Undina (Tchaikovsky)

For other uses, see Undine (disambiguation).

Undina (sometimes Undine or Ondine) (Russian: Ундина) is an opera in 3 acts by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The work was composed in 1869. The libretto was written by Vladimir Sollogub, and is based on Vasily Zhukovsky's translation of Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué's Ondine.

History

The opera was composed during the months of January to July, 1869, but Tchaikovsky destroyed the score in 1873, preserving only a few numbers from the opera. The opera has never been performed in its entirety.

The only extracts that survive are:

  1. Introduction
  2. Aria: "Waterfall, my uncle, streamlet, my brother" (Undina)
  3. Chorus: "Help, help! Our stream is raging"
  4. Duet: "O happiness, O blessed moment" (Undina, Huldbrand)
  5. Chorus: "O hours of death" (soloists, chorus)

At least three of these pieces - the aria, the duet, and the final chorus - were performed at the Moscow premiere at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow on 28 March 1870.

Some music from the opera was subsequently re-used in Tchaikovsky's other works:

Roles

Role Voice type Premiere cast
March 28 [OS March 16], 1870
(Conductor: Eduard Merten)[1]
Goldmann, an old fisherman bass
Bertha, his wife mezzo-soprano
Undina, their adopted daughter soprano A. Alexandrova-Kochetova
Huldbrand, a knight tenor Aleksandr Dodonov
The Duke bass
Berthalda, the Duke's daughter mezzo-soprano
Chorus, silent roles: People

Instrumentation

Source: Tchaikovsky Research

Setting

Time: The 15th century

Place: Germany, near the Danube; Ringstetten Castle (Burg Ringstetten)

Recordings

Vocal Numbers

This recording is paired with Anton Arensky's Music to Pushkin's poem The Fountains of Bakhchisarai, Op. 46, and features three selections from Undina: Act I: Undine's Song; Act III: Duet of Undine and Gulbrand; Act I: Finale.

A reissue of the earlier pressing on LP, this recording is paired with Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 conducted by Yevgeny Svetlanov. The CD was subsequently re-released by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (Petaluma, CA) in 1989.

References

  1. ↑ Eduard Merten became 2nd conductor at the Bolshoi Theatre shortly before 1870. He was "a talented pianist and composed romances, but was completely inexperienced as a conductor" (Kashkin, Erinerrungen, 64, 66) Edward H. Tarr, East Meats West; The Russian Trumpet Tradition from the Time of Peter the Great
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