Rachmaninov is not exactly known for being a composer
of operas, though his graduation exercise was just one such an example
(Aleko), and brought him to the attention of the public when
he was twenty years old. He wrote three one-act operas, Aleko in
1893, The Miserly Knight and Francesca da Rimini in the
years 1903-05 with both the latter forming a double-bill première
at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre on 24 January 1906, and six years later
in St Petersburg. Incidentally this same pairing will be given concert
performances by Chelsea Opera Group under David Lloyd-Jones at London’s
Queen Elizabeth Hall on 16 March 2002. All have gloomy plots, unsurprising
considering the compulsive fatalism of their composer. Between the first
two operas Rachmaninov’s career went into a nosedive after the flop
of his first symphony followed by his nervous breakdown and withdrawal
from life as a composer. He spent the wilderness years as an opera conductor
in Moscow, often working closely with the young Chaliapin and gradually
his self-esteem was restored so that by the turn of the twentieth century
he had recovered enough to produce the second piano concerto.
Back in 1830 Pushkin was the author of a quartet of
little tragedies, one of which was The Miserly Knight (Darghomizhsky,
Rimsky-Korsakov, and Cui had already set the others), and like most
composers of the period, any visit to Bayreuth to hear Wagner’s operas
made an enormous impression upon Rachmaninov. The orchestral writing
and use of leitmotivs in The Miserly Knight were the obvious
result, the story itself has reminiscences of the Ring in the Knight’s
miserly lust for gold, and there’s duels, denouncements and death aplenty
in its three scenes. The five-member cast is totally male, plenty of
dark colours from bass-baritone Aleksashkin in the title role and ably
supported by the tenor Larin as his son Albert. The ubiquitous Neeme
Järvi (since overworked to the detriment of his health) conducts
with a masterly feel for the idiom.
Christopher Fifield