Opera el gallo de oro

Le coq d’or imslp

The Golden Cockerel is rarely performed; in the Operabase statistics it appears as the 219th opera performed in 2005-2010, being the 17th in Russia and Rimsky-Korsakov’s fourth, with 12 performances in the period.

The orchestra quotes the main leitmotifs, then a mysterious astrologer appears before the curtain and announces to the audience that, although they are going to see and hear a fictitious tale from long ago, his story has a moral.

Tsar Dodon believes that his country is in danger from the neighboring state of Shemachah, ruled by a beautiful queen. He seeks advice from the astrologer, who provides a Golden Rooster to safeguard the king’s interests. When the rooster confirms that the queen of Shemachah has territorial ambitions, Dodon decides to attack Shemachah preemptively, sending his army into battle under the command of his two sons.

However, his sons are so inept that they end up killing each other on the battlefield. Tsar Dodon then decides to lead the army himself, but more blood is spilled because the Golden Cock assures the old king that he will fall in love when he actually meets the beautiful queen. The queen herself encourages this situation by performing a seductive dance – which tempts the king to try to be her mate, but he is clumsy and messes up. The queen realizes that she can take over Dodon’s country without any more fighting – she gets the tsar to ask her to marry him, and she coyly accepts.

Resumen de el gallo de oro

El gallo de oro (en ruso: Золотой петушок, tr. Zolotoy petushok escuchar (help-info)) es una ópera en tres actos, con prólogo corto y epílogo aún más corto, compuesta por Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, su última ópera que completó antes de su muerte en 1908. Su libreto, escrito por Vladimir Belsky, se basa en el poema de Alexander Pushkin de 1834, El cuento del gallo de oro. La ópera se terminó en 1907 y se estrenó en 1909 en Moscú, tras la muerte del compositor. Fuera de Rusia se ha representado a menudo en francés como Le coq d’or.

Rimsky-Korsakov consideraba su anterior ópera, La leyenda de la ciudad invisible de Kitezh y la doncella Fevroniya (1907), como su última declaración artística en el medio, y, de hecho, esta obra ha sido calificada como «resumen de la tradición operística nacionalista de Glinka y Los Cinco». «Sin embargo, la situación política de Rusia en aquel momento le inspiró a tomar la pluma para componer una «afilada sátira de la autocracia, del imperialismo ruso y de la guerra ruso-japonesa»[2] Además, las obras anteriores de Rimsky-Korsakov inspiradas en los poemas de Alexander Pushkin, especialmente El zar Saltan, habían tenido mucho éxito.

Golden cockerel spurs

Once again Ivor Bolton takes the reins again in a very convenient way, good work with the Teatro Real’s resident orchestra, he picked up perfectly the variations proposed by Kórsakov to characterize the characters and everything sounded very well matched with the soloists and the chorus. Sincerely, there is a continuous work here that is paying off. The orchestra follows him to perfection and is able to reflect the fuller moments of orchestration as well as the more intimate ones as in the second act with the Russian’s songs. Especially beautiful was the interpretation of Zimbalist’s Concert Phantasy and Fritz Kreisler’s Hymn to the Sun between the second and third acts, an intimate moment with only the concertmaster on violin and Bolton himself on piano that was absolutely magical, as if a spell had bewitched us.

The tale of the golden cockerel

3.1. Plot Prologue The orchestra quotes the main leitmotifs, then a mysterious astrologer appears before the curtain and announces to the audience that, although they are going to see and hear a fictitious tale from long ago, his story has a moral.

3.2. Plot Act I Tsar Dodon believes that his country is in danger from the neighboring state of Shemachah, ruled by a beautiful queen. He seeks advice from the astrologer, who provides a Golden Rooster to safeguard the king’s interests. When the rooster confirms that the queen of Shemachah has territorial ambitions, Dodon decides to attack Shemachah preemptively, sending his army into battle under the command of his two sons.

3.3. Plot Act II However, his sons are so inept that they end up killing each other on the battlefield. Tsar Dodon then decides to lead the army himself, but more blood is spilled because the Golden Cock assures the old king that he will fall in love when he actually meets the beautiful queen. The queen herself encourages this situation by performing a seductive dance – which tempts the king to try to be her mate, but he is clumsy and messes up. The queen realizes that she can take over Dodon’s country without any more fighting – she gets the tsar to ask her to marry him, and she coyly accepts.