Prokofiev: Suite from ‘Semyon Kotko', Op. 81bis

Description

Although Prokofiev is probably best known for his orchestral music, but he constantly tried to establish himself as an opera composer, with mixed success. Semyon Kotko was written during a period when he was out of favour with the Soviet authorities. The opera was his attempt to write, as said, ‘a Soviet opera, heroic and constructive.' It is derived from the 1937 novel I, Son of the Working People by Valentin Katayev, which is partly autobiographical; Katayev had served in the Red Army immediately after the Revolution. Katayev and Prokofiev worked together on the libretto for the opera, and the music was composed during 1938 and 1939. Semyon Kotko was given its first performance on 23 June 1940 under Mikhail Zhukov in Moscow and was briefly popular. It fell out of the repertory for political reasons and took a long time to be revived. However, it is now a repertoire work at the Mariinsky Theatre (formerly the Kirov) in St. Petersburg.

The story is set in 1918 in Ukraine. Lenin's Bolshevik government has made a peace treaty with Germany, but Ukraine is still occupied by Germans, who are allied to counter-revolutionary Ukrainian nationalists. Semyon Kotko is a demobbed soldier. He wishes to marry Sofia, whose father's life he saved in the war. However, her father, Tkachenko, wants Sofia to marry the local landowner, Klebovsky. The young couple gets engaged but their party is interrupted by the arrival of the German army, burning burn the village. Tkachenko sides with the invaders and betrays Kotko and his friends to them. Two of Kotko's friends are hanged but he escapes and starts training a group of Bolshevik partisans. They attempt to stop Sofia's forced wedding to Klebovsky, but are captured. However, the red Army arrives in time to rescue them. Klebovsky is taken off for execution. Kotko and Sofia are united.