Leader, Daniel Melsa
Conductor, Eric FOGG
KATHLEEN LONG (pianoforte)
Glinka's Life for the Tsar, the earliest Russian opera of any artistic value, will celebrate its centenary next year. It is a very remarkable work, considering that the composer was only a half-trained amateur.
The subject of the opera-a humble peasant's sacrifice of his life to save his sovereign during a Polish invasion in the seventeenth century-was suggested to Glinka by a high Court official ; the libretto was written by the Tsarevich's secretary ; Nicholas I accepted the dedication and ordered the cadets of the Officers' School to attend the performances. The whole opera is a glorification of patriotism and the Tsardom ; nevertheless, it is still performed in Soviet Russia as Ivan Susanin (the name of the hero), which was actually the title Glinka originally gave his work.