Text: "Feast
During the Plague"
by A.Pushkin
For
the new translation by
Matvey Yankelevich click
here
Music: Sergei Dreznin
A.Pushkin
1830
for
the full size image click on thumbnail
A
musical drama by Sergei Dreznin was performed in Russian clubs before
Perestroyka...
The singers were
Sergei Minayev,
Yelena Karetnikova,
Tania Kabash,
Anatoly Dorovskikh,
Mikhail Saltykov.
''It's
a masterpiece!" proclaimed poet-laureate Yevgeny Yevtushenko to AP
after the performance of Sergei Dreznin's musical drama at the Club
Moscow,
Manhattan. ''And AIDS actually IS the modern plague'' That performance
celebrated Pushkin Bicentennial June 6 1999.
The singers were
Reinwald
Kranner (Austria),
Amelia De Mayo,
Robert Vernon,
Jean-Michelle Grier,
MIchael Stromar and
Sam Hutcheson.
"Feast During the Plague" is actually
based on one scene from the tragedy "A City of the Plague" by John Willson, a member
of the Lake School.
A
Plague posseses the City
"A street. A table is set. Several men and women feasting“.
Amidst the plague, surrounded by death and human suffering, day after
day they are celebrating what may be their last feast, recklessly challenging
the death itself. Young Man suggests a toast in honor of „old joker“
Jackson, who was the first of them to move to „that cold underground
estate“ of Death.Song: The Beginning Who will now chase away
the darkness and gloom cast by the plague upon their minds? Walsingham,
the Chairman, asks his companion Mary to sing one of her native songs.
That song brings back the horrors of the old time's plague, of the burned
villages and empty forest, of life that turned into death, and sound
that
went silent. What survived was love of Edmund and his faithful -- even
in heaven -- Jenny. The memories of the past, free and pure, envelope
the table....Mary's Song
Luisa
abruptly puts an end to all these lamentations, she hates Mary who
managed touch the heart of Walsingham, as her rival. A cart passes, filled
with dead bodies. Luisa faints... „The cruel is weaker than the tender“.
The celebration must continue, and Walsingham in order to lift spirit
around the table sings aHymn
to the Plague
There’s
rapture in a battle’s view,
And in a chasm's gloomy hue
And in the raging ocean’s fury,
Midst angry waves and darkness vague,
And in the desert whirlwinds hurry ,
And in the breeze that brings the Plague.
Enter
old clergyman. In vain he tryes to stop the blasphemous feast, threatning
young people with hell and eternal suffering. Nor does he reach Walsingham’s
heart in the name of his recently lost mother - Walsingham won’t follow
the Preist and leave this feast. Walsingham's Answer to the Priest
Only the vision of his dead wife Mathilda, the sound of her angelic voice
emerging in Walsingham’s mind like the voice of his conscience, has a
magic effect on him. „Exit Priest. The feast goes on. Chairman remains
sunken in deep thought.
This
recording was made in Vienna. Pushkin verces are sung in German translation.
1989 Krassnij Angel Company led by Sergei Dreznin gave the
play its Austrian premiere. Singers were Silvia Amort, Victor Gernot,
Reinwald Kramer, Thomas Frank, Schlomit Butbul.
home | sergei | list of works | recitals | music theater | ongoing projects | contact
last updated January 14, 2006