ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

“Mazeppa”

October 15, 16 and 17, 7 pm, Helikon Opera, 11 Novy Arbat, m. Arbatskaya

Tchaikovsky’s opera “Mazeppa” has a lot going for it, even if it doesn’t enjoy the sustained success of “Yevgeny Onegin” or “Pikovaya Dama”. It’s surprising how such a symphonic and romantic opera didn’t make it into standard repertoire, when it has all the elements – forbidden love, a feud, political intrigue, betrayal, war and madness. Perhaps the only fault is the too-lurid story-line – although, judging by Tchaikovsky’s music, the opera is wonderfully moving and romantic.

Based on “Poltava”, a narrative poem by Pushkin, “Mazeppa” tells the glamourised story of some real historical figures – Ivan Mazeppa, the hetman of the Ukranian Cossacks, and Vasily Kochubey, a wealthy Cossack landowner.

The two men are best friends, having stood by each other for many years. Kochubey hopes to marry his teenaged daughter Maria to her childhood playmate Andrei.

Although the young man is madly in love with her, Maria puts him off, being in love with someone else – her godfather Mazeppa.

© Photo / Oleg Nachinkin/Courtesy of Helikon-Opera

Forbidden love: the opera characters Mazeppa and his goddaughter Maria

The hetman asks his friend for Maria’s hand, but instead of being grateful and pleased, Kochubey flies into a rage. He reminds Mazeppa that he is elderly and that a union with a goddaughter is incestuous in the eyes of the church, but Mazeppa says Maria has already accepted his proposal. Tempers flare and insults fly, the two venerable elders call up their men and almost fall on each other, but Maria intervenes. Asked to choose between her family and Mazeppa, she cries but chooses Mazeppa.

Kochubey comes up with a plan to get Maria back – by denouncing Mazeppa as a traitor to the tsar and getting him arrested. The plan backfires, however, and it is Kochubey who ends up in prison – at the mercy of his nemesis. Mazeppa has the old man tortured so that he will reveal the hiding place of his wealth, but worries about what Maria will think of him afterwards.

Mazeppa distracts Maria with his ambitious visions; he promises to win independence for Ukraine and put a crown upon her head. She is elated until her mother appears, begging for Kochubey’s life. The two rush off to the execution, but arrive only in time to see the axe fall.

After the battle of Poltava, Mazeppa is wandering the fields, defeated. In a short time, he has lost everything – his status, his troops, Maria, his home. Andrei, who also left after the battle, finds Mazeppa and rushes towards him with a sword, but is fatally shot. Maria appears, apparently insane. She recoils from Mazeppa, saying he is covered in blood; the man she loved had a beautiful white beard. He tries to bring her to her senses and take her with him, but his aide tells him this would slow them down, and Mazeppa regretfully leaves her.

It is rather a pity that the Helikon gave this work the full treatment – with everything turned upside down and distorted in director Dmitry Bertman’s curious take. This is one of those works that are best left alone; it doesn’t need much interpretation, all it needs is a whole lot of gorgeous traditional costumes and sets, and tons of hearty singing.

While Andrei and Maria dressed as school children (and the latter performing a striptease for Mazeppa) are more or less understandable,
the execution scene is particularly jarring – Bertman has Maria crack open a watermelon at the moment the executioner’s axe falls on her father. The ethereal beauty of the last scene, where Maria sings a lullaby to the dying Andrei, is broken; Maria sits in a rowboat on rocks with
Andrei lying beside it, and pours buckets of water over his face while singing dreamily.

Although the Helikon’s “Mazeppa” may not be the ideal version, it is currently the only “Mazeppa” in Moscow, the Bolshoi having withdrawn its 2004 production (another not-very-successful staging) from its repertoire. Unless you’re able to fly to St. Petersburg to see the grand, historical 1950 production at the Mariinsky Theatre, this is the best you can find in Moscow. Keep your fingers crossed for a strong cast and a robust orchestra;
if you have those two, you might not even care about the odd staging.