The Night Before Christmas

Composer Nikolai Rimski-Korsakow. Libretto by the composer, based on the eponymous narrative by Nikolai W. Gogol.

recommended for age 10 and older

A true Christmas song. Opera in four acts (1895)

In Russian. With surtitles in German and English. New Production.

A co-production with the Komische Oper Berlin.

When the nights are at their longest, frosty wind and snow storms sweep the land, it is the time of the Koliada – of the pagan winter solstice feast and the Christian-orthodox Christmas celebration in equal measure. In these magical “twelve days of Christmas” the barrier between the human world and the realm of dark beings becomes especially thin. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “true” Christmas song, Die Nacht vor Weihnachten, based on the eponymous story by Nikolai Gogol, also plays out in this very same period.   

The composer skilfully combines elements of Slavic fairytales and folklore, satirical village comedies and surreal dream worlds with one another, and thus contrasts the Christian Christmas traditions with pagan figures and rituals. In doing so he ties in Christmas with the cycle of the solar year and creates a world in which the Ukrainian Koliada singing (similar to the Christian tradition of carol singing), church bells, devils, witches, nature deities and the battle between bright and dark spirits during the winter solstice, the “birth of the sun”, exist alongside one another.

Humans and supernatural beings clash directly here – a witch, who intends to dissuade her son from a love affair; that son, who as proof of his love for his beloved, intends to procure the Tsarina's golden slippers; a devil, who is angered that the humans no longer fear him; a young woman, trapped in inter-human group dynamics; a kidnapped moon and dancing stars, all embedded in a lively and imaginative world of sound.

Synopsis

Time: 18th century

Place: The village of Dikanka, Ukraine; mid-air; a royal court

Act 1

Tableau 1: Christmas Eve in the hamlet of Dikanka

The widow Solokha agrees to help the Devil steal the moon. The Devil is annoyed with Solokha's son Vakula, who painted an icon mocking him. The Devil decides to create a snowstorm to prevent Vakula from seeing his beloved Oksana. While the storm rages, Solokha rides up to the sky and steals the moon, while the Deacon and Oksana's father, Chub, are unable to find their way.

Tableau 2: Interior of Chub's house

Oksana is alone and lonely at home. She passes through several moods and the music follows her with gradually accelerating tempos. At one point, Vakula enters and watches her admiring herself. She teases him, and he says he loves her, but she replies that she will only marry him if he brings her a pair of the Empress's slippers. Chub comes back out of the storm, and Vakula, not recognizing him and taking him for a rival, chases him out by striking him. Seeing what he has done, Oksana sends Vakula away in a miserable state. Young people from the village come around singing Ukrainian Christmas carols. Oksana realizes she still loves Vakula.

Act 2

Tableau 3: Solokha's house

The Devil is just getting cosy at Solokha's hut when in succession the mayor, the priest and Chub arrive to seduce her each hiding in a sack when the next arrives. Vakula hauls the four heavy sacks to his smithy.

Tableau 4: Vakula's smithy

Vakula puts down his sacks. Young men and women, including Oksana, gather singing Kolyadki and having fun. Vakula, however, is bored and dejected. Oksana taunts Vakula one last time about the Tsaritsa's slippers. Vakula gives his farewell to the lads and to Oksana, exclaiming that he will perhaps meet them in another world. He leaves the sacks - from which the four men emerge.

Act 3

Tableau 5: Inside Patsyuk's house

Patsyuk makes magic vareniki jump into his mouth. Vakula has come to request assistance from him. Patsyuk advises him that in order to obtain the help of the devil, he must go to the devil. Vakula puts down his sack, and the devil jumps out and tries to get his soul in exchange for Oksana. Vakula, however, grabs him by his neck, and climbs on his back. He forces the devil to fly him to St. Petersburg.

Tableau 6: Space. Moon and stars

We witness the charming "Games and Dances of the Stars". This is followed by the "Diabolical Kolyadka" in which Patsyuk, riding a mortar, and Solokha, on her broom, attempt to stop Vakula. He succeeds, however, in getting through, and the lights of St. Petersburg become visible through the clouds.

Tableau 7: A palace. A sumptuous room, brightly lit

The Devil puts down Vakula in the tsaritsa's court and disappears into the fireplace. Vakula joins a group of Zaporozhian Cossacks who are petitioning the tsaritsa. A chorus sings the tsaritsa's praises in a magnificent polonaise. The tsaritsa addresses the Cossacks. Vakula requests the tsaritsa's boots to the music of a minuet, and his wish is granted because of its unusual and amusing nature. The Devil takes Vakula away as Russian and Cossack dances commence.

Tableau 8: Space. Night

Vakula returns home on the devil's back. We witness the procession of Kolyada (young girl in a carriage) and Ovsen (boy on a boar's back). On approaching Dikanka, we hear church bells and a choir.

Act 4

Tableau 9: Christmas Day. Courtyard beside Chub's house

Oksana listens to some women exchanging gossip about Vakula, who is believed to have committed suicide. Alone, Oksana sings an aria expressing her regret that she had treated Vakula harshly, and wishing for his return. He appears with the boots, followed by Chub. Vakula asks Chub for Oksana's hand in marriage and Chub assents. Vakula and Oksana sing a duet. Other characters enter and ask Vakula about his disappearance.

Epilogue: In memory of Gogol

Vakula announces that he will relate his story to the beekeeper Panko the Gingerhead (i.e., Gogol), who will write a story of Christmas Eve. There is general rejoicing.

Program and cast

Conductor: Vladimir Jurowski

Director: Barrie Kosky

Stage Designer: Klaus Grünberg

Costume Designer: Klaus Bruns

Choreographer: Otto Pichler

Chorus: Christoph Heil

Dramaturge: Saskia Kruse

Die Zarin: Violeta Urmana

Der Dorfvorsteher: Sergei Leiferkus

Tschub: Dmitry Ulyanov

Oksana: Elena Tsallagova

Solocha: Ekaterina Semenchuk

Wakula: Sergey Skorokhodov

Panas: Milan Siljanov

Diakon Ossip Nikiforowitsch: Vsevolod Grivnov

Pazjuk: Matti Turunen

Der Teufel: Tansel Akzeybek

Eine Frau mit veilchenblauer Nase: Alexandra Durseneva

Eine Frau mit gewöhnlicher Nase: Laura Aikin

Bayerisches Staatsorchester

Chorus of the Bayerische Staatsoper