (Scene 4)

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Rano, rano, ranenko (Scene 5)

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Ne slikhat... (Scene 6)

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Dyadya Tsaryov ... dyadya Tsaryov... (Scene 7)

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Permettez-moi de parler français (Scene 8)

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Razreshite predstavit vam (Scene 9)

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Net, net, to ne (Scene 10)

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Tak delo vikhodit (Scene 11)

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Dyadya Semyon ... dyadya Semyon (Scene 12)

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Oy Frosechka, strashno... (Scene 13)

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Skoti! (Scene 14)

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Gorit! Gorit! Gorit u Kotko! (Scene 14)

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Bozhe moy, bozhe moy, prosti ti mne (Scene 1)

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Tak ... Tak ... Drug moy, Vasya Tsaryov (Scene 2)

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Kak umru, pokhornite vi menya (Scene 3)

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Znachitsa ... znachitsa (Scene 1)

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Zatem imyetsa (Scene 2)

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Kukuska ... Mikolka kukuyet (Scene 3)

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Oy, lyudi oy dobriya lyudi! (Scene 3)

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Ey ... Kukushka! (Scene 4)

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Oy, gore, lyutoye gore! (Scene 1)

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Semyon! ... Mamo! Eto vi! (Scene 2)

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Ekh, ekh, ekh! Zhalko tebya, Kotko (Scene 3)

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A nu, stanovites, druzya moi (Scene 4)

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Shol soldat ... Po svobodnoy Ukraine (Scene 5)

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Reviews
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Reviews

July 2009

Gergiev draws soloists, orchestra and the fine chorus into an opera which, for all its five acts, is taut and gripping in its emotional thrust.

2010

Valentin Katayev's tale of a local hero getting his girl despite strife with a prospective in-law is the kind of thing an opera-lover would normally take in their stride. What makes Semyon Kotko hard to live with isn't the fact that the soldierboy returning to his village in the Ukraine at the end of the First World War is so unimpeachably virtuous, nor even that the Germans who break up the wedding preparations and lay waste to the village are so one-dimensionally villainous – it's rather that the reactionary-collaborator fatherin- law-to-be, Tkachenko, is so obviously a token of Soviet propaganda. Prokofiev would probably never have considered such subjectmatter at all had it not been for the political climate of the late 1930s and he did his best to make a working compromise between the order of the day and the kind of melodious simplicity he wanted to cultivate. He took Katayev's prosedraft as it stood and sought to minimise its schematic and propagandist elements. In Act 3 he came up with two of his most effective 'dramatic crescendos', first for the arrival of the reactionary Ukrainian cavalry, then for the burning of Semyon's cottage.
There are more fine moments in Act 4, where the oppositional writing for Soviets and Germans has something of the power of AlexanderNevsky, composed just before the opera. There's also some attractively pungent folk-imitation writing in the second tableau of Act 1. Some less distinguished scenes suggest a rummaging through Prokofiev's cast-off ideas for all-purpose filler material, but such passages aren't so extensive or so deadly as to destroy all enjoyment.
This splendid recording plugs another major gap in the discography of opera. Gergiev's interpretation is ardent and well paced, his orchestra is in fine fettle, and his soloists are of high quality. Prokofiev gives little or no opportunity for star turns, but Viktor Lutsiuk's Semyon is passionate and youthful-sounding, and Tatiana Pavlovskaya as his beloved Sofya is radiant. The recording is free from the dryness and sudden shifts of perspective that have dogged some previous issues in this Mariinsky series.

Prokofiev: Semyon Kotko, Op. 81

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