The Ukrainian Opera Marathon starts here, with THIS.
Now pay attention, because I'm only going to say this once: it's Kiev in the eleventh century. Mykyta is the son of Kosnyatyn, governor of Novgorod. He's disguised as a monk, and he wants to kill the Prince of Kiev, Yaroslav, for having imprisoned his dad. But when Yaroslav's daughter Elizaveta appears, he becomes infatuated and stays his hand. A Norwegian knight, Harald, appears and likewise falls fro Elizaveta and she for him. He wants to marry her, but Yaroslav says he has to prove himself first. Next, a stonemason named Zhureyko appears. He's pissed off because another Norwegian (why are there so many Norwegians hereabouts?), Turvald, tried to rape his fiancée Mylusha and killed her brother when he tried to stop him. Yaroslav orders him killed, but Elizaveta, for unclear reasons, pleads on his behalf, and Yaroslav frees him after he pays a ransom. He immediately goes after Mylusha again, so Zhureyko kills him and flees. Learning that Kosnyatyn was panning some sort of conspiracy, he decides to have him executed. Harald reappears having become King of Norway (as you do), and he and Elizaveta are married. Some fellow Novgorodians appear and tell Mykyta that it's time for revenge, but he hesitates, knowing how important it is that Yaroslav build a unified state. But then he hears that his dad has been killed and decides, yeah, let's do it. This girl, Djemma, appears and declares her love for him. Meanwhile, Zhureyko is back in town, in spite of having a death sentence on his head (would any court REALLY convict him, given the circumstances?). Before he is reunited with Mylusha, he hears Yaroslav's wife Ingigerda and her co-conspirator Ulf talking about their plans to take out Yaroslav so she can rule. Zhureyko wants to warn him, but Ulf realizes he's been overheard and captures him. When Mylusha shouts for help, he kills her. But a bunch of people hear what happened and the plot is undone, Ingigerda is sent to a convent, and Ulf taken away, presumably to be killed. Zhureyko is forgiven and given a place in Yaroslav's court. A few years later, Yaroslav is still doing ruler things, but he's sad because Elizaveta died in Norway, as Mykyta explains to him (why was he in Norway, and what is his relationship with Yaroslav at this point supposed to be? Utterly unclear). But now, the dastardly Pechenegs are attacking! Oh no! Zhureyko mustered some troops in Novgorod to fight, and this renews Mykyta's anger at his dad having been executed, so he reproaches Yaroslav, who wants to kill him, but Djemma, who I assume is supposed to be his wife at this point, intercedes for him. Anyway, time to fight. Mykyta dies in the battle, but the Pechenegs are repulsed. Everyone sings about how great Yaroslav is. The end. Did you get all that? There WILL be a test.
Okay, the libretto has its issues. It's very twisty, it's hard to tell who we're really supposed to care about, and ol' Yaroslav demonstrates very little wisdom. If it's supposed to be praising him, it does a bad job of it. Of course, I was just following along with a summary, but I think there would've been problems even if there were English subtitles. The wikipedia entry says that it "contains a number of perplexing coincidences and bewildering changes of character by the leading roles, and scarcely testifies overall to the hero's wisdom," which seems extremely fair.
Nevertheless, I actually liked this opera quite a bit. In this instance, the music redeems the libretto. There is nothing here that would make you think you weren't listening to a nineteenth-century opera. Maybe it's partially because I haven't really watched much in that vein lately, but it has strong operatic values that a lot of contemporary or near-contemporary opera lack. Passion! Duets! Arias! And there's a symphonic break for the climactic battle that rules the flippin' roost. Also, this is a very handsome period production. We're rockin' in Kiev tonight, I tell you. Does this sound like I'm trivializing the current situation? I hope not. That is emphatically not the goal.
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