Moshel_A1


            Prince Igor is an opera written and composed by Alexander Borodin. The opera is based off the libretto from the old Russian epic of The Lay of Igor’s Host. This epic tells the tale of Russian prince Igor Svyatoslavich’s encounter of the invading Cuman tribes in the year 1185. Along with this story, Borodin also incorporated material that originated from two medieval Kievan chronicles. One particularly interesting fact to add is that the opera was actually unfinished upon Borodin’s passing in 1887 and was subsequently completed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov. St. Petersburg, Russia is the home of this compositions first performance in 1890. It was because of is fellow composers that Borodin decided to focus on his talent of music rather than pursuing employment as a chemist, researcher, and professor.

            Originally, Lev Mei’s The Tsar’s Bride was taken into consideration by Borodin in terms of a subject matter for his opera inception, however, “The Mighty Handful’s” critic and advisor, Vladimir Stasov recommended The Lady of Igor’s Host as a basis for his first composition. On April 30, 1869, Stasov himself sent Borodin an idea for a three-act opera using the Russian epic as the topic. Borodin began his composition in September of 1869. Borodin used a variety of literary sources as aids for his writing. Prior to starting, he had with him versions of Yaroslavna’s arioso and Konchakovna’s cavatina as well as rough sketches of Polovtsian Dances and March of the Polovtsy.        

Borodin ceased his work of his first composition due to some doubts of his hopeful future success. He stopped working on Prince Igor for a span of about four years. However, he did not halt working but instead turned his focus on other projects such as the Symphony No 2 in B minor as well as the opera-ballet Mlada. Like Prince Igor, Borodin discontinued Mlada. However, parts of his work that he wrote for Mlada ended up being integrated into Prince Igor; some pieces were added, and some pieces that originated in Prince Igor then transferred to Mlada were placed back into Prince Igor. There were a total of eight numbers produced specifically for Mlada’s fourth act that found their way back to Prince Igor which included the rologue: opening C major chorus, Yaroslavna’s arioso and Igor’s aria, prologue: the eclipse, act 3: the trio, and act 4: the closing chorus.

After witnessing his colleagues Rimsky-Korsakov and Mussorgsky’s success on their performances of their own works The Maid of Pskov (1873) and Boris Godunov (1874), in 1874, Borodin picked up where he left off with Prince Igor. In 1876, Stasov gave up on Borodin’s work, thinking that he would never finish up Prince Igor. Ironically, Stasov offered a scenario to Rimsky-Korsakov who instead helped Borodin in producing important pieces for near future concert performances. The closing chorus was the first piece of music from Prince Igor to be publicly performed in 1876 as discussed in memoirs by Rimsky-Korsakov. It’s also discussed that the addition of a choral epilogue was inspired by Mikhail Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar in which Prince Igor is dedicated to. Borodin ended up working on his Prince Igor project for almost about 18 years, up until his unexpected death in 1887, leaving his composition incomplete.

During my own personal viewing, I noticed the challenge that singers have when singing the main roles such that of Prince Igor, Vladimir Yaroslavich, Konchakovna, Yaroslavna, Konchak. I would have to say that the most challenging roles for any male voice would have to be Vladimir. There seemed to be a lot of challenging lines for any male voice, including Prince Igor, who would act out these characters. However, I single out Vladimir due to how many high notes he had to sing. As for Prince Igor who has some high notes, his voice sits more comfortably, particularly his vocal range which is why specifically baritones and basses sing him a majority of the time. Konchakovna’s vocal range sits comfortably and quite low for a mezzo soprano. I could only imagine the first performance’s audience’s reaction when it comes to the vocals of the performance.

In terms of the performance, the production was very vivid and colorful. The effects were very real and animated in a figurative way. The production team performed very well in syn and in harmony. Each seen was well detailed and very crisp and clean. I did watch it on YouTube, but regardless of the platform, the camera shots were great as well; in frame, quality resolution.

Aside from the graphics and color that this opera brings with it when talking about setting and scenery, I would say that this opera’s importance – as mentioned – above comes from the vocals of the characters. There’s quite a division between how Prince Igor’s character is supposed to act and the vocals and notes his character must sing and I feel that this specific factor is what drew audiences. Prince Igor’s character has a very bold personality, and the certain voice he carries I don’t think would be expected from viewers. Furthermore, there isn’t much technology used compared to the amount of materialistic objects used for the opera. The only technology used in the opera is lighting. There is nothing like screens or special effects which is obviously a product from the time it was produced.

With all of the different types of video game genres out there today such as first-person shooter, action, adventure, platform, real-time strategy, open world, sports, stealth, horror, survival, tactical, programming, artillery, escape, combat, and builder, I feel this opera like any other story, would fit into the categories of either action or adventure due to the campaign aspect of the story. Most story telling games are like this anyway where there is a beginning and an end with tasks or missions to complete in between. The only other genre to consider placing this opera in would be tactical or real-time strategy since this opera involves invasion and battle between two opposing forces.
Watch the opera yourself with the link below:
https://youtu.be/CzmIu-VjRCM

Borodin, A. Libretto for Prince Igor

Tommasini, Anthony, "A New Vision for Prince Igor at the Met", The New York Times,

February 7, 2014

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