Opera Scotland

Sergey Prokofiev Suggest updates

Sergey Sergeyevich Prokofiev

Born Sontsovka, Ukraine, 23 April 1891.

Died Moscow, 5 March 1953.

Russian pianist and composer.

Prokofiev's full-length ballet scores may be accepted the world over, but with the possible exception of Love for Three Oranges, his operas still struggle to maintain their place in the repertoire. In Scotland, our experience of the operas has increased in recent years, with a series of three productions by students at the Conservatoire in Glasgow, in collaboration with Scottish Opera. By far the most important of these was the attempt to restore the composer's first intentions for War and Peace before he bowed to political pressures. This was a fascinating exercise as well as being a Scottish premiere. The two comedies were also thoroughly enjoyable, though they were works which had been seen at the Edinburgh Festival within relatively recent memory. The Fiery Angel is still a controversial work, and the truncated version performed in Edinburgh did it few favours - it would be good to see it played in full one day. As for Semyon Kotko, we have so far seen only a single act in concert - a very strange makeweight for a performance of Rachmaninov's Aleko.

 

Operas performed in Scotland are shown in bold:-

Maddalena (1910 unfin) (cpsr)

The Gambler - Igrok (1917, rev 1928, prod Brussels 1929) (cpsr)

The Love for Three Oranges - Lyubov k tryom apel'sinam (1919, prod Chicago 1921) (cpsr)

The Fiery Angel - Ognennyi Angel (1926; concert Paris 1954, prod Venice 1955) (cpsr)

Semyon Kotko (1939, prod Moscow 1940) (cpsr & Katayev)

Betrothal in a Monastery - (1940, prod Leningrad 1946) (cpsr & Mendelson)

War and Peace - Voina i mir (1942, prod Leningrad 1946) (cpsr & Mendelson)

The Story of a Real Man (Leningrad 1948) (Mendelson)