Rachmaninov - Complete Operas (Aleko, The Miserly Knight, Francesca da Rimini)

Rachmaninov: 

Complete Operas
Aleko
The Miserly Knight
Francesca da Rimini

Anatolij Kotscherga, Anne Sofie von Otter, Ian Caley, Ilya Levinsky, Maria Guleghina, et al.

Göteborgs Symfoniker

 Neeme Järvi

This is a very valuable set comprising Rachmaninov's three one-act operas. Although not, perhaps, among his very best music, there are still a lot of things to savor, especially when the performances are as satisfactory as here. All three works have received a number of recordings, and to be honest I'll have to admit at the outset that I am not really familiar with the alternatives. 

The early Aleko inhibits the world of Tchaikovsky and The Mighty Five (although the former more than the latter). It is not a masterpiece, but still a mightily impressive, accomplished and interesting work containing several striking themes, numbers and arias; it surely deserves a place in the collection of any serious opera lover. Among the virtues of the set at hand, there is a fabulous Sergei Leiferkus, whose firm and steady and beautiful tone is full of character and depth. Furthermore, Maria Guleghina is an expressive, expertly sung and steady Zemfira - I can hardly imagine this pair of soloist being much bettered. They are backed by a solid cast in the minor roles, a very good chorus, and a Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra which is surely on top form. Järvi plays up the Tchaikovskian qualities of the work - full of drama, pathos and fire - and draws some marvelous playing from the orchestra (listen in particular to the brass, especially the snarls and braying in some of the orchestral interludes). 

The Miserly Knight is probably the best of the set. It is based on one of Pushkin's four short tragedies (written in the 1830s) - the other ones had already been set by other composers - and was premiered in 1906. Despite the obvious quality of the music, not even this one belongs among the composer's very strongest works, however, and it hasn't exactly helped its performance history that the libretto is at least borderline anti-Semitic. 

The music is gloomy (appropriate for the darkly fatalistic and darkly dramatic story) and obviously inspired by Wagner, especially in the orchestral writing and the use of leitmotifs. The darkness isn't exactly alleviated by the fact that all five soloists are male - in addition, Sergei Aleksashkin's bass-baritone is particularly dark (though able to vary the colors impressively). He is an excellent singer, however, and is well supported, especially by Sergei Larin, though I could possibly have asked for a little more variety and subtlety in some of the singing. The Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra is impressive here as well, and Järvi has a good sense of the idiom. Even so, the performances strike me as just a tad to Tchaikovskian (appropriate for Aleko, but a little more questionable here) and - at the same time - even a tad uninvolved at times. Still, there is much here to impress, and the performance is overall quite firmly recommended. 

Francesca da Rimini is in many ways the most problematic, and possibly also the weakest. A large part of the problem is the libretto, which is less than distinguished, to put it mildly. Still, there are some very striking things here - the sensuous love duet is remarkably effective despite the banality of the libretto, and the wordless wailings of the chorus of the damned certainly makes an impact - at least the first couple of times around. It is in any case good to have this interesting if flawed work in performances as strong as these. Maria Gulegina is again impressively steady and full of character, and although not always beautiful in the classical sense, her singing is full of drama - and that is surely even more important in a work like this. Ilya Levinsky manages to be both lyrical and dramatically intense at the same time, and delivers a thoroughly impressive performance, whereas Leiferkus is as good as always in Rachmaninov. Again the Gothenburg players give us the appropriate level and ranges of color and drama, and Järvi has the measure of the work in the sense of being able to pace the drama and climaxes very effectively as well as drawing out the appropriate colors.