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He became famous as the creator of symphonic, piano and choral works, romances - he is less often remembered as the creator of operas. His brilliant debut in this field coincided with his graduation from the conservatory - examination paper nineteen-year-old graduate, the opera “Aleko” has become a repertoire work - it is staged in theaters, it has been filmed twice, baritones like to include the aria of the title character in concert programs. Rachmaninov's other works in this genre are known to the general public to a lesser extent. Meanwhile, after such a spectacular debut, the composer did not lose interest in opera genre. He had an unrealized idea for an opera based on Gustave Flaubert’s novel “Salammbô” (it is noteworthy that the same novel had previously attracted attention as a possible plot for opera), the composer worked on an opera based on Maurice Maeterlinck's drama Monna Vanna, but it was never completed. A happier fate awaited two other operas, we will talk about one of them - “Francesca da Rimini”.

In his operatic work, Rachmaninov gave preference to chamber genre: no powerful choral scenes, ballet numbers - the composer preferred deep penetration into the grandiose action inner world characters, the number of which is small. And if in the case of “Aleko” he was presented with a ready-made libretto, then in his other two operas - “Francesca da Rimini” and “The Miserly Knight” - he himself chose the plot. He was far from the first and not the last who was excited tragic story the unfortunate daughter of Guido di Lamberto, set out in the fifth canto of Dante’s Inferno. Silvio Pellico, John Keats, Paul Geise, Gabriele d'Annunzio, Dmitry Sergeevich Merezhkovsky, Alexandre Cabanel, Gustave Doré and many others turned to the image of Francesca. Composers did not stand aside either - more than ten operas alone were written on this plot. One of the most beautiful musical embodiments of the plot was the fantasy overture. It is noteworthy that the libretto proposed to Rachmaninov was written by Pyotr Ilyich’s brother, Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Previously, the librettist had offered it to Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov and Anatoly Konstantinovich Lyadov, but they showed no interest, but Rachmaninov, to whom Tchaikovsky offered the libretto in 1898, was fascinated by the plot. But he didn’t like the libretto - it suggested a large multi-act performance, and the composer didn’t want that. The librettist revised the libretto, shortening it - but now the text was no longer enough, a new revision was required, after which Rachmaninov spoke about the “vulgar words” added by the librettist.

Although the final version of the libretto did not cause much enthusiasm, Sergei Vasilyevich began work on the opera in 1900. Some episodes were written during a trip to Italy, but then the composer put the opera aside and returned to it in 1904, when it was already completed. Stingy Knight».

The story of Francesca da Rimini was first told in The Divine Comedy, and this left its mark on subsequent interpretations of the plot - including Rachmaninov’s opera. Like Tchaikovsky's overture, it begins and ends with a picture of the Inferno, where the heroine and her lover are punished for their voluptuousness, and Dante and his guide Virgil encounter them during their wanderings through the underworld. The music of the prologue grows from the intonation of the descending second; as it develops, individual intonations of Dies irae appear. A choir singing without words is used as a special timbre color. The prologue, which creates a feeling of fatal hopelessness, is contrasted with the first picture with its dynamic development, almost devoid of pauses. The main place in it is occupied by the monologue of Lanciotto, Francesca’s husband. Although this character in the plot is assigned the role of a villainous killer who destroys the happiness of lovers, this monologue evokes sympathy for him: before us appears a man who sincerely loves his young wife and suffers from the fact that she does not reciprocate his feelings. In fact, the first picture is entirely devoted to the characterization of this character - only at the beginning there is a silent Cardinal, characterized by chorale chords, and Francesca answers her husband with several short phrases. In Lanciotto's part, recitative episodes alternate with arioses, none of them takes on the appearance of a rounded number.

In the second picture, the image of Francesca is revealed. Its theme is a poetic melody, which appeared occasionally in the prologue and the first scene; here it is developed, playing the role of a refrain in the duet scene of Francesca and Paolo (reading the novel about Lancelot and Guinevere). Central location takes up arioso in the picture main character, followed again by a duet.

Rachmaninov created Francesca's part with Antonina Vasilievna Nezhdanova in mind, but for her the part turned out to be too low, and for Natalia Stepanovna Ermolenko-Yuzhina, to whom he intended to transfer the part, too high. The first performer of the role of Francesca was Nadezhda Vasilievna Salina. The premiere took place in January 1906 at the Bolshoi Theater, conducted by the author himself. IN future fate the fatal role of the opera was played by a not particularly successful libretto - and yet from time to time it is staged in domestic and foreign theaters, there are several audio recordings.

With amazing endurance and perseverance, Rachmaninov develops this large picture (the length of the prologue is more than twenty minutes) from one descending second intonation. In the first bars of the opera, it sounds dull and gloomy from the clarinet and muted horn in unison, and between the first voice and the second voice that soon joins it, intervals arise that are reminiscent of the initial turns of the theme of the medieval Catholic hymn “Dies irae”, to which he subsequently turned many times in his work. Rachmaninov:

The prologue is divided into three sections, forming three big waves sequential, continuous build-up: orchestral introduction, first circle of hell and second circle of hell. The principle of wave-like development is preserved within each section. Thus, the introduction consists of two detailed formations. After the first wave, based on chromatic passages running simultaneously in different voices of the orchestra, there is a fugato, the theme of which covers the range of both initial voices and unites them into one melodic line:

The sound fabric gradually becomes denser, and at the top of this second wave, entire chord complexes slowly move chromatically, as if the sighs and groans of souls driven by a hellish whirlwind merge into one menacing howl.

In the first circle of hell, the pattern of chromatic passages and the tonal plan changes (the main tonality of this section is e-moll, in contrast to the introduction, where d-moll dominates). The orchestral sound is joined by a choir singing without words with its mouth closed (Initially, Rachmaninov wanted to create an extended choral scene in the prologue and asked his librettist to write about thirty stanzas of text for it, which could be divided between various groups choir (see his letter to M. Tchaikovsky dated August 28, 1898). Subsequently, he abandoned this intention, which was associated with a change in the general concept of the opera, which resulted in a more compact, symphonically generalized form.). This technique, used by Rachmaninov back in the cantata “Spring,” finds wide and varied application here. Thanks to various sound production techniques, the timbre coloring of the wordlessly singing choir changes. In the second circle of hell, the choir sings with an open mouth on the vowel “a”, which gives it a brighter sound. However, here too his part is devoid of melodic independence and is based only on sustained harmonic sounds. The only time the choir performs independently is in the epilogue, where it chants in unison a phrase that sounds like a fatal tragic motto: “There is no greater sorrow than remembering a happy time in misfortune.”

The movement gradually accelerates, the sonority intensifies all the time, reaching a powerful climax at the moment when the ghosts of those condemned to eternal torment quickly flash before the eyes of Virgil and the horror-stricken Dante. Then this menacing raging of hellish whirlwinds gradually subsides and the ghosts of Francesca and Paolo appear. The color of the music becomes more transparent. Francesca's theme sounds expressively in the cello and clarinet, which produces a particularly bright, calming impression because after the long undivided dominance of minor keys here (though in short time) major appears (It is interesting to note that the first implementation of this theme is given in Des-dur - the key of the last, climactic section of the scene of Francesca and Paolo.). Against a background of soft, extended chords of woodwinds and strings with shimmering tremolos of violins and the ringing timbre of the harp, Francesca and Paolo sing a sad phrase, which is then repeated in the epilogue by the choir: “There is no greater sorrow...” Melodically, this phrase is based on a modified fugato theme from orchestral introduction, reminiscent of ancient Russian church chants. In it one can discern some similarities with the main theme of the Third Piano Concerto, the closeness of which to the intonations of the Znamenny chant has been noted more than once. This similarity is strengthened by the tonal commonality (d-moll) and the same “ambitus” of the melody, unfolding within the diminished fourth between the VII and III degrees of the harmonic minor:

The smoothly descending sequences of the violins (and then the solo oboe), built on the same phrase, at the end of the prologue sound like a quiet, sad complaint.

The two scenes of the opera are in a contrasting relationship with each other. Each of them gives a complete portrait of one of the main characters. The first picture, depicting the stern and gloomy image of Francesca’s husband, Lanciotto Malatesta, is essentially monologue. The cardinal is silently present at the beginning of this picture (a vestige of him musical characteristics is only a choral sequence of chords that sounds in the orchestra at the moment when it leaves the stage.). The party of Francesca, who comes on the orders of her husband, who is preparing to go on a campaign, is limited to a few short remarks.

The three scenes into which this picture is divided form one inextricable whole. They are united by the continuous development of two themes associated with the image of Lanciotto. One of them, based on an energetic and elastic marching rhythm, characterizes him as a cruel and merciless warrior:

This theme is developed extensively in the orchestral introduction to the first scene and in the opening scene with the Cardinal. The conclusion of the picture is based on the same theme, but in the key of c-moll, not cis-moll. At the beginning of the second scene, when Lanciotto is left alone, gripped by grave jealous suspicions, another theme of his, of a darkly pathetic nature, sounds menacingly from the octave trombones, amplified by four horns, against the backdrop of tremulous strings:

Episodes of a declamatory nature alternate in Lanciotto’s part with more complete ariatic constructions. In the second scene there is a memory of the fatal deception, the victim of which both Francesca and Lanciotto himself were victims (“Your father, yes, the father is to blame for everything!”), oppressive doubts and pangs of jealousy. In the third scene there is a passionate plea to Francesca (“I want your love!”), a violent explosion of unrequited feelings of love for her, mixed with despair and hopelessness. Here again the pathetic theme of love and jealousy sounds with great expressive power, but in a different orchestral design (string unisons instead of trombones and horns), which gives it a softer lyrical coloring. This is followed by a section based on the dotted march rhythms of Lanciotto’s first, “militant” theme (“Oh, descend, descend from your heights...”) (According to Zhukovskaya, Rachmaninov used here a piano prelude he had previously composed, which was not included in cycle of preludes op. 23.), which also changes its character here, reminiscent of the slow, heavy tread of a funeral march.

Rachmaninov, however, does not give these ariot constructions a completely finished form, organically including them in the general flow of development. Thus, the first of these episodes does not end with a stable cadence structure in its main tonality of c-minor, but directly transitions into the subsequent recitative section with a moving, unstable tonal plan and a freely developing texture of orchestral accompaniment. Individual, especially expressively accentuated remarks acquire the significance of milestone dramatic climaxes. Such is Lanciotto’s angry exclamation of “Damn!” in the second scene, emphasized by a tonal shift in d minor (This key, which dominated the prologue, appears for the first time in the first scene.) and an unexpected, menacing explosion of orchestral sonority:

In a similar way, the same word stands out, involuntarily escaping from Lanciotto’s lips, further, in the scene with Francesca.

Overall, this picture is a magnificent example of a continuous dramatic opera scene, in which vocal and orchestral means of expression are subordinated to a single artistic purpose and serve to reveal a complex psychological image in all its internal inconsistency and confrontation of mental drives and passions.

The second picture takes us to a completely different world, personified by the bright and pure image of Francesca. Its theme, which occurred sporadically in the prologue and the first scene, receives broad development here, maintaining its clear and integral expressive character despite all modifications. This is one of Rachmaninov’s most poetic lyrical melodies, remarkable for its “spatial” extent, breadth and freedom of breathing. Pouring out from a high peak, it smoothly and leisurely descends in diatonic steps by more than two octaves, with gradual rhythmic inhibition and expansion of the intervals between sounds (example 90a). A variant of this theme is a melodic construction from a chain of sequences (example 90b):

The whole coloring of the music in this picture, as if illuminated by a soft and gentle radiance, creates a sharp contrast to the previous one and distinguishes it from the gloomy and ominous surroundings in which it is given in the opera. This is facilitated by tonal-harmonic, orchestral and textural means. If in the prologue and the first scene a continuous chain of minor keys gave the music a gloomy coloring, here, on the contrary, a clear and bright major almost invariably dominates, only occasionally overshadowed by passing deviations into the minor sphere (The main tonalities of the second picture are As-dur, E-dur and Des-dur. Let us note that As-dur is the point of greatest distance from d-moll, with which the opera begins and ends.). The instrumentation is light and transparent, the sound of strings and high wood predominates, while the brass section is used extremely sparingly and carefully. The introduction to the second scene, built on Francesca’s theme, is distinguished by a special airiness of color, which sounds mostly from the flute, at times doubled by an oboe or clarinet, against the backdrop of a lightly swaying accompaniment of muted violins and occasionally entering pizzicato string basses. Only for a short moment does tutti appear, after which the orchestral sonority again thins out and fades away.

The scene of Francesca and Paolo, very clear in its construction, consists of three parts. The first part is an episode of young lovers reading a story about the beautiful Guinevere and Lancelot, interrupted by passionate remarks from Paolo. The musical unifying moment of this section is Francesca's theme, which runs through the orchestra as a constant refrain. The middle of the entire scene is Francesca’s arioso “Let us not know kisses.” The music of this arioso, imbued with serene lyrical peace, captivates with its purity of color, delicate lightness and subtlety of design. Paolo’s exclamation “But what is heaven to me with its dispassionate beauty,” emphasized by a sudden tonal shift from E major to d minor, a change in the tempo and texture of the orchestral accompaniment, disrupts this state of detached contemplative bliss, and a small transitional construction leads to the final section of the scene - duet of Francesca and Paolo in Des-dur (It is possible that this key was chosen not without the influence of Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet.).

It was this section that caused dissatisfaction with Rachmaninov, who wrote to Morozov: “...I have an approach to a love duet; there is the conclusion of a love duet, but the duet itself is missing.” Indeed, the transition from Francesca’s “blue” arioso to the triumphant Des-dur of the last section seems too short and rapid. This was felt not only by the author himself, but also by some of the listeners and critics (Thus, Engel noted that “in an excellent love duet there seems to be no climax worthy of it.”).

In addition to this constructive miscalculation, the scene of Francesca and Paolo does not fully produce the impression that the composer was striving for, due to the insufficiently correct and precise choice expressive means. The music of this scene is beautiful, poetic and noble, but somewhat cold in expression. She lacks that internal tension and strength that is necessary to embody the immortal episode of the Divine Comedy, called by the Soviet researcher Dante “almost the most passionate hymn of love in all world literature.”

One of the critics wrote, pointing out, in his opinion, the lack of expressive brightness of the scene of Francesca and Paolo: “Here we need a continuous, soul-piercing cantilena, like Tchaikovsky’s…” Later, Asafiev, speaking about the embodiment of Dante’s images in music, developed the same parallel between Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky: “Drawing Francesca in light colors, Rachmaninov stands closer to her ideal appearance of a young Italian woman, but, painting Francesca in the darkness of hell, like a shadow remembering the past, Tchaikovsky turns out to be stronger in terms of expressiveness and relief...”

In the appearance of Rachmaninov's Francesca there is something of the strict female faces and soft, light colors in the frescoes of B. Giotto, a contemporary of Dante. Her musical image for all its poetic purity and spirituality, it does not create the proper contrast to the ominously tragic figure of Lanciotto and the gloomy pictures of the hellish abyss that border the opera, filled with the groans and cries of those doomed to languish in it. Contrary to the composer's intention, the scene of Francesca and Paolo did not become the true culmination of the action. The relative brevity of this picture (According to the composer’s own calculations, the second scene, together with the epilogue, lasts twenty-one minutes with a total duration of the opera of one hour and five minutes.) determines some monotony in the overall color of the opera, the one-sided predominance of heavy, gloomy tones in it, as a result of which many of its wonderful pages often went unnoticed and underappreciated.

The love story of Francesca da Rimini and Paolo has inspired many composers and writers. In 1876, based on Dante's song, P. I. Tchaikovsky wrote a symphonic poem. In 1902, the opera by E. F. Napravnik and the tragedy by G. D’Annunzio were created.

The idea of an opera based on the plot of episode V of the song “Ada” from the “Divine Comedy” arose in the late 1890s. The libretto was intended for N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov and A. K. Lyadov, its creator was the opera librettist and brother of P. I. Tchaikovsky Modest Tchaikovsky. It was a laconic and succinct libretto, in which nothing distracts from the tragedy. The libretto was of no interest to either Lyadov or Rimsky-Korsakov, but it captivated Rachmaninov and in 1900, during a trip to Italy, he began work on his “Francesca” and composed one of the episodes of the future opera - the love duet of Francesca and Paolo. However, Rachmaninov returned to work on the work only in 1904, after completing another one-act opera, “The Miserly Knight.” Both operas were created during Rachmaninov's tenure as conductor. Bolshoi Theater in the seasons 1904-1906. There was practically no time left for composing music, so the composer turned to the chamber genre, creating two one-act operas with a small number of characters.

Plot

The prologue and epilogue take place in hell and frame the main action. The poet Dante and Virgil accompanying him descend into hell and meet the shadows of sinners, among whom are the main characters of the opera - Paolo and Francesca.

The plot of the opera was based on authentic historical events XIII century, described by Dante in The Divine Comedy. Francesca da Polenta of Ravenna was given in marriage to the ruler of Rimini, Lanciotto Malatesta, to end the long-standing feud between the two families. According to the custom of that time, instead of the groom, his younger brother Paolo came to Ravenna to woo him and Francesca, confident that he was her groom, fell in love with him and swore before God to be his faithful wife. Paolo could not resist Francesca's beauty.

Lanciotto Malatesta, also in love with Francesca, guesses true feelings his wife and, wanting to check his suspicions, sets a trap: he announces that he is going on a hike and leaves Francesca under the guard of Paolo. However, the husband's true intention was to spy on the lovers. Francesca and Paolo spend the evening reading a book about the love of the knight Lancelot for the beautiful Guinevere and in the end succumb to the feeling that overwhelms them and destroys them.

In the epilogue, their shadows, inseparable even in death, are carried away by a hellish whirlwind.

Structure of the work

“Francesca da Rimini” is a chamber opera, approaching an orchestral poem and cantata, in which the content of the drama is conveyed by the orchestra. The opera is not divided into separate numbers; its action develops continuously. In the scenes of hell that frame the main action, the characters' lines are woven into the orchestral fabric, and the choir, mostly singing without words, is used as timbre coloring.

The first picture consists of a monologue by Lanciotto, overwhelmed by jealous thoughts, and an address full of melancholy and passion to Francesca: “Oh, descend, descend from your heights, my star.” In the second picture, the duet of Francesca and Paolo develops from a calmly detached reading to an outburst of irresistible passion.

Characters

Shadow of Virgil (baritone)
Dante (tenor)
Lanciotto Malatesta, Lord of Rimini (baritone)
Francesca, his wife (soprano)
Paolo, his brother (tenor)
Cardinal (no speeches)
Ghosts of Hell. Retinue of Malatesta and the Cardinal

Premiere

The opera premiered in the second part of the performance at the Bolshoi Theater January 11 (January 24) (1906-01-24 ) year. S. V. Rachmaninov himself stood at the conductor’s stand. In the first part of the performance, another opera by Rachmaninov, “The Miserly Knight,” was performed. The leading roles were played by G. A. Baklanov ( Lanciotto Malatesta), N.V. Salina ( Francesca), A. P. Bonachich ( Paolo) . On September 27, 1912, another production of the opera premiered at the Bolshoi Theater, conducted by E. A. Cooper.

Despite its excellent music, due to an unsuccessful libretto, the opera did not become a repertoire, although it was staged from time to time. In 1973, the performance was revived at the Bolshoi Theater and was conducted under the direction of M. Ermler. Cast: G. Vishnevskaya ( Francesca), E. Nesterenko ( Lanciotto), A. Maslennikov ( Paolo).

Audio recordings

(Prologue only) Virgil's shadow- Daniil Demyanov, Dante- Vladimir Bunchikov, Francesca- Natalya Rozhdestvenskaya, Paolo- Pyotr Malyutenko. Choir and orchestra of the All-Union Radio Committee, conductor Nikolai Golovanov. Second half of the 1940s. Recording duration is 20 minutes.

Virgil's shadow- Mikhail Maslov, Dante- Alexander Laptev, Lanciotto Malatesta- Evgeniy Nesterenko, Francesca- Makvala Kasrashvili, Paolo- Vladimir Atlantov. Choir and orchestra of the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR, conductor Mark Ermler. 1973.

Virgil's shadow- Nikolay Reshetnyak, Dante- Nikolay Vasiliev, Lanciotto Malatesta- Vladimir Matorin, Francesca- Marina Lapina, Paolo- Vitaly Tarashchenko. State Academic Russian Choir named after. Sveshnikov, orchestra of the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR, conductor Andrei Chistyakov. 1992.

Virgil's shadow- Sergey Aleksashkin, Dante- Ilya Levinsky, Lanciotto Malatesta- Sergey Leiferkus, Francesca- Maria Guleghina, Paolo- Sergey Larin. Chorus of the Gothenburg Opera, Gothenburg symphony orchestra, conductor Neeme Järvi. 1996.

Sources

Compiled by E.N. Rudakova. S.V. Rachmaninov / Ed. A.I. Kandinsky. - 2nd ed. - M.: Music, 1988. - P. 74-81. - 192 p. - ISBN 5-7140-0091-9.

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Excerpt characterizing Francesca da Rimini (Rachmaninov)

The troubles and horror of the last days of the Rostovs’ stay in Moscow drowned out the dark thoughts that were weighing on her. She was glad to find salvation from them in practical activities. But when she learned about the presence of Prince Andrei in their house, despite all the sincere pity that she felt for him and Natasha, a joyful and superstitious feeling that God did not want her to be separated from Nicolas overtook her. She knew that Natasha loved one Prince Andrei and did not stop loving him. She knew that now, brought together in such terrible conditions, they would love each other again and that then Nicholas, due to the kinship that would be between them, would not be able to marry Princess Marya. Despite all the horror of everything that happened in last days and during the first days of the journey, this feeling, this awareness of the intervention of Providence in her personal affairs, pleased Sonya.
The Rostovs spent their first day on their trip at the Trinity Lavra.
In the Lavra hotel, the Rostovs were allocated three large rooms, one of which was occupied by Prince Andrei. The wounded man was much better that day. Natasha sat with him. In the next room the Count and Countess sat, respectfully talking with the rector, who had visited their old acquaintances and investors. Sonya was sitting right there, and she was tormented by curiosity about what Prince Andrei and Natasha were talking about. She listened to the sounds of their voices from behind the door. The door of Prince Andrei's room opened. Natasha came out of there with an excited face and, without noticing the man who stood up to meet her and grabbed the wide sleeve right hand monk, walked up to Sonya and took her hand.
- Natasha, what are you doing? Come here,” said the Countess.
Natasha came under the blessing, and the abbot advised to turn to God and his saint for help.
Immediately after the abbot left, Nashata took her friend’s hand and walked with her into the empty room.
- Sonya, right? will he be alive? - she said. – Sonya, how happy I am and how unhappy I am! Sonya, my dear, everything is as before. If only he were alive. He can’t... because, because... that... - And Natasha burst into tears.
- So! I knew it! Thank God,” said Sonya. - He will be alive!
Sonya was no less excited than her friend - both by her fear and grief, and by her personal thoughts that were not expressed to anyone. She, sobbing, kissed and consoled Natasha. “If only he were alive!” - she thought. After crying, talking and wiping away their tears, both friends approached Prince Andrei’s door. Natasha carefully opened the doors and looked into the room. Sonya stood next to her at the half-open door.
Prince Andrei lay high on three pillows. His pale face was calm, his eyes were closed, and you could see how he was breathing evenly.
- Oh, Natasha! – Sonya suddenly almost screamed, grabbing her cousin’s hand and retreating from the door.
- What? What? – Natasha asked.
“This is this, that, that...” said Sonya with a pale face and trembling lips.
Natasha quietly closed the door and went with Sonya to the window, not yet understanding what they were saying to her.
“Do you remember,” Sonya said with a frightened and solemn face, “do you remember when I looked for you in the mirror... In Otradnoye, at Christmas time... Do you remember what I saw?..
- Yes, yes! - Natasha said, opening her eyes wide, vaguely remembering that then Sonya said something about Prince Andrei, whom she saw lying down.
- Do you remember? – Sonya continued. “I saw it then and told everyone, both you and Dunyasha.” “I saw that he was lying on the bed,” she said, making a gesture with her hand with a raised finger at every detail, “and that he had closed his eyes, and that he was covered with a pink blanket, and that he had folded his hands,” Sonya said, making sure that as she described the details she saw now, that these same details she saw then. She didn’t see anything then, but said that she saw what came into her head; but what she came up with then seemed to her as valid as any other memory. What she said then, that he looked back at her and smiled and was covered with something red, she not only remembered, but was firmly convinced that even then she said and saw that he was covered with a pink, exactly pink, blanket, and that his eyes were closed.
“Yes, yes, exactly in pink,” said Natasha, who now also seemed to remember what was said in pink, and in this she saw the main unusualness and mystery of the prediction.
– But what does this mean? – Natasha said thoughtfully.
- Oh, I don’t know how extraordinary all this is! - Sonya said, clutching her head.
A few minutes later, Prince Andrei called, and Natasha came in to see him; and Sonya, experiencing an emotion and tenderness she had rarely experienced, remained at the window, pondering the extraordinary nature of what had happened.
On this day there was an opportunity to send letters to the army, and the Countess wrote a letter to her son.
“Sonya,” said the Countess, raising her head from the letter as her niece walked past her. – Sonya, won’t you write to Nikolenka? - said the countess in a quiet, trembling voice, and in the look of her tired eyes, looking through glasses, Sonya read everything that the countess understood in these words. This look expressed pleading, fear of refusal, shame for having to ask, and readiness for irreconcilable hatred in case of refusal.
Sonya went up to the countess and, kneeling down, kissed her hand.
“I’ll write, maman,” she said.
Sonya was softened, excited and touched by everything that happened that day, especially by the mysterious performance of fortune-telling that she just saw. Now that she knew that on the occasion of the renewal of Natasha’s relationship with Prince Andrei, Nikolai could not marry Princess Marya, she joyfully felt the return of that mood of self-sacrifice in which she loved and was accustomed to living. And with tears in her eyes and with the joy of realizing a generous deed, she, interrupted several times by tears that clouded her velvety black eyes, wrote that touching letter, the receipt of which so amazed Nikolai.

At the guardhouse where Pierre was taken, the officer and soldiers who took him treated him with hostility, but at the same time with respect. There was also a sense of doubt in their attitude towards him about who he was (isn’t it very important person), and hostility due to their still fresh personal struggle with him.
But when, on the morning of another day, the shift came, Pierre felt that for the new guard - for the officers and soldiers - it no longer had the meaning that it had for those who took him. And indeed, in this big, fat man in a peasant’s caftan, the guards of the next day no longer saw that living man who so desperately fought with the marauder and with the escort soldiers and said a solemn phrase about saving the child, but saw only the seventeenth of those being held for some reason, by by order of the highest authorities, the captured Russians. If there was anything special about Pierre, it was only his timid, intently thoughtful appearance and French, in which, surprisingly for the French, he spoke well. Despite the fact that on the same day Pierre was connected with other suspected suspects, since the separate room he occupied was needed by an officer.
All the Russians kept with Pierre were people of the lowest rank. And all of them, recognizing Pierre as a master, shunned him, especially since he spoke French. Pierre heard with sadness the ridicule of himself.
The next evening, Pierre learned that all of these prisoners (and probably himself included) were to be tried for arson. On the third day, Pierre was taken with others to a house where a French general with a white mustache, two colonels and other Frenchmen with scarves on their hands were sitting. Pierre, along with others, was asked questions about who he was, with the precision and certainty with which defendants are usually treated, which supposedly exceeded human weaknesses. where was he? for what purpose? etc.

NOVAT dedicates the premiere of the opera “Francesca da Rimini” on April 10 in the Isidore Zach Hall to the 145th anniversary of the birth of Sergei Rachmaninov.

The story of Francesca da Rimini is an eternal plot that inspired the creators different eras and countries, a sad and beautiful story about love that is alive even beyond the gates of hell. First to the tragic love story addressed by Dante in the Fifth Canto of the Divine Comedy. When the poet, accompanied by the shadow of Virgil, descends into hell, in the second circle, where souls punished for adultery rush in a hellish whirlwind, he hears from Francesca herself a story about her love with Paolo. The libretto for Rachmaninov's opera based on this plot was composed by Modest Mussorgsky.

The premiere of the first production of Sergei Rachmaninov's opera Francesca da Rimini took place in Moscow, at the Bolshoi Theater, on January 11, 1906, under the direction of the author (on the same evening as Rachmaninov's opera The Miserly Knight).

Vyacheslav Starodubtsev, director of the new NOVAT performance, notes: “Rachmaninov’s “Francesca da Rimini” is incredible in its power emotional impact a composition inexhaustible in its musical depth. And in our performance we follow the music of Rachmaninov. The dramatic power of this work suggests that it will be high tragedy. Therefore, it seems completely logical to me that both the choir, as a character – in the traditions of ancient theater, and Roman theatrical masks.”

Working on a new play creative team, already familiar to NOVAT audiences from several opera productions: production designer Zhanna Usacheva, plastic director Sergei Zakharin and lighting designer Sergei Skornetsky. For the first time at NOVAT, Ara Karapetyan will act as the musical director of the production.

Visually, the performance is designed in the style of Gustave Doré's engravings for Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy. Therefore, artist Zhanna Usacheva proposed a laconic color scheme for the performance and costumes that referenced the era high renaissance. According to the directors' plans, the stage space is stylized as a knight's hall.

Director Vyacheslav Starodubtsev believes that concert hall NOVAT itself is conducive to unique stage solutions and overcoming genre boundaries. According to the director's plan, the connective tissue of the performance should be plastic drawing, and the performance itself should be a harmonious fusion of vocals and choreography. Therefore, choreographer and plastic director Sergei Zakharin is working on the production of Francesca da Rimini.

“In the engravings of Gustave Dore, from which the directors start, there is already movement, dynamics, and this is very much in harmony with Rachmaninov’s musical text. In addition, the opera has large expressive, musical fragments in which the singers do not participate,” says Sergei Zakharin. “We wanted not just to fill these episodes with dramatic acting, but to poeticize the stage action by adding subtle choreographic touches. This is not choreography - this is a plastic expression of relationships, movements human soul, poetry of the body."

“Francesca da Rimini” by S. Rachmaninoff. Premiere – April 10, 19.00, Isidor Zack Hall. Musical director and conductor - Ara Karapetyan, stage director, author of the dramatic concept - Vyacheslav Starodubtsev, production designer - Zhanna Usacheva, lighting designer - Sergei Skornetsky, plastic design - Sergei Zakharin.

Characters and performers: Francesca –

Opera in 1 act with prologue and epilogue. The libretto for the plot of the V song of “Inferno” from Dante’s “Divine Comedy” was written by M. Tchaikovsky.
The first performance took place on January 11, 1906 in Moscow on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater, on the same evening as the opera “The Miserly Knight”.

Characters:
Dante, tenor
Shadow of Virgil, baritone
Lanciotto Malatesta, Lord of Rimini, baritone
Francesca, his wife, soprano
Paolo, his brother, tenor
Cardinal, without words
Ghosts of Hell, Malatesta's Retinue

Prologue. Hell. The shadow of Virgil and Dante following it descend into the black abyss. The darkness is dissipating. In a cruel eternal whirlwind, the ghosts of the suffering fly by with groans and cries of despair. Among them, Dante notices two light and sad shadows. The poet turns to them with a request to tell about themselves. In response, the voices of Paolo and Francesca are heard:

There is no greater sorrow in the world,
How to remember happy times
In misfortune...

First picture. Palace in Rimini. Lanciotto Malatesta, ruler of Rimini, announces to his retinue that he is going on a campaign against the enemies of the papal throne. The Cardinal blesses Lanciotto and his soldiers.

Left alone, Lanciotto plunges into deep thought. It is not the war that occupies his thoughts - he thinks about his wife, the beautiful Francesca. When Lanciotto was wooing, it was not he, the ugly, lame man, who went to Francesca, but his brother, the handsome young man Paolo. Francesca's father convinced his daughter that this was her real fiancé. The girl believed her father and swore allegiance to her betrothed. Now Lanciotto is tormented by jealousy of his brother - he suspects that Francesca fell in love with Paolo from the first meeting and loves him to this day. “We need to find out if this is so,” Lanciotto decides. He announces to Francesca, who has appeared, that he is going on a hike and leaving her in the care of her brother. Lanciotto is agitated and upset by his wife’s coldness. To his question why she is so unfriendly, Francesca replies: “I have always been and will be your submissive wife.” Lanciotto speaks passionately of his love for his wife and looks forward to mutual recognition. But Francesca is silent - she doesn’t know how to lie, she can’t talk about a feeling she doesn’t experience. Lanciotto is furious, but quickly controls his anger. When asked by his wife about the time of his return from the campaign, he calmly replies that he will return only after defeating his enemies.

Lanciotto Malatesta is up to no good. After his wife leaves, he grins ominously and exclaims: “When will I be back? You'll find out soon! "

Second picture. A room in the palace. Evening. Paolo reads to Francesca the story of the knight Lancelot and his lover. Having reached the point where the knight falls to the lips of his beloved, Paolo, sobbing, throws himself on his knees in front of Francesca. He does not want to hear the persuasion of his beloved, who hopes for eternal bliss in the afterlife. He, without hesitation, will give all the blessings of heaven for earthly love. Francesca listens to her beloved as if spellbound. And she is not afraid of the torment of hell - after all, in hell they will be inseparably together. Francesca and Paolo freeze in the kiss.

Lanciotto suddenly appears. He fulfilled his plan - he suddenly returned home and overtook the lovers. With a dagger in his hand, he rushes towards the unsuspecting Francesca and Paolo.

The stage is obscured by clouds. The screams of Francesca and Paolo are heard, merging with the groans and screams of those suffering in hell.

Epilogue. Prologue setting. The ghosts of Paolo and Francesca appear again before Dante and the shadow of Virgil. “Oh, we didn’t read anymore that day!” - they announce sadly and disappear.

“There is no greater sorrow than remembering a happy time in misfortune...” - the choir sadly concludes.