More unsung Tchaikovsky

[JimL]

I just stumbled across the overture to the opera Cherevichki (The Slippers), a four act (I presume comic) opera, Op. 14.  Ab-so-lute-ly delightful overture, and totally unknown to me.  Anybody know anything about the rest of the opera?

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Ha! I devoted yesterday evening to listening to the complete opera extracted from the enormous 60CD box of Tchaikovsky, and now released by Brilliant Classics in a handsome little box containing 3 CDs. It is the Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, with Russian singers and conducted by Rozhdestvensky. The flimiest of librettos, but no matter for it is a delightful opera full of enchanting (and sometimes quite silly!) things. And - a curious price comparison - being a Brilliant Classics production it can be obtained for the same cost as a packet of fags.

By coincidence the set is reviewed on MusicWeb this morning.

[Alan Howe]

a packet of fags.

i.e. cigarettes, lest there be any misunderstanding across the pond...

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Ahem, there speaks a professional linguist fully sensitive to the nuances of language.

Oops, I am clearly the most innocent and naive of fellows! Dangerous things are words. Thank you for saving me from further ignominy.

[Alan Howe]

It's just that I have had funny looks from our US cousins when this particular word has come up in conversation.

[JimL]

I presumed it was a comedy.  I believe the play is by Gogol, who wrote mostly, if not all, comedies, not?

[eschiss1]

compactly-packaged bassoons?

[JimL]

The history of how the word became American slang for male homosexual was recently recounted to me.  It isn't a pretty one.

[Alan Howe]

OK, moving on...

[mbhaub]

As a bassoonist, I get it all the time. I thought of personalizing my license plate as KFAG (contrabassoon) but sanity prevailed.  Watching the Olympics has been a real education in terms of British vs American terms. Flat. Lift. Hoover.

[Ilja]

In the meanwhile, returning to obscure Tchaikovsky: the BBC did a Tchaikovsky programme a few years back, in which they broadcast a wide array of unknown operas:
- Fragments from Dmitri the Impostor and Valery Shuishki (1867)
- Iolanta
- Vakula the Blacksmith (the ur-version of Cherevichki, IIRC, with Patricia 'Mrs. Bucket' Routledge as narrator)
- The Enchantress
- The Maid of Orleans
- Fragments from Undine
- The Voyevoda
In all, I was quite surprised by the quality of these, particularly Voyevoda and Vakula. A shame that only Onegin and Pikovaya Dama are ever performed (and the odd Mazepa).

[JimL]

As a bassoonist, I get it all the time. I thought of personalizing my license plate as KFAG (contrabassoon) but sanity prevailed.  Watching the Olympics has been a real education in terms of British vs American terms. Flat. Lift. Hoover.

When I was a kid, back in me old pot-smoking days, hoover was synonymous with bogart (or humphrey). 

[Alan Howe]

Right. Yes. Moving on...

[hattoff]

I managed to record a lot of the BBC Tchaikovsky week including Vakula the Smith which is excellent. It's not commercially available so it could, perhaps, be uploaded here but is long at 2hrs 23 mins.

[chill319]

a packet of fags.

i.e. cigarettes, lest there be any misunderstanding across the pond...

Yes. Here we would say a boatload of fags.