Yevhen Stankovych, When the Fern Blooms (1979)

There hasn't been much of any great interest on Operavision lately.  You can say it's just because I've seen more at this point and am less easily interested, but they definitely used to have more revivals of obscure works and world premieres of new operas.  Well, blaming COVID seems fair.  And hey, there's THIS--a Ukrainian opera that was suppressed by the Soviet authorities before its would-have-been premiere and went unperformed until 2017 (Stankovych is still around--it's edifying that he lived to see it).  That's the thing about which I am talking.

It was obviously banned because of its nationalistic sentiments, the same as The Heiress of Vilkači.  But this one is very weird and uncategorizable, and such things seems almost beside the point.  If anything, you'd have to call it an opera-ballet.  But that's what you call many Rameau operas, and this is definitely nothing like those (also, it has nothing to do with that children's book that teaches kids the valuable life lesson that everything they've ever loved will die.  I suppose that went without saying).  It's definitely more on the ballet side: there are no named characters, and although there are a few soloists, most of the singing is choral.  You're not going to make head or tale of the "plot"--the subtitles feel almost superfluous--but in an abstract way, it's trying to evoke ancient pagan festivals, and then the onrush of Ukrainian history.  This might be a bit of a stretch, but it's a bit like Rimsky-Korsakov's Mlada, which does have a plot and characters but which for long stretches is much more about this weird mystical stuff.

Musically, the obvious touchstone is Stravinsky's Sacre du printemps, but really, that's only one part of the puzzle.  Aside from saying it's kind of frantic and primitivist, I'm really at a loss, because this just doesn't sound like any other opera (or whatever you want to call it) that I've heard.  That's a good thing, to be clear, and I'm super-glad to have had the chance to see this.  I have to admit, I kind of thought the dancing was just okay, but the sets are dazzling and the music captivating and...just an overall impressive experience.  Blam.