The Tsarina's Slippers: A Comic Fairy Tale Opera for Christmas

A Russian fairy tale suitable for the Christmas season!

It seems rather difficult to find 'Christmas fairy tales' but this one, based on the tale "Christmas Eve" by Nikolay Gogol is an operatic adaptation by Tchaikovsky. Gogol was/is a celebrated Russian writer who wrote magic realism, and is also credited with the story behind the piece "Night on Bare/Bald Mountain" which was animated by Disney for Fantasia. Gogol's stories are widely known and loved by many generations of Russians and his tales are also said to have had a profound influence on the celebrated literary writers Nabakov and Dostoevsky.

It's the first time this particular opera is being performed in London
Here's the write-up from the Royal Opera House in London, where it's to be performed from November 20th to December 8th, 2009:

Many of Tchaikovsky’s stage works are unjustly neglected outside Russia. Now one of the most charming of all, Cherevichki (The Tsarina’s Slippers*), comes to London for the first time, under the baton of Alexander Polianichko and with an almost entirely Russian cast. Based on a Christmas tale by Gogol that mixes realistic village comedy with fairytale fantasy, the plot describes how Vakula the blacksmith flies on the Devil’s back to St Petersburg to request a pair of little leather slippers worn by the Tsarina herself in order to win the hand of his beloved Oxana.

Apparently the more accurate meaning of the Russian word translated as 'slippers' is actually closer to 'dressy boots'. A criticism of the English presentation is that it's far too genteel. That and the fact that it's a comic opera that will be sung entirely in Russian with English subtitles - how to kill the timing! The French billed the opera as Les Caprices d'Oksana, which apparently sets a more appropriate and comedic tone, as the whims of the lady in question do indeed set things into comic motion.

Here's a wonderful promotional animated trailer for the new production:

You can read all about the story 'Christmas Eve' HERE on Wikipedia or HERE at the Royal Opera House's website and you can find more information about the performances HERE, also at the Royal Opera House's website.

LATE ADDITION: I just saw an article on the production which talks about how magical and delightful this comic opera is. You can read it HERE.

Leibovitz Stages Hansel & Gretel for December 2009 Vogue 2009

There are only a couple of pictures so far because the big news item is not that there's a new fairy tale shoot by Leibovitz (though many people are excited about that), nor is it that Leibovitz is still working and producing quality pieces (though that's newsworthy considering her financial troubles this year).

The 'hot' news item - as far as the tabloids are concerned - is that Leibovitz shot the notorious Lady Gaga (with her camera of course). The other models are Lily Cole and Andrew Garfield.The images released show Lady Gaga playing the role of the wicked witch (if she were dressed by Marc Jacobs that is). The notoriety continued just with Lady Gaga's entrance.

From StyleFrizz:

The tiny column that you can see at the right of the burning picture says so much about Lady Gaga’s desperation that could be written down in a Gaga-why dictionary: she’s so eager to please, so ambitious to get somewhere, so willing to do anything and everything to look different, she showed up for the shooting wearing absolutely nothing except a rubber rain coat and very, very high heels... (Edit FTNH: clicking on that last link will take you to one of the craziest pairs of high heels I've ever seen.)

You can read the rest of the short article, including more fashion label details, HERE.

I'm hoping we'll see the rest of the images soon - and that the order will make some sense with the story. Coming out of the oven first would put a different take on the witch getting pushed in later...

Apparently the shoot was inspired by the Engelbert Humperdink's "Hansel und Gretel" as staged by Richard Jones for The Metropolitan Opera, even down to replicating one of their sets. The Metropolitan Opera's production opens December 14th, 2009. Click on the banner below for more details on the production.

"The Nightingale" Opera. With Puppets. In Water.

There's a new opera about to debut on October 17th in Toronto called "The Nightingale and Other Short Fables". The creator is Robert Lepage (a well known and honored 'theater artist' in Canada) and while an opera based on Hans Christian Andersen's "The Nightingale" is no great surprise (the story was,after all, inspired by opera singer Jenny Lind), this production is a little different.

From The Canadian Press:

...Lepage plans to fill a partially raised orchestra pit at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts with roughly 30 tonnes of water. His singers will wade in, waist-deep, to manipulate puppets while they perform. The orchestra will play onstage behind them. (Ed. FTNH: Michael Curry, the Puppet Master for the production explains in the video shown near the end of the post, that while the majority of the puppets will be operated by the completely visible singers themselves there will also be black costumed puppeteers manipulating other pieces throughout too.)

...Its unconventional features include acrobats, shadow play and Asian puppetry, all woven into a program of pieces by composer Igor Stravinsky.

Lepage says he has been interested in the idea of combining opera and puppetry since he saw a production of "Oedipus Rex" by JulieTaymor (Creator of Disney's award winning Broadway production of "The Lion King") who's well known for her use of puppets, and the puppeteer Michael Curry who helped him execute his vision for a puppetry-opera meld, and believes he's found the right subject in Hans Christian Andersen's "Nightingale". He's using a libretto written by Stepan Mitussov in 1914 and, because the tale is a short one, is including other small 'animal subject' pieces by composer Stravinsky to round out the program.

Lepage said he especially enjoys working with puppets, which he says is drawing a totally different sort of performance out of his singers.

"It's a pity we can't do all operas like this," he said.

You can see a video of Lepage talking about his inspiration and the making of "The Nightingale and Other Short Fables" below. It's very interesting as he discusses HCA's story construction and storytelling, specifically with regard to puppetry, around the world:


You can see a demonstration of Michael Curry's puppetry for the opera below (this video is a little longer - almost 10 minutes):


The opera sounds very ambitious for both the performers and from a technical standpoint, not to mention quite intriguing. I'm curious to see if it's a success and is staged elsewhere. You can read the rest of the article on the opera and Lepage's philosophy and thoughts on creating the multimedia production HERE.

"The Nightingale & Other Short Fables" will play at Toronto's Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts from October 17 to November 5, 2009.

The lovely paintings in this post are by multi-faceted Canadian artist and illustrator Deborah Morriss (who also, incidentally, is involved in opera, though not at all related to this production. You can find more of her work, which includes other fairy tale illustrations HERE.)