War and Peace
Synopsis
Like Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace Sergey Prokofiev’s opera is an historical epic and a love story. Real history provides the framework for the war action, starting with the depiction of the battle of Borodino (7 September 1812), then the taking of Moscow by Napoleonic troops and the conflagration of the city until the retreat of the Grande Armée at the start of the Russian winter.
Valery Gergiev conducts War and Peace
On the one hand the historical tableaux are centred on a complacent Napoleon, who throws his weight around, on the other on the venerable Russian field marshall Kutuzov, who is ultimately celebrated as the saviour of the fatherland. The love story begins in peace time and revolves around Natasha, the sheltered and inexperienced daughter of Count Rostov. Prince Andrei Bolkonsky courts her at a New Year’s Eve ball of the St. Petersburg high society. However, Natasha’s rise to the nobility fails: hurt by the humiliating rejection of the old Prince Bolkonsky, she accepts the proposal of marriage by Anatol Kuragin, a notorious womaniser. The couple do not succeed in escaping from Moscow, not least because of the intervention by Kuragin’s brother-in-law and Andrei’s friend Pierre Bezoukhov, who for his part loves Natasha more than he had previously admitted. Natasha is shattered to realise that her rash behaviour has ruined the possibility of a future together with Andrei. They only find each other again in the tumult of war. Too late: Andrei is severely wounded at the front and dies in Natasha’s arms.
Robert Maschka
Così fan tutte
Sergey Prokofiev
WAR AND PEACE
Concert performance
Conductor Valery Gergiev
Soloists Dmitri Hvorostovsky • Anna Netrebko • Ekaterina Semenchuk • Larissa Shevchenko • Evgeny Nikitin • Mikhail Kit • Sergei Alexashkin • Gennady Bezubenkov • Mikhail Petrenko and others
Choir and Orchestra of the Mariinsky Kirov Theatre
Premiere 9 August, 6.30 p.m.
Second performance 11 August, 6.30 p.m.
Felsenreitschule
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