Serge Prokofieff: War And Peace Op 91 - complete opera (DVD)

LIVE RECORDING FROM THE OPÉRA NATIONAL DE PARIS 2000

Natacha Rostova OLGA GURYAKOVA
Prince André Bolkonski NATHAN GUNN
Comte Pierre Bezoukhov. ROBERT BRUBAKER
Maréchal Mikhail Koutouzov ANATOLI KOTCHERGA
Maria D. Akhrossimova ELENA OBRAZTSOVA

Orchestra and Choirs of the Opéra national de Paris
Conducted by GARY BERTINI
Directed by FRANCESCA ZAMBELLO
Set Design by JOHN MACFARLANE
Costume Design by NICKY GILLIBRAND

When Sergei Prokofiev started work on a new opera, having just fi nished his opera Betrothal in a Monastery, he could not have envisaged that the theme, borrowed from Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace, would very soon become dreadful reality. It was just two months later that the German invasion of the Soviet Union began.

By way of the conscious parallel to Napoleon’s historic invasion of Russia, Prokofi ev’s opera became an attempt to strengthen the defence morale of his fellow countrymen in this “patriotic war”, as soviet historians of the Second World War call it.

One of the reasons why this work is so diffi cult to put on is the huge number of performers – more than were ever used before. Even for the shortened version at the Paris opera, 43 singers and actors, making up a total of 62, were engaged for the original 72 parts. Even if one considers that some have only a few words to sing and that
some of the parts are divided between the scenes in such a way that a singer can double up, the mere dimension of the work is a challenge in itself.