Details

Famed for his piano music, Sergei Rachmaninov's prodigious gifts as a melodist are revealed in his one act opera Aleko, an adaptation of Alexander Pushkin's poem The Gypsies. The title character, Aleko, tires of his upper class life and runs off to join a gypsy caravan where he falls in love with the gypsy Zemfira, with tragic consequences. The sumptuous scoring and compositional style marked Rachmaninov as a sublimely lyrical composer. Prokofiev's Semyon Kotko, the tragic story of a young Russian soldier returning from war to a glorious Bolshevik Russia, is an epic work, full of nationalism and hopeful dreams of the future. It contains some of Prokofiev's finest and most dramatic music, especially in the climax of the thrilling and shocking third act which is performed in this concert.

Creatives/Company

Music(s): Rachmaninov (Aleko), Prokofiev (Semyon Kotko)