Mikhail Glinka, Overture to Ruslan And Liudmilla

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (1804-1857) is generally regarded as the progenitor of Russian nationalism in classical music. Born into the upper-middle gentry, Glinka grew up in the care of a grandmother who organized chamber-music recitals and peasant choral performances on the family estate. Out of this background, which included a modest amount of formal training, came a hypochondriac young civil servant whose do-little job, wherewithal and temperament allowed him to dabble in composition. The early results included art songs (poetry settings for piano and voice), chamber works, and orchestral pieces that combined some of the harmonic sensibilities of Russian folk songs with musical structure borrowed from Rossini operas performed in St. Petersburg. This portion of Glinka's output is rarely performed: by most accounts it aspires to be undistinguished and derivative, and often falls short.

When he was 26, Glinka's obsession with his health led him to an extended vacation in Western Europe. There he befriended the opera composers Donizetti (Fille du Regiment) and Bellinni (Norma), while introducing himself to leading lights including Hector Berlioz and Felix Mendelssohn. He also spent five months in Berlin studying composition. As a result of this exposure and training, Glinka's musical sensibilities acquired polish and technical competence they previously had been lacking. When his father died, he returned to Russia to assume his patrimony and resume his compositional career.

Over the next several years, Glinka perfected his newly acquired technique in a number of compositions for orchestra. These led him to his first attempt at an opera. A Life For The Tsar. Based on the story of a historical figure named Ivan Susanin, it was a hit with St. Petersburg audiences who appreciated its Russian story line and sonorities. Its success led Glinka to a more ambitious project: using a well-known fantastic poem by Aleksandr Pushkin as the basis for an opera. The result was Ruslan and Liudmilla, usually considered Glinka's masterpiece although it is rather less overtly "Russian" (and hence more accessible to contemporary Western listeners) than A Life For The Tsar had been. The Overture to Ruslan and Liudmilla -- energetic, and equipped with a catchy melodic 'hook' -- almost immediately entered the standard orchestral repertoire and is frequently heard today. More importantly for Russian music, Glinka's success in expressing Russian themes in musical forms borrowed from the West pointed the way for others. Championed by the art critic Stasov, Glinka was an inspiration for Rimskii-Korsakov, Balakirev, Mussorgskii and other nationalistic Russian composers who came to prominence later in the century.

1. If you didn't know the origin of the Overture to Ruslan and Liudmilla, would you have guessed it was written by a Russian composer? Why or why not?

2. Using the Metropolitan Opera's synopsis of Ruslan and Liudmilla (see link below), summarize the opera's plot. Which of its elements (if any) strike you as specifically Russian? Do any of them have analogs in Western European folklore?

3. Why do you think nineteenth-century Russian audiences were so enamored of Glinka's mature operas? What might they have sought -- and gotten -- from them?

4. After hearing the Overture to Ruslan and Liudmilla, do you share Stasov's enthusiasm for Glinka? Why or why not?

The hyperlink at right points to a roughly 5 minute version of the Overture in mp3 format: Glinka, Overture to Ruslan And Liudmilla (2017k)

For the Metropolitan Opera's short version of Ruslan and Liudmilla's convoluted plot see http://www.metopera.org/synopses/ruslan.html