Opera Reviews
29 March 2024
Untitled Document

Valery Gergiev celebrates his 60th birthday with The Lefthander



by Silvia Luraghi
Shchedrin: The Lefthander
Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg
22 June 2015

The White Nights Festival presented a revival of Rodion Shchedrin’s last opera, Levshka (The Lefthander), written for the opening of the Mariinsky-2, the new opera house built to the side of the old Mariinsky theatre, which every night doubles the company’s offerings for opera lovers. This year’s revival was dedicated by the composer to conductor Valery Gergiev on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday.

The libretto, written by the composer, is based on a popular story by Nikolai Leskov, The Tale of the Crosseyed Lefthander from Tula and the Steel Flea. The story, written in the style of a folk tale and published in 1881, is about a gifted left-handed craftsman who helps the Tsar but then fails to be recognized for his work by petty Russian bureaucrats.

During a visit to England, Tsar Alexander I received as a gift a mechanical flea which could dance graciously. Tsar Nicholas I sends the flea to Tula, the most important center for the armaments industry, and asks to have some more prodigious pieces prepared by local craftsmen. One of them, known as The Lefthander, provides the mechanical flea with horseshoes and an inscription (in the opera, the singer who took the flea’s role could recite the Latin alphabet in its original version, and the Cyrillic alphabet after The Lefthander’s intervention).

The Tsar then send The Lefthander to England with his masterpiece, to the astonishment of the British craftsmen. There, he learns that the British oil their muskets rather than clean them with sand, as Russian soldiers do. He then understands why the British army is so powerful, and, in spite of the insistence of members of the British court, he refuses invitations to stay, and, feeling homesick, asks an English sailor to bring him back home.

During a tempest,the two men organize a drinking contest and reach the Russian shores completely drunk. The local police lets the Briton go, but they imprison The Lefthander, who was travelling without any documents. He asks to tell the Tsar about his discovery, but the soldiers smash his head against the ground and leave him to die alone. In the words of the composer, the tale captures“the artistic contradictions of two kinds of life – the rational British and the irrational Russian.

The production, directed by Alexei Stepanyuk, with sets designed by Alexander Orlov and costumes by Irina Cherednikova, successfully reproduces the atmosphere of a folk tale, with traditional Russian costumes, simple and colorful sets featuring the British court, The Lefthander’s workshop, and the stormy North Sea (an important contribution also came for light designer Alexander Sivaev). 

Tenor Andrei Popov in the title role was well cast, as he successfully managed to render the craftsman’s cunning but at the same time naive character. Also very good was the performance of soprano Kristina Alieva, a delightful mechanical flea. In general, all singers acted with commitment and sang with well tuned voices, and contributed to the final success of the performance: Edward Tsanga as Ataman Platov, Vladimir Moroz in the double role of Tsars Alexander I  and Nicholas I, Maria Maksakova as Princess Charlotte at the British court, and Andrei Spekhov as the English sailor. Valery Gergiev conducted the performance.

Text © Silvia Luraghi
Photo © Natasha Razina
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