Taras Bulba

Taras Bulba is an opera in four acts by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko. The libretto was written for Lysenko by his cousin, the playwright Mykhailo Starytsky, and is based on the novella Taras Bulba, written by the Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol, himself of Ukrainian origin. The story is about a Cossack who discovers his son has betrayed his people, and kills him. The opera, which was left unrevised and unperformed at the time of the composer's death in 1912, was first produced in 1924. Present-day performances are based on revised versions of the opera made during the 1930s and 1950s. Composition The Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko worked on his opera Taras Bulba from 1880 to 1891. Intent on elevating Ukrainian culture to a level commensurate with European standards, he refused to allow the opera to be translated, and insisted that all performances of the work should be sung in Ukrainian. This prevented performances of the work from taking place during his lifetime. Lysenko maintained the opera might be too ambitious for Ukrainian opera houses, but it was eventually performed for the first time in Moscow during the Soviet period, after having been reorchestrated by the Ukrainian composer Levko Revutsky. Lysenko was reputedly a descendant of the 17th century Cossack leader Vovgura Lys, so Taras Bulba may have had a special significance for him. Shortly after completing the work, he played the score to Tchaikovsky, who reportedly "listened to the whole opera with rapt attention, from time to time voicing approval and admiration. He particularly liked the passages in which national, Ukrainian, touches were most vivid... Tchaikovsky embraced Lysenko and congratulated him on his talented composition."