LYSENKO – Overture ‘Taras Bulba’ – FOUR CELLOS

Other Identification:
‘Taras Bulba’ is an opera in four acts by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko. The libretto was written for Lysenko by his cousin Mykhailo Starytsky, and is based on Nikolai Gogol’s novella ‘Taras Bulba’. The story was about a Cossack who discovers his son has betrayed their own people, and kills him.

Lysenko worked on his opera ‘Taras Bulba’ from 1880 to 1891, but the history of the present form of the great work is somewhat complex. A piano score was published in 1913, but sadly much of Lysenko’s original orchestration has been lost. The composer – playing on the piano – performed privately to Tchaikovsky much of the material, and Tchaikovsky subsequently embraced Lysenko and “congratulated him on his talented composition.” The opera does indeed mark a great advancement on the composer’s earlier works, such as ‘Natalka Poltavka’ and ‘Utoplena’. Its folklore and nationalistic elements, which are more closely integrated in a continuous musical framework, show that Lysenko was influenced by Tchaikovsky. However, he insisted that all performances of the work should be sung only in Ukrainian, which unfortunately prevented any productions during his lifetime. This was because being intent on elevating Ukrainian culture to a level commensurate with European standards, he refused to allow the opera to be translated.

The opera, which had not got to a definitive completed setting at the time of the composer’s death in 1912, was first performed some years later in 1924. Present-day performances are therefore based on the revised versions of the opera carried out during the 1930s and especially the 1950s, all of which altered the text, and even the music and orchestration.

At the end of this opera’s overture the choir enters singing a common Ukrainian folk song entitled “Zasvit vstaly kozachen’ky” (‘At Daybreak the Cossacks Arose’). The text describes how the Cossacks depart at dawn to fight a campaign from the north. A young girl watches with eyes filled with tears as her loved one departs. A mother instructs her son to go and not delay. She is hopeful that in 4 weeks he will return to her…..and so things develop!