Composition history

The plot of A Life for the Tsar had been used earlier in 1815, when Catterino Cavos, an Italian-Russian composer, had written a two-act singspiel with the same subject and title. The original title of the opera was to be Ivan Susanin, after the hero, but when Nicholas I attended a rehearsal, Glinka changed the title to A Life for the Tsar as an ingratiating gesture.^[1] This title was retained in the Russian Empire.

In 1924, under the new Soviet administration, it appeared under the title Hammer and Sickle, but that production was not successful and was shelved. On 26 February 1939 it reappeared under the title Glinka had originally chosen, Ivan Susanin.^[2]

Glinka and the writers with whom he was associated chose, in Susanin, a hero of Russian nationalism well suited to the mood of the time. The opera was immediately hailed as a great success, and became the obligatory season-opener in the Imperial Russian opera theaters. A Life for the Tsar occupies an important position in Russian musical theater as the first native opera to win a permanent place in the repertoire. It was one of the first Russian operas to be known outside Russia.

Performance history

The opera was given its premiere performance on 27 November 1836 in Saint Petersburg conducted by Catterino Cavos with set designs by Andreas Roller. It was followed several years later with its premiere in Moscow on 7 September (Old Style) 1842 in a new production with sets by Serkov and Shenyan.

Glinka's opera was featured heavily throughout the Romanov tercentenary celebrations in 1913. It was performed in a gala performance at the Marinsky Theatre,^[3] Schools, regiments, and amateur companies throughout imperial Russia staged performances of A Life for the Tsar. Pamphlets and the penny press printed the story of Susanin "ad nauseam", and one newspaper told how Susanin had showed each and every soldier how to fulfill his oath to the sovereign. The image of the seventeenth-century peasant features prominently at the bottom of the Romanov Monument in Kostroma, where a female personification of Russia gives blessings to a kneeling Susanin. In Kostroma, Tsar Nicholas II was even presented with a group of Potemkin peasants who claimed to be descendants of Susanin.^[4]

Publication history

• 1857, piano-vocal score, as A Life for the Tsar, Stellovsky, St. Petersburg
• 1881, full score, as A Life for the Tsar, Stellovsky, St. Petersburg
• 1907, new edition by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov, Belyayev, Leipzig
• 1942, as Ivan Susanin, Muzgiz
• 1949, as Ivan Susanin, Muzgiz
• 1953, as Ivan Susanin, Muzgiz

Act 1

The village of Domnino

Antonida is eager to marry Sobinin, but her father, Susanin, refuses permission until a Russian has been duly chosen to take the tsar's throne. When Sobinin informs him that the Grand Council in Moscow has chosen a tsar, everyone celebrates.

Act 2

Poland

In a sumptuous hall, the nobility celebrates the Polish dominance over the Russians by singing and dancing. Suddenly, a messenger comes in with the news that Mikhail Romanov has been selected as the tsar of Russia but is now in hiding. The Poles vow to overthrow him.

Act 3

Susanin's cabin

Susanin and his adopted son, Vanya, pledge to defend the new tsar. Susanin blesses Sobinin and Antonida on their upcoming wedding when a detachment of Polish soldiers bursts in to demand the tsar's whereabouts. Instead, Susanin sends Vanya to warn the tsar while Susanin leads the soldiers off the trail into the woods. Antonida is devastated. Sobinin gathers some men to go on a rescue mission.

Act 4

A dense forest

Sobinin reassures his men of the rightness of their mission. When night falls, in a part of the forest near a monastery, Vanya knocks at the gates and alerts the inhabitants to spirit the tsar away. Susanin has led the suspicious Polish troops into an impassable, snow-covered area of the forest. The Poles sleep while Susanin waits for the dawn and bids farewell to his children. A blizzard sets in, and when day breaks, the Poles awake. They realise that Susanin has deceived them and so kill him.

Epilogue

Red Square, Moscow.

Across the stage walks a crowd of people, celebrating the triumph of the new tsar. Alone in their own solemn procession, Antonida, Sobinin and Vanya mourn Susanin. A detachment of Russian troops comes upon them, discovers their connection with Susanin and comforts them. As the scene changes to Red Square, the people proclaim glory to the tsar and to Susanin's memory.