Dmitry Kabalevsky – Sisters (1973)

1. Lp1
2. Lp2

Asya - I.Lapteva
Slava - E.Ushkova
Father - G.Lavrentyev
Leva Chemizov - V.Tuchinsky
Anatoly - G.Grigoryev
Dorofeev - E.Gulyaev
Kosmach - G.Piskunov
Gruzintsev - A.Bodrov
Paley - S.Kalganov
Maximovna - V.Dracheva
Official - V.Bogachenko

Moscow Children Musical Theatre Choir and Symphony Orchestra
Victor Yakovlev - conductor

Kabalevsky's opera is all about Soviet youth. The sisters Asya and Slava dream of becoming navigators. The sisters' journey to the sea is a voyage from their sky-blue, childish impressions of reality to an understanding of its genuine values and real difficulties. There is no conflict in the normal sense of the word in this opera. The negative characters are sketchily drawn, the dramatic situations are resolved comparatively quickly, many events are described rather than depicted — we learn of them through the words of the characters. It is possible that we must look in the defects of the libretto for the reasons for a certain over-simplification of character-drawing. But in the production, prepared with the active participation of Kabalevsky himself, we find an emotional tone that glides over these unevenesses. The Sisters, as staged by the Perm company, is a lyrical tale dedicated not so much to the conflict of young dreams with the harsh realities of life as to the process of the formation of the sisters' characters.

The music is distinguished by great freedom and naturalness. The development of the action is achieved by means of interpersing short scenes with orchestral interludes. The vocal lines are distinguished by a truth such as only a great master can achieve. The characteristic feature of the dramatic construction of The Sisters is that the representations of reality are often foreshortened either as to time or place or in the characters' minds. Reality and fantasy, dreams, everyday scenes and fairy-tales — the mobility of the poetic conception of space and time gives the work a special alive and contemporary quality. --- opera.archive.netcopy.co.uk

download (mp3 @224 kbs):

yandex 4shared mega mediafire zalivalka oboom uplea

back