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Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s LE COQ D’OR (The Golden Cockerel) An opera in 3 acts.
This is a DVD of a Russian opera from a 2002 performance at the Theatre Musical de Paris-Chatelet in Paris, France.

Cast:
The Astrologer (who tells this story) ::: Barry Banks (tenor)
King Dodon ::: Albert Schagidulin (bass)
The Golden Cockerel ::: Yuri Maria Saenz (soprano)
Queen Shemakha (rules the kingdom next door to Dodon’s) ::: Olga Trifonova (soprano)
Amelfa (Dodon’s royal housekeeper) ::: Elena Matistina (contralto)
Prince Afron (Dodon’s son) ::: Andrei Breus (baritone)
Prince Guidon (Dodon’s other son) ::: Ilya Levinsky (tenor)
General Polkan (Dodon’s military advisor) ::: Ilya Bannik (bass)

Conductor: Kent Nagano/ Orchestra & Chorus of the Mariinsky Theater
Stage Director: Isao Takashima
Choreography: Kanshino Fujima

Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov is better known for his orchestral suits such as ’Scheherazade’ than his opera, but among opera lovers, he is very highly regarded indeed. Some of his best known pieces like the amusingly buzzing ‘Flight of the Bumble Bees’ are actually excerpts from his opera ...in this case, Legend of Tsar Saltan). So if you’re a fan of Romantic period Russian orchestral works, you may find the music here quite familiar. Like Queen Shemakha’s Hymn to the Sun. The music is a gorgeous mix of Russian romantic work with very Asian flavoring... It sounds similar to Debussy’s Prelude de l’apres midi d’un faun in some part, and like the theme music to the film Lawrence of Arabia in other parts. Lots of recurring themes (Leitmotifes), you hear them when you're supposed to think of a certain character.... like the Hymn to the Sun is the Leitmotif of Queen Shemakha. It is almost unnecessary to know the lyric to understand the tale since the music itself tells it so well.

This work uses a libretto of Vladimir Bel'sky’s adaptation from Alexander Pushkin’s play House of the Weathercock. The composer didn’t live to see it premiered because the thing is such a witty satire of imperial expansion that struck too close to comfort when it was finished in 1907... just a few years removed from the debacle of the Russo-Japanese war where Nicolai II got his royal behind wiped by the Japanese. The moral of the story.... O well...I could have a good time writing up a moral of this story if only Nicolai II and his family hadn’t gotten themselves elevated to sainthood for being massacred by the Reds during WW I. But at least Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera is still a more interesting thing to listen to than an audio book of the tsar’s biography, I think.

The story:
The prologue opens with The Astrologer’s monologue presenting a cautionary tale, ”Long, long ago, a wizard (who still lives today) used his magic in an attempt to overcome the daughter of the sky. Failed, he tried again through the character of King Dodon. After repeating his failure, he consoles himself in presenting the audience the story of heartless royal ingratitude.’
Act I then opens with Kind Dodon in some distress from having a bad dream that his kingdom is being invaded by Queen Shemakha’s neighboring forces. His sons Guidon and Afron give conflicting advices with his General Polkan. The Astrologer then saves the day by giving the king The Golden Cockerel that can foresee future and acts as a biological alarm clock.... literally. The king promises the Astrology whatever he wants in return for such a magical gift. He then retires content to bed to the lullaby sung by Amelfa, the royal housekeeper.

Just as any good alarm clock would do, the Golden Cockerel ruins a beautiful night’s sleep and opens Act II shrieking her warning, causing the sleepy king Dodon to send out his 2 sons to the battle. Either because they were as sleepy as their father or because they thought the other brother was just too ugly to be allowed to live, the brothers are discovered skewered upon each others’ sword. After doing his proper share of operatic sobbing, Dodon rushes at a tent he thought houses the enemy Queen Shemakha. But before he gets there, the beautiful queen arises out of it singing and dancing a mesmerizing ‘Hymn to the Sun.’ By the end of the piece the utterly enchanted Dodon has abandoned all thought of revenge and asks her to marry him instead!
Act III opens with a marriage procession with all the populace coming out joining the party. The Queen is bored by all the procedures; however, and isn’t all too upset when the Astrologer appears and claims her from Dodon as his belated reward for the gift of the Golden Cockerel. Dodon thought the Astrologer’s gift merits the payment of cold iron instead of his beloved queen, and strikes his servant dead. He is in turn pecked to dead by the irate Golden Cockerel, who then disappears with the beautiful Queen, leaving the populace to mourn the demise of the whole royal family.

In a twist a la The Wizard of Oz’s ‘it was all a dream’ thing, the Astrologer resurrects in the epilogue to assure the audience that the story is a fairy tale and that only he and Queen Shemakhan are truly mortal beings.

The performance:
This particular production was staged by Ennosuke Ichikawa, the famous Japanese Kabuki actor. It is a revival of the 1984 co-production with the San Francisco Opera. Ichikawa’s 17th Century Japanese kabuki staging is a visually mesmerizing flight of fantasy. Very colorful and with great choreography and very stylized dancing on a minimalistic set. If you don’t know what Kabuki costume is like, just do a google image search on ‘Kabuki’. It’s fantastic. They even choreographed the curtain calls, so don’t you hit that ‘stop’ button as soon as the music stops and it all goes dark!

There are lots of supernumeraries (extras) on stage at various times, but they are never distractive. A visual eye candy as well as an acoustic one, and the best part is that all the ‘effects’ blend into the scenes so well.... unlike big explosions in Hollywood films that draw more attention to themselves than serving in story telling.

Sample: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBwXt_06T9w (Queen Shemakha's Hymn to the Sun)

The musical performance is uniformly well sung and acted. From the Astrologer of the high tenor Barry Banks (he’s almost a counter-tenor, I think) who draws attention whenever he is on stage, to the basso Albert Schagidulin’s absurdly temperamental Didon, to Olga Trifonova’s mesmerizing soprano Queen Shemakha. is a revelation to me as Yuri Maria SaenzThe Golden Cockerel with strong dramatic soprano voice... and she gets a lot of shoulder exercises in this role having to stand on a high narrow column waving her (heavily weighed down with feathery costume) arms for most of Act II. The contralto Elena Matistina’s Amelfa sounds startlingly like a baritone in her low passage and has a rather strange vibrato in her voice. They look so comfortable with the stylized choreography they could have been doing kabuki all their career! Also, being in as wonderful voice as they all are (how lucky is that for us?), the singers never try to outdo their stage partner and the result is a brilliant ensemble work in every sense. A loud 'Bravi!' all around.

Maestro Kent Nagano is wonderful in his conducting. I had never heard him in Russian pieces before, and look forward to more now. He is supportive of his singers and keeps things moving along briskly, never too seriously (which wouldn't fit this witty musical satire of a work). A wickedly fine effort!

Well, the music is probably hard to hum to, but if you’re going to buy one opera DVD this year, this one should rank very, very high on the list even though the work is not well known or frequently performed. Even kids would love all the dancing kabuki characters, I think. Highly recommended.

1 DVD. Run-time: 108 min. Sung in Russian with (rather loosely translated) subtitle in: English, German, French, and Italian.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up to Age 4