A Life for the Tsar: Overture

Russian opera begins here. First performed in St Petersburg in 1836, Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar – or Ivan Susanin as it was called before Tsar Nikolay I bestowed a new title on it in return for the dedication of the work – is the earliest opera by a Russian composer with a regular place in the repertoire. In fact, it has held not only a regular place but a singularly honourable one, since it became the traditional opener to every new opera season in St Petersburg.

To a British audience, which is far more familiar with Glinka’s second opera Ruslan and Ludmila, if only by way of the overture, this reverence for A Life for the Tsar might be surprising. In fact, Ruslan and Ludmila is not only the better opera but is also, to our ears, the more Russian in style. But whereas Ruslan is based on fantastically unreal story by Pushkin, A Life for the Tsar refers to a period in Russian history when, in the conflict with insurgent Poles early in the 17th century, the peasant Ivan Susanin saved the Tsar’s life and lost his own in so doing. It is so patriotic, at least in a tsarist sense, that the final chorus, “Glory to thee our Russian Caesar,” became a second national anthem.

That final chorus is musically related to another chorus at the beginning of the first act which, in a much-altered form, supplies the material for the dramatic opening gestures of the slow introduction to the Overture. The expressive oboe solo that follows comes from a trio in the Epilogue where members of Susanin’s family sing of his noble sacrifice. The quicker part of the overture, marked Vivace, is devoted mainly to a a lively theme from a Russian peasants’ chorus, although there is room too for a cheerful mazurka representing the Polish enemy – an intervention which gives rise to a conflicting development and, for the trombones in particular, a ferocious coda.