The Golden Cockerel (Russian: Золотой Петушок, Zolotoy Petushok, Golden Cockerel) is an an opera in three acts by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov. The libretto was written by Vladimir Belsky and is based on Alexander Pushkin's 1834 poem Tale of the Golden Cockerel (which is based on two chapters of The Alhambra by Washington Irving). The opera received its premiere in Moscow in 1909. Previously, the opera was commonly performed in French under the still recognized title Le Coq d'Or. Nowadays, the opera is almost exclusively sung in Russian. The Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy. ... Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (Russian: Никола́й Андре́евич Ри́мский-Ко́рсаков), also Nikolai, Nicolai, and Rimsky-Korsakoff, (March 18, 1844 &#8211... (This article is about the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. ... Washington Irving (April 3, 1783–November 28, 1859) was an American author of the early 19th century. ... Position of Moscow in Europe Coordinates: , Country District Subdivision Russia Central Federal District Federal City Government  - Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov Area  - City 1,081 km²  (417. ... Year 1909 (MCMIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ...

Composition history

Rimsky-Korsakov had considered his previous opera, The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya (1907) to be his final artistic statetment in the medium, and, indeed, this work has been called a "summation of the nationalistic operatic tradition of Glinka and The Five."^[1] However the political situation in Russia at the time inspired him to take up the pen to compose a "razor-sharp satire of the autocracy, of Russian imperialism, and of the Russo-Japanese war."^[2] The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya (Skazaniye o nevidimom grade Kitezhe i deve Fevronii in transliteration) is an opera in four acts by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov to a Russian libretto by Vladimir Belsky, based on folks tales. ... Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (Russian: Mihail Ivanovič Glinka) (June 1, 1804 [O.S. May 20] - February 15, 1857 [O.S. February 3]), was the first Russian composer to gain wide recognition inside his own country, and is often regarded as the father of Russian classical music. ... The Mighty Handful (Moguchaya Kuchka / Могучая Кучка in Russian), better known as The Five in English-speaking countries, was a label applied in 1867 by the critic Vladimir Stasov to a loose collection of Russian classical composers brought together under...

Four factors influenced Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov to write this opera-ballet:

Ivan Bilibin's stage set

1. Pushkin – Rimsky-Korsakov’s other works inspired by Alexander Pushkin's poems, especially Tsar Saltan, had been very successful. The Golden Cockerel had the same magic!
2. Bilibin – Ivan Bilibin had already produced artwork for the Golden Cockerel, and this conjured up the same traditional Russian folk flavours as those in Tsar Saltan.
3. Tsar Nicholas II – Nicholas II had foolishly started the Russo-Japanese War by making a pre-emptive strike against the Japanese forces in Manchuria and Korea. This war was highly unpopular amongst the Russian people. It proved to be a military disaster, and Russia was eventually defeated. (Remember that in the Golden Cockerel, King Dodon foolishly decides to make a pre-emptive strike against the neighbouring State, and there is huge chaos and bloodshed on the battlefield. The king himself gives more attention to his personal pleasures, and comes to a sticky end!)
4. Russian Revolutionary Activity in 1905 – The Russian people were not only upset by the Russo-Japanese War, but more importantly by their feudal living conditions. On January 9, 1905, several thousand people, led by a priest, demonstrated peacefully in the Palace Square in St Petersburg. They tried to hand in a petition asking for better working conditions, an 8- hour day, a minimum wage, and the prohibition of child labour. However, more than 1,000 were shot by the Tsarist troops, and the date has become known as Bloody Sunday (1905). News of this spread rapidly - there was an uprising in Odessa, where the sailors in the battleship Potemkin took over the ship and fired on the headquarters of the tsarist troops. Again, there was a massacre of people on the Odessa steps. The Students in the St Petersburg Conservatoire also demonstrated against the Czar, and Rimsky Korsakov supported their protest. For this he was dismissed from his post as head of the Conservatoire. Alexander Glazunov and Anatoly Lyadov resigned and left with him. See also Russian Revolution of 1905.

So Rimsky-Korsakov decided to create a work exposing the disastrous tsarist regime, and in 1906 he started work on his Golden Cockerel opera. It was finished in 1907. The opera was immediately banned by the Palace, and was not allowed to be staged - the resemblance between the Czar and the foolish King Dodon was too close. Rimsky-Korsakov’s health was undoubtedly affected by this, and he was dead by the time it was performed two years later. Image File history File links Bilibin_stage. ... Image File history File links Bilibin_stage. ... Ivan Ya. ... The Tale of Tsar Saltan (Сказка о царе Салтане in Russian, Skazka o care Saltane in transliteration) is an opera in four acts (six tableaux) with a prologue, by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov to a Russian libretto by Vladimir Ivanovich Belsky, based on the poem of the same name by Aleksandr Pushkin. ... Ivan Ya. ... Tsar Nicholas II (18 May 1868 to 17 July 1918)1 was the last crowned Emperor of Russia. ... Combatants Russian Empire Empire of Japan Commanders Emperor Nicholas II Aleksey Kuropatkin Stepan Makarov† Emperor Meiji Oyama Iwao Heihachiro Togo The Russo–Japanese War , February 10, 1904 – September 5, 1905) was a conflict that grew out of the rival imperialist ambitions of the Russian Empire and the Japanese Empire over... This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling. ... Korea (Korean: 한국 in South Korea or ì¡°ì„  in North Korea, see below) is a geographic area, civilization, and former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia. ... January 9 is the 9th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1905 (MCMV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar). ... Demonstrators march to the Winter Palace. ... Portrait by Ilya Repin, 1887. ... Anatoly Konstantinovich Lyadov (Анатолий Константинович Лядов), often transliterated Liadov, (May 11, 1855 - August 28, 1914) was a Russian composer, teacher and conductor. ... ‹ The template below (Expand) is being considered for deletion. ...

Early performance history

The premiere performance was by the Zimin Opera: The Zimin Opera was founded by the Russian entrepreneur Sergei Zimin in Moscow, Russia in 1903. ...

• Date: 24 September 1909
• Place: Solodovnikov Theatre, Moscow

September 24 is the 267th day of the year (268th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1909 (MCMIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Position of Moscow in Europe Coordinates: , Country District Subdivision Russia Central Federal District Federal City Government  - Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov Area  - City 1,081 km²  (417. ...

Performance practice

Composer's Performance Remarks (1907)

1. The composer does not sanction any "cuts."
2. Operatic singers are in the habit of introducing interjections, spoken words, etc. into the music, hoping thereby to produce dramatic, comic or realistic effect. Far from adding significance to the music, these additions and emendations merely disfigure it. The composer desires that the singers in all his works keep strictly to the music written for them.
3. Metronome marks must be followed accurately. This does not imply that artists should sing like clock-work, they are given full artistic scope, but they must keep within bounds.
4. The composer feels it necessary to reiterate the following remark in lyrical passages, those actors who are on the stage, but not singing at the moment, must refrain from drawing the attention of the spectators to themselves by unnecessary by-play. An opera is first and foremost a musical work.
5. The part of the Astrologer is written for a voice seldom met with, that of tenor-altino. It may however be entrusted to a lyric tenor possessing a strong falsetto, for the part is written in the extremely high register.
6. The Golden Cockerel demands a strong soprano or high mezzo-soprano voice.
7. The dances performed by the King and Queen in the second act, must be carried out so as not to interfere with the singers breathing by too sudden or too violent movement.

Staging Practices

Early stagings became influential by stressing the modernist elements inherent in the opera. Diaghilev's 1914 Paris production had the singers sitting offstage, while dancers provided the stage action.^[1] Though some in Russia disapproved of Diaghilev's interpretation, and Rimsky-Korsakov's widow threatened to sue, the production was considered a milestone. Stravinsky was to expand on this idea in the staging of his own Renard (1917) and Les Noces (1923), in which the singers are unseen, and mimes or dancers perform on stage.^[3] Marina Frolova-Walker points to The Golden Cockerel as the fore-runner of the anti-psychologistic and absurdist ideas which would culminate in such 20th century 'anti-operas' as Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges (1921) and Shostakovich's The Nose (1930).^[1] In this, his last opera, Rimsky-Korsakov had laid "the foundation for modernist opera in Russia and beyond."^[1] Portrait of Sergei Diaghilev by Valentin Serov (1904) Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev (Russian: / Sergei Pavlovich Dyagilev), also referred to as Serge, (March 31, 1872 – August 19, 1929) was a Russian art critic, patron, ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes from which many famous dancers and choreographers would later arise. ... Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (Russian: Игорь Фёдорович Стравинский, Igor Fëdorovič Stravinskij) (June 17, 1882 – April 6, 1971) was a Russian composer, considered by many in both the West and his native land to be the most influential composer of 20th-century music. ... Michail Larionov: The sketch of the costume of Renard in the nuns black gown for the 1922 performance Renard, Histoire burlesque chantée et jouée (The Fox: burlesque tale sung and played) is a one-act chamber opera-ballet by Igor Stravinsky, written in 1916. ... Les Noces (English: The Wedding; Russian: Свадебка) is a dance cantata, or ballet with singers, with a libretto in Russian composed by Igor Stravinsky and choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska that was premiered on June 13, 1923, by the Ballets Russes. ... Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (Russian: , Sergej Sergejevič Prokofijev; April 27 (April 151 O.S.), 1891–March 5, 1953) was a Russian and Soviet composer who mastered numerous musical genres and came to be admired as one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. ... Sergei Prokofiev // The Love for Three Oranges (Любовь к трём апельсинам in Russian, Lyubov k Tryom Apelsinam in transliteration) is an opera written in 1919 by Sergei Prokofiev to a libretto based on the play Lamore delle tre melarance by Carlo Gozzi. ... Dmitri Shostakovich   (Russian: , Dmitrij Dmitrievič Å ostakovič) (September 25 [O.S. September 12] 1906–August 9, 1975) was a Russian composer of the Soviet period. ... The Nose is a satirical opera by the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich. ...

Roles

Synopsis

Tsar Dadon meets the Shemakha queen

The bumbling King Dodon talks himself into believing that his country is in danger from the neighbouring State governed by the beautiful Queen Shemakhan. Ivan Bilibin. ... Ivan Bilibin. ...

He asks for advice from a mysterious Astrologer, who gives him a magic Golden Cockerel, which promises to look after his interests. Hand-coloured version of the anonymous Flammarion woodcut (1888). ...

The Golden Cockerel confirms that Queen Shemakhan certainly has some territorial ambitions, so King Dodon foolishly decides to make a pre-emptive strike against the neighbouring State, and sends his army, led by his two sons, to start the battle. However, his sons are both so inept that they manage to kill each other on the battlefield.

King Dodon then decides to lead the army himself, but further bloodshed is averted because the Golden Cockerel ensures that the old king becomes besotted when he actually sees the beautiful Queen. The Queen herself encourages this situation by performing a seductive dance - which tempts the King to try and partner her, but he is clumsy and makes a complete mess of it.

The Queen realises that she can take over Dodon’s country without further fighting - she engineers a marriage proposal from Dodon, which she coyly accepts.

The final scene starts with the great Bridal procession in all its splendour - and when this is reaching its conclusion, the Astrologer appears and says to the king “You promised me anything I could ask for if there could be a happy resolution of your troubles.......” “Yes, Yes, “ said the king, “Just name it and you shall have it”. “Right,” said the Astrologer, “I want Queen Shemakhan!”. At this, the King flares up in fury, and strikes down the Astrologer with a blow from his mace. The Golden Cockerel, loyal to his Astrologer master, then swoops across and pecks through the King’s jugular.

References

Sources

• Abraham, Gerald (1936). "XIV.-- The Golden Cockerel", Studies in Russian Music (in English). London: William Reeves / The New Temple Press, p.290-310.