Opera Scotland

War and Peace Voina i mir

Tours by decade

Tours by location

Music
Sergey Prokofiev (born Sontsovka, Ukraine, 23 April 1891; died Moscow, 5 March 1953)

Text
The composer and Mira Mendelson (his second wife)

Source
Novel (completed 1869) by Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) recounting Napoleon’s invasion of Russia.

 

Premières
First performance: Moscow, 16 October 1944 (incomplete, in concert).
First UK performance: Leeds (Town Hall), 19 April 1967 (concert).
First performance in Scotland Glasgow (Theatre Royal), 22 January 2010.
Scottish Opera première: N/A (Orchestra & technical support for above production).

 

Background

War and Peace is the most ambitious of Prokofiev’s operas, and he never saw it performed satisfactorily. The main period of composition was 1941-43, and he continued to revise it until his death. It was supremely topical, with Hitler repeating Napoleon’s attempt at a massive invasion. It is undoubtedly one of the great 20th century operas, covering a vast canvas with general success. It attained prominence when it was chosen as the first production to open the Sydney opera house. English National Opera gave it a successful UK stage premiere in 1972 and took that staging to the New York Met.

The music is generally in two styles. The peace scenes are full of melody reminiscent of his great ballet scores such as Romeo and Juliet. The war scenes contain echoes of the memorable music composed for the epic Eisenstein films such as Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible.

The cast contains dozens of named roles for individual characters, Russian civilians as well as French and Russian officers. Most of the prominent characters are listed below.
 

 

Main Characters
Prince Andrei Bolkonsky (baritone)
Count Pyotr Bezukhov (Pierre), friend to Andrei and the Rostovs (tenor)
Count Ilya Rostov (baritone)
Natasha Rostova, his daughter (soprano)
Sonya, her cousin (mezzo-soprano)
Hélène Bezukhova, Pierre’s wife (mezzo-soprano)
Prince Anatole Kuragin, Hélène’s brother (tenor)
Field Marshal Prince Kutuzov, commander of the Russian army (bass)
Napoleon Bonaparte (baritone)

 

Plot Summary
The peace scenes are dominated by the meeting and engagement of Andrei and Natasha. He is still young but recently widowed and melancholic. She is younger and beautiful, but immature. She takes offence at her unfriendly reception by Andrei’s relations and allows herself to be seduced by Anatol.

When the invasion starts, Andrei returns to the army as a staff officer under Kutuzov. He is mortally wounded at Borodino. Amid the chaos of war, as Kutuzov abandons Moscow and it is set ablaze, the scenes focus on the triumph of the Russian people. Natasha and Andrei are reconciled before he dies. Natasha eventually marries Pierre, who has remained a staunch friend and helpless observer of all these events.