After watching A Feast in the Time of Plague, I checked to see if I could find any more Cui operas on video. Yes! But as far as I can tell, only these two children's operas. And these are both recent performances, put on in pandemic times. A year ago, none of them were, and now we're up to three! An impressive leap, and I hope the trend continues. Also, let it be noted, before I forget: Little Red Riding Hood was both my fortieth Russian-language opera and my two hundredth twentieth-century opera. Whoo!
You can find them here. I'm not linking to them individually! You think I'm MADE of time?!? Neither is subtitled, but I figured, heck, I basically know these stories, and anywhere, there's a short wikipedia summary for the Riding Hood one. It is indeed the usual stuff, though of course there were passages that I could not follow. The main difference between the familiar story is that the wolf doesn't die horribly, or at all; he gets sewn up and let go if he promises to stop being bad. Which he does in a very circumspect way, to judge from the action. The music's fun, bouncy stuff, and I can see how it would be a good opera for kids. The production is also very colorful and cool, and the woman playing the title role is very sprightly and appealing. It's being performed in St Petersburg, but not the Mariinsky: it's at the St. Petersburg Chamber Opera. How great would it be to live in a city with at least two great opera companies? Crikey.
Yes, well, Puss in Boots is also the usual thing; I found it a bit less impressive in general--it doesn't have a strong lead to anchor it, for one thing--but I'm not complaining. It DOES have a really good ballet sequence at the king's court, so that's cool.
I've said about all I want to say, but I am happy to have had the chance to see more Cui, who seems like a capable composer worthy or our attention. I hope to see more of his work (which is voluminous) in the future.
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