Anthony Bolton, The Life and Death of Alexander Litvinenko (2021)

Well, the Ukrainian Opera Marathon may be over, but here's another opera that seems topical, under the circumstances.  Litvinenko, if you disremember, was a former Russian security officer who became a prominent critic of the government and defected to the UK until Putin had him murdered in 2006.  Can you believe there are right-wing Putin apologists in the US?  Yes, I can, because they're blood-thirsty, barely-incipient fascists who dearly would have loved it if T**** had been able to have his critics killed.  That's a cheerful thought.

The opera covers the last eight-ish years of his life, in non-linear fashion.  It's good that the time and place is project onto the stage; otherwise, it would be easy to get lost.  We have Litvinenko (normally known as Sasha) on his deathbed, and also before that in the UK and back in Russia; his behavior during the Chechen War and his refusal to assassinate an oligarch that leads to his flight.  There's also a  subplot involving Anna Politkovskaya, another of Putin's victims.  And yes, Putin himself is a character here, albeit never referred to by name and identified in the credits only as "Head of KGB."  He's a countertenor, which is a rather memorable choice.  Very sinister.

Bolton is a retired investment fund manager who dabbles in music.  That may not sound too promising, but hey, Wallace Stevens was an insurance executive--you never know.  And actually, I found this to be quite a good opera, both in terms of libretto and music.  There are a lot of musical highlights here, involving a lovely waltz number with Sasha and his wife Marina (I'd love to know whether the real-life Marina saw this, and if so what she thought), a pastiche of patriotic Russian music, and a chorus about polonium that really freaked me out (you may be reminded of "At the sight of this" from Doctor Atomic).  Also, after he carries out the hit, Litvinenko's assassin Andrei Lugovoy sings what I can only describe as a villain song.  Is it appropriate for a piece with such grim subject matter to feature such a devilishly fun moment?  Well, it does.  

Regardless, I got really caught up in the drama here, and even though this is probably an inappropriate comparison, the emotional effect of the ending reminded me of what you get with a good production of La bohème.  It certainly doesn't hurt that Rebecca Bottone is so wonderfully expressive as Marina.  I recommend this; the youtube video has been taken down, but, as often happens, it has been mirrored, perhaps ironically in this case, on a Russian site.  Check it out.