Not love alone in Mariinsky Concert Hall in St. Petersburg, 23rd of March, 2018

I have so far enjoyed all operas by Rodion Shchedrin that I have heard, so when I now had a chance to see his first opera from 1961, of course I had to go and see it. “Not love alone” happen on a Russian collective farm after the Second World War. The farm is run by Varvara Vasilievna, who has a crush on young Volodya returning to the farm from the city. Volodya – a young and carefree character - also flirts back to Varvara even though he has a young girlfriend Natasha. In the end Varvara decides that duty above all and pushes Volodya back to Natasha’s arms.

This opera did not reach any huge success in the beginning and it was not shown a lot during the Soviet era. I can easily understand that, since it is not fully according to Soviet propaganda. Even though duty wins in the end in the mind of Varvara, the certain Soviet pompousness is missing. But looking through today’s glasses, it gives a cool picture of its time.

The music of the opera is very interesting indeed. Especially the chorus and ensemble bits were fascinating. Also Natasha’s aria (Туманно красное солнышко) in the beginning of the third act was beautiful.   

Even though the opera was sold as a concert version, it was actually a full opera. The stage design was light with birches, benches and a farm machine and performers had constumes. Both the stage design by Aleksander Orlov and the costumes by Irina Cherednikova were excellent, except that one of the birches covered part of the texting machine to my seat. But that did not disturb me much.

Nadezhda Sedyuk in the role of Varvara Vasilievna was superb. Great, strong voice (this opera really did justice to the acoustics of the concert hall) and looks that suited the role of slightly more mature Varvara perfectly. Aleksandr Trofimov seemed a bit bland in the role of Volodya in the beginning, but he soon became the young buck of the story. Ekaterina Latysheva in the role of young Natasha seemed as well rather colourless in the beginning, but in the end she was also a living and breathing person. It may be that because Varvara was such a strong character, all other roles were overshadowed by her. It doesn’t necessary mean that the performers were not as good, but they perhaps just had less to work with.

Anyway, the opera was interesting and the music was great: a most suitable opera to enjoy on a Friday evening.