Le faucon/ Alcide

Lviv National Opera is the first among the national opera houses of Ukraine that expands and enriches the repertoire with modern productions of two operas “Le faucon” and “Alcide” by Ukrainian classical composer Dmytro Bortniansky (1751-1825).

Ukrainian composer was a contemporary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart but unlike the Austrian composer, Bortniansky managed to make a brilliant career at the court. He was an art connoisseur, collector of paintings and probably a member of a Masonic lodge. Clever, diplomatic, handsome. The story of Dmytro Bortnyansky is an impressive biography of a talented Ukrainian, which we, the modern generation, are discovering, actualizing and re-reading two centuries later.

Hlukhiv, 1751-1758

Dmytro Bortniansky was born in Hlukhiv, the capital of the Cossack Hetmanate and a notable cultural centre. There was a famous music school in this city, pupils of which learned to sing and play musical instruments from an early age, and later talented students were included in the best orchestras and choirs of Russian Empire. This also happened to the gifted young Bortniansky, who at the age of 7 was sent to the St. Petersburg court choir that participated in liturgies, concerts, operas and other musical entertainments of the royal court.

St. Petersburg, 1758-1769

We can imagine a confused little boy who goes on his first journey to enter the world of splendour of the imperial capital, which he will later conquer with his talent, originality and, above all, musical style, full of intonations of typical Ukrainian melodies. It should be mentioned that the Imperial Chapel Choir consisted mainly of Ukrainians.  A teacher of Bortniansky was Marko Poltoratskyi, a director of the choir. It was a musical trend of that time to invite Western European composers to the court. So the Germans Hermann Raupach, Josef Starzer and the Italian Baldassare Galuppi were probable teachers of Bortniansky and influenced the development of his musical skills.

Bortniansky demonstrated his extraordinary talent performing one of the leading parts in the opera “Alceste” by H. Raupach at the age of 13. B. Galluppi played an important role in the composer’s career and recommended 18-year-old Bortniansky to continue his studies in Italy.

Venice, Naples, Modena, Bologna, Rome or a long Italian vacation, 1769-1779

For a decade Bortniansky lived in Italy and studied under the skilled teachers of the time. He was lucky to get a real European education in the cradle of opera tradition and to write music for leading European theatres. During this period he wrote three operas in Italian – “Creonte”, “Alcide” and “Quinto Fabio”, as well as several instrumental and sacral compositions based on Latin texts.

Dmytro Bortniansky wrote the opera “Alcide” in the genre of opera-seria or “serious” opera in three acts. The opera combines arias, recitatives, choruses and instrumental numbers. The composer used the libretto of Pietro Metastasio, one of the most popular European librettists of the time. His texts were used by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the operas “Il re pastore” (1775) and “La clemenza di Tito” (1791). The opera “Alcide” was successfully premiered during the Venice Carnival in 1778. The plot of the opera tells the story of a young Hercules, who under the guidance of his mentor Fronimo must make a life choice: to live a life of pleasure or perform heroic deeds.

The score of “Alcide” of D. Bortniansky had been considered lost for a long time and it was found only in the late 20^th century in London. This opera was first performed in Ukraine in 1984 under the direction of Anton Sharoiev in Kyiv, and in Lviv in 1992 on the initiative of conductor Myron Yusypovych. Since then, opera “Alcide” or its concert performances have been presented in Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa and Tulchyn under the baton of Nataliia Svyridenko, Oksana Lyniv (at Odesa National Opera in 2010 and the LvivMozArt Festival in Lviv in 2018), Volodymyr Syvokhip and others. In 1998 the opera was recorded under the baton of Jean-Pierre Loré in France, and the recording was reviewed by New York Times. Ukrainian combat singer Vasyl Slipak familiarized the French conductor with the score of the opera “Alcide” and with the music of Bortniansky in general.  He also performed arias of Alcide several times.

St. Petersburg, 1779-1825

After his forced return to St. Petersburg, Dmytro Bortniansky made a brilliant career at the court where mostly foreign composers were valued. Until the end of his life, he was closely associated with the Imperial Chapel Choir and its Ukrainian singers. First, he was a conductor of the choir and in 1796 he was appointed as a director. He not only cherished the performing traditions of the choir but also carried about the singers, their general and music education.

In St. Petersburg, Bortniansky created another three operas for the amateur theatre of the royal court – “Le faucon”, “Le Fils-Rival ou La Moderne Stratonice” and “La Fête du seigneur” in the fashionable French style. Dmytro Bortniansky did not address the theatrical genre anymore but wrote chamber, vocal and instrumental compositions, as well as religious choral concerts, in which he combined the traditions of Ukrainian liturgical music and European achievements of the musical language.

The opera “Le faucon” by Dmytro Bortniansky’s is opéra comique, which combines a humorous plot with a sentimental love story. It is written in French and includes both vocal numbers and conversational dialogues. The plot is borrowed from G. Boccaccio’s “The Decameron”, and the libretto was written by Franz-Hermann Lafermière. It was first performed on 11 October 1786 at the Gatchina Palace on the outskirts of St. Petersburg.

Like “Alcide”, the opera “Le faucon” has long been considered lost. It was revived in the ’70s of the 20^th century at Moscow Chamber Musical Theatre. In independent Ukraine, the opera “Le faucon” has been staged in Kyiv, Lviv and Drohobych.

The staging of the operas “Alcide” and “Le faucon” by Dmytro Bortniansky at Lviv National Opera in 2021 is dedicated to the 270^th birth anniversary of the composer. For the first time, two operas by the Ukrainian classical composer are staged by an international creative team led by German director Andreas Weirich, set and costume designer Anna Shoettle, Italian choreographer Marcello Algeri and well-known Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv. The premiere of Bortniansky’s operas at Lviv National Opera will be the first one after her triumph at the Bayreuth Festival.

The plot of both operas, which are double bill according to the director’s plan, unfolds in modern times and actualizes the issues of development of personality, life choice and empathy, which we desperately need in our virtual quarantine reality.

Stefaniia Oliinyk, musicologist, PhD