Mazepa: Vladislav Sulimsky
Maria: Irina Churilova
Andrei: Yevgeny Akimov
Kochubei: Stanislav Trofimov
Lyubov: Nadezhda Serdyuk
Orlik: Grigory Karasev
Iskra: Leonid Zakhozhaev
World premiere: 3 February 1884, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow
Premiere at the Mariinsky Theatre: 6 February 1884
Premiere of this production: 22 February 1950, Kirov Opera and Ballet Theatre (Mariinsky Theatre)
Last revival of the production: 15 May 2009
Running time: 3 hours 55 minutes
The performance has two intervals
Pushkin wrote Poltava in two weeks, while it took Tchaikovsky two years to compose Mazepa. Writing a monumental military and historical opera based around Pushkin’s famous poem did not come easily to the lyrical composer. No wonder he began working with Maria and Mazepa’s expansive duet: he was perturbed first and foremost by the psychology rather than the politics. The duet features a soprano and a baritone – a rare case for the genre of opera, where the role of the female protagonist’s beloved is, as a general rule, given to a tenor. Here this is impossible: Maria is young and Mazepa is old. The story seems improbable, though it is historically accurate. The third corner of the love triangle is occupied by Andrei – a figure who with Pushkin is nameless and insignificant, although he is vital in the opera. And yet the fervour of the passions in Mazepa is connected primarily not with a romantic triangle arranged according to the principle “being in love – not being in love” but with the relationship between a young girl and her two fathers – her birth father and her godfather, who sacrilegiously becomes his god-daughter’s lover. In this second much more intense triangle the two older men have clashed for Maria’s soul, one of them loses and pays with his life, while the girl’s mind is touched – this gave Tchaikovsky the opportunity to end the opus with the heroine’s quiet mad scene, typical of romantic opera. The drama of love and treachery unfolds against a backdrop of a broad historic panorama with vivid Ukrainian national colour with which Tchaikovsky was well acquainted: the composer’s sister lived in Ukraine. On the stage there are often a great many people, the folk stroll around, dance, sing and pray. The victorious Battle of Poltava of 1709 is picturesquely depicted by Tchaikovsky in a dazzling symphonic entr’acte to Act III.
The historic scale peculiar to Mazepa is presented at the Mariinsky Theatre in all its grandeur. In 2019 the theatre commemorated a remarkable anniversary: Mazepa was performed for the five hundredth time. The current production is a full revival of the 1950 production. A recipient of the Stalin Prize, stage director Ilya Shlepyanov and the acclaimed Soviet theatre designer Alexander Konstantinovsky created a benchmark of the “grand style” that entirely corresponds with the music of this opera. Here the young maids are black-browed and the Cossacks wear harem pants; their attire is adorned with pearls and trimmed with sable. The powerful operatic empire of Mazepa delights admirers of traditional theatre in particular; although as an authentic and carefully restored historical monument of the mid-20th century, this is a production that is of interest to any audience. Mazepa is a long-lived production which at its venerable age has lost none of its charisma or its power, just like its titular hero. Khristina Batyushina
The highlighting of performances by age represents recommendations.
This highlighting is being used in accordance with Federal Law N436-FZ dated 29 December 2010 (edition dated 1 May 2019) "On the protection of children from information that may be harmful to their health"