Educational Media Reviews Online

It may come as a surprise to most music lovers who know Tchaikovsky by his better known symphonies, tone poems, concertos, and ballets that he longed to be an acclaimed opera composer. Tchaikovsky’s obvious dramatic and theatrical gifts would seem a make him a natural for opera, but, sadly, that was not the case.

Only two of Tchaikovsky’s ten operas hold the boards in the West: Eugene Onegin and Pique Dame (Queen of Spades). Naturally, it is a great pleasure to be able to see one of Tchaikovsky’s lesser known operas, The Tsarina’s Slippers as a live performance recorded at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.

The Tsarina’s Slippers is based on a fantastic, fairy tale, short story/romance by Ukrainian/Russian writer Nikolai Gogol. Gogol’s colorful plot concerns the earnest testing of village smith, Vakula, by his capricious sweetheart, Oxana, who demands he fetch the Tsarina’s footwear to prove his honorable intentions. The Devil (a comic character in Russian folklore) is tricked into providing Vakula’s impossible transportation and theft of the slippers. Witches, town lechers, drunks and minor Imps provide additional laughs and comic situations for the opera viewers.

Although The Tsarina’s Slippers lacks the rich melodies of Eugene Onegin (examples: “Lensky’s Aria”, and “Polonaise”) or Pique Dame (examples: “Yeletsky’s Aria”, “Countess Aria”), the opera has enough intrinsic musical value to make it well worth viewing. The principle singers: Vsevold Grivonv (Vakula) and Oxana (Loga Guryakona) provide competent, solid, if not outstanding performances. However, where the presentation really shines is in its folk-derived scenery (Mikhail Mokrov set designer) and hilarious stage direction. In addition, The Covent Garden Chorus, always important in Russian opera, provided strong and vital support. The Royal Opera Orchestra, under the capable direction of Alexander Polianchko, played well but was lacking in dramatic sweep and excitement. The Royal Ballet dancers, as usual, gave a sparkling, kinetic performance.

The Tsarina’s Slippers has the advantages of a live performance without its drawbacks. A live performance brings heightened levels of spontaneity and realism, but it can also present problems of getting the right balance between singers and the orchestra. Moreover, cinematographers can be somewhat limited in arranging shots during live action.

I would like to highly recommend The Tsarina’s Slippers but can’t for two reasons. First, there were no subtitles on my examination copy, which is particularly important for a little-known opera in an unfamiliar language. There was also a total lack of documentation enclosed with the DVD. A description of the opera, composer, and performers would have been very helpful. Chapter access was also provided but not in enough detail to find specific arias or choruses.

I also have to point out that what appears to be the same performance of The Tsarina’s Slippers (Cherevichki) is available from Amazon for $27.00 dollars. Of course, this consumer version does not include public performance rights, or the rights to digitize and stream the content —both of which can be provided by Films for the Humanities and Sciences.

I am grateful to Films for presenting non repertory, little known operas and I can recommend this Films for the Humanities and Sciences version of The Tsarina’s Slippers.