<<  -- 3 --  Robert Anderson    CHILL LYRICISM

We need not take too seriously the ballet suggestion that Prince Kurbsky, most effective of the boyars and originally bosom companion to Ivan, was a former suitor of Anastasia's; but it gives Karl Paquette the chance to demonstrate despair when she is chosen by Ivan and a stricken grief when she dies [listen -- 'The death of Anastasia' (Act 2 Tableau 3), DVD chapter 12, 0:00-1:27]. Was she poisoned? History cannot make up its mind. There is no doubt, however, that Kurbsky fled to Lithuania and tried to stir the Poles against Moscow and the tsar. The feud was carried on in a spitfire correspondence demonstrating that both men were very familiar with the bible.

A dread moment in Ivan's reign was the foundation of his sinister police force. The Oprichniki wore black, rode black horses, and carried a dog's head to front the saddle, with broom to sweep the country clean. The Paris production produces a moment of real terror when Ivan, as masked as his minions, cracks a whip to launch their operations [listen -- 'The oprichniks' (Act 2 Tableau 7), DVD chapter 16, 3:00-4:10]. We should remember that it was Ivan's special achievement finally to scotch the Tatar menace by the capture and firing of Kazan. The Russian state was consolidated by him so that Moscow was now, after the fall of both Rome and Constantinople, a third Rome, over which its people might reasonably rejoice [listen -- 'The triumph of the Russian people' (Act 2 Tableau 9), DVD chapter 18, 1:20-3:06]. Vello Pähn and the orchestra make a marvellous thing of Prokofiev's score, judging to a nicety both its chill lyricism and compulsive motor rhythms.

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