Rimsky-Korsakov The Snow Maiden (La Fille de Niege) opera to a libretto by the composer. Directed 2017 by Dmitri Tcherniakov at the Opéra national de Paris (Opéra Bastille). Stars Aida Garifullina (Snow Maiden), Yuriy Mynenko (Lel), Martina Serafin (Kupava), Maxim Paster (Tsar Berendey), Thomas Johannes Mayer (Mizguir), Elena Manistina (Spring Beauty), Vladimir Ognovenko (Father Frost), Franz Hawlata (Bermyata), and Vasily Gorshkov (Babyl Bakula). Mikhail Tatarnikov conducts the Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Paris (Musical Director Philippe Jordan), the Choers de l’Opéra national de Paris, Maîtrise des Hauts-de-Seine, and the Choeur d’Enfants de l’Opéra national de Paris (Chorus Master José Luis Basso). Set design by Dmitri Tcherniakov; costume design by Elena Zaytseva; lighting design by Gleb Filshtinsky; video by Tiena Burkhalter. Directed for TV by Andy Sommer; produced by François Duplat and Laurent Métivier. Sung in Russian. Released 2021, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: A+
Tcherniakov has long stated that he hopes to bring all the glories of Russian opera to ignorant western audiences. In 2017, the Paris Opera went all out to help him with this. Seems strange that it took 4 years to get this released in Blu-ray. It probably was shown a lot before 2021 on TV in Europe. Let’s start with a shot of the vertigo inducing Bastille Opera House in Paris:
And the next shot below is the stage at the opening of the opera. We sees part of a vast Russian forest serving as a camp ground for the Berendey Society, a modern community that gathers to celebrate Slav life in the old days. The story of the opera is an old one about the sacrifice of a beautiful virgin to insure a long summer and bountiful harvest. If you would like to read a synopsis with a bit of the backstory of the Russian pagan gods, see the one I wrote for you that’s attached to the end of this review. You have probably already figured out that the virgin’s name is “Snow Maiden:”
Meet the Russian goddess Spring Beauty (Elena Manistina) leading a flock of birds celebrating the end of winter:
And this glum guy is Father Frost or King Winter (Vladimir Ognovenko):
King Winter and Spring Beauty cheated a bit and had a daughter. This angered Yarilo, the sun god. He went on strike making the winters and longer and the spring colder, which threatened the growing season. He sent the baby girl to grow up cold in King Winter’s palace. So she was called Snow Maiden. Behold Snow Maiden (Aida Garifullina) at about age 15. Snow Maiden spends much of her time observing the folk living in the forest. She is especially enchanted by . . .
Aida was about 30 during this production, but she was totally convincing as a teenager. She even had skinny legs. It’s so amazing to see a soprano who can actually look like Snow Maiden, Juliette, Gilda, or Madama Butterfly. And this is especially important when the opera is recorded to be shown movie-like with lots of close-ups. Well, Snow Maiden begged to be allowed to visit the people in the forest. When Father Frost was called away, he feared Yarilo might try to harm her. So her parents packed her off to hide in the forest living with the Berrendeys. In the next image below, you see Snow Maiden on your for right peeping out from behind a tree. The people are celebrating Maslenitsa, the arrival of spring. In the center you see a statute representing Maslenitsa in the form of a sharecrow:
The bonfire represents the warmth of spring and summer and the harvest that comes before Koliada, the return of winter:
The Beredeys are astonished to have such a lovely visitor dressed in such luxurious clothing. An old couple immediately adopt her:
Snow Maiden is very shy and wary of being affectionate. She is overwhelmed in the presence of Lel, the sex god, played by the counter-tenor Yuriy Mynenko. Lel doesn’t want compensation for his songs. He wants kisses:
Suddenly, Snow Maiden realizes the coldness of her heart makes her different from the other girls who adore Lel:
Kupava (Martina Serafin) is one of the girls who knows about love. Below left, Mizguir (Thomas Johannes Mayer), a wealthy merchant, has come to claim Kupava to be his bride. Below right the village girls hid Kupava until Mizguir pays a ransom in coins and candy::
Mizguir sees Snow Maiden and is instantly captivated:
The aggrieved Kupava will ask the Tzar to punish Mizguir for dumping her in front of her friends. But the Tsar has bigger problems: he knows that Yarilo is angry about something because there has been a climate change for 14 years. And he also has the habit of dozing off at the worst possible times:
And now the Tsar himself is enchanted:
The Tsar wants to appease Yarilo with a mass wedding of all the young people on Yarilo’s Day (the first day of summer). Whoever wins the heart of Snow Maiden will marry her with the others:
Snow Maiden prays to her mother for help:
Snow Maiden receives the gift of love:
Now it is Yarilo’s day:
The people make the ancient promise to the god:
So how will all this work out now that Spring Beauty has given Snow Maiden the gift of love? You’ll have to get the disc to find out. But who do you think is on the ground below the flaming wheel as the opera ends?
Snow Maiden was heavily reviewed back in 2017 by print critics who saw it live—all of them gave it 4 or 5 stars. But when the disc came out 4 years later, the print critics had mostly forgotten it.
But there is one beautiful, astute review of this video in the August 2021 Gramophone at page 80. It’s by Marina Frolova-Walker, who is not listed on the magazine masthead as a reviewer. Marina is a native Russian. She is now a distinguished academic figure in British higher education and also an expert in Russian opera. Marina reports with glee that Tcherniakov uses all 3 and 1/4 hours of Rimsky-Korsakov’s music. She also is OK with Tcherniakov’s update of the Russian fairy-tale to a modern tale of Russian hippies. Western audiences know much about hippies but little about fairies. Finally, Marina notes that Dmitri was able to recruit great singing actors for all the lead roles. Marina concludes, “This faded Rimsky-Korsakov gem regains all its sparkle here: it has been researched, staged, played, sung, and filmed with true love and commitment.”
The folks who produced this staging of Snow Maiden worked hard to make both the live show and the video especially memorable. In particular, I’ll mention an astonishingly beautiful stage effect that you can’t see in screenshots. The entire show has a stage full of enormous trees. In the scene where Snow Maiden prays to her mother for the gift of love, the forest suddenly comes to life with two turntables slowly moving parts of the forest in opposite directions. This magical marching of huge trees is matched with a brilliantly mysterious light effect from Gleb Filshtinsky shining down through the forest canopy above. The powers also worked hard to give videographer Andy Sommer full access to the stage which results in a pleasing mix of long, medium, and close-up shots in a movie style video file. PQ is great even with low light in many scenes. SQ is also good.
This title is the only modern video of Snow Maiden available in western markets. Finally, I note in the credits that Miriam Hoyer was on the Andy Sommers team shooting the video (she was in charge of the video script). Hoyer has since emerged as one of the most promising videographers working today on our ballet and opera HDVDs. A+
The official clip from BelAir below shows what Marina Frolova-Walker was talking about in her review of this disc:
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