'The Tale of Tsar Saltan', the opera Putin would ignore, arrives at the Royal Theatre

"I highly doubt this opera would be to Putin's liking. I don't think he would attend, believing it's just for children. In fact, I think he must be unaware of its existence," remarks Dmitri Tcherniakov (Moscow, 1970), the stage director returning to the Royal Theatre with 'The Tale of Tsar Saltan' by Nikolai Rimski-Korsakov (1844-1908). Based on a story by Pushkin, it is a classic of the Russian repertoire, a fairy tale where Tcherniakov seeks the "dark side" while playing with an "expressive and luminous" score.

"Its full title must be the longest in the world," jokes Tcherniakov, reciting it: 'The Tale of Tsar Saltan, of his son, the famous and valiant warrior Guidon Saltanovich, and of the beautiful Tsarina Libeda, queen of the swans'. A title that remains "very much alive in my country," he says, having been performed in Tsarist Russia, Bolshevik Russia, and Soviet Russia, and continues to be staged in Vladimir Putin's autocratic Russia.

"Perhaps it can be seen as a political work, like many classic Russian operas, given the current war context. In this production, there are several references to war, and we even hear that 'war is on the way'. We premiered it six years ago, in a different historical and political moment; now the situation is different, and perhaps a different interpretation can be made at each moment," Tcherniakov suggests.

Between April 30 and May 11, the Royal Theatre will offer seven performances of a new production of this folk-rooted opera in collaboration with the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, where it premiered in 2019 and earned the prestigious award for best new operatic production.

It is based on one of the most beautiful narrative poems by Aleksandr Pushkin (1799-1837), inspired in turn by traditional tales that are part of the Russian children's imagination, with which Rimski-Korsakov wanted to celebrate the centenary of the great writer and national hero in 1899.

This is the first time 'The Tale of Tsar Saltan' is presented at the Royal Theatre, but it is the second opera of the season based on a poem by Pushkin, whose 225th birth anniversary was commemorated last year. While Tchaikovsky's 'Eugene Onegin', presented two months ago, depicted the Tsarist society of aristocratic salons with a tragic hero in the style of Lord Byron, 'The Tale of Tsar Saltan' "reclaims the Eastern and Pan-Slavic Russia of ancestral traditions, medieval sagas, popular legends, folklore, attachment to the land, and servitude to the forces of nature and divine designs," notes the stage director.

"More than the children's tale, I am interested in the dark side of a story where the true protagonist is the love between mother and son, not the Sultan or the Tsar, the power," says the Russian stage director, returning to the Madrid coliseum after more than twelve years of absence.

The performance thus merges the traditional tale with a contemporary story addressing the relationship between a mother and her son. A dedicated mother who raises her beloved autistic son alone, overcoming abandonment and family disdain, performs 'The Tale of Tsar Saltan' with him as in a small theatre, "so that through fantasy the child approaches the complexity of the real world with its hostilities, anxieties, fears, and anguish, but also with refuge in fantasy, dreams, and love."

Thus, it expands the instructive power of the tale with a "disquieting" reading for parents reflecting on a fantastic tale they have just read to their child. The autistic child plays Prince Guidon, and his mother plays Tsarina Militrisa. From there, the child's imagination takes over the stage, and the characters recreate his childhood universe through scribbles, colours, and extravagant costumes that seem to emerge from his childhood drawings.

The plot evokes the mythical typology of 'Cinderella', common in many ancestral legends: two wicked older sisters – the cook and the spinner – attempt to destroy the youngest, Militrisa, chosen by the Tsar as his wife. Hatching a diabolical plan, with the complicity of the evil godmother Babarija, they send the sovereign the news that the Tsarina gave birth to a deformed and monstrous being, causing mother and son to be placed in a barrel and cast into the sea until they reach the mythical island of Buyán. There they arrive with the young prince already transformed into a benevolent and brave adult, who manages to save a magical Swan Princess by killing the vile hawk attacking her with the bow and arrow he just crafted.

The magical adventures and spells contrast with the contaminated and miserable world of the Tsar and his subjects in "a masked and subtle critique of Tsarism and its estates and the wonderful and chimerical city of Ledenets, where his clandestine heir, Prince Guidon, reigns." A fantastic and tender tale in which by a spell the Tsarevich Guidon is transformed into a mosquito, his sister into a swan, and his mother faces a series of magical challenges.

The musical direction is under the baton of Ouri Bronchti, debuting at the Royal Theatre. In his view, the opera unfolds "with clearly descriptive and evocative music, rich in expressive effects of multiple Slavic colours and scents." Rimski-Korsakov's score adheres to the Russian essence "and draws both from Slavic folklore and, surreptitiously, from Wagner or Central European symphonism."

Tenor Bogdan Volkov embodies Prince Guidon as the head of a cast featuring bass Ante Jerkunica (Tsar Saltan), sopranos Svetlana Aksenova (Tsarina Militrisa) and Nina Minasyan (Swan Princess), and mezzo-soprano Carole Wilson (Babarija).

To bring this adult opera to the world of children, the true recipients of Pushkin's tale, the Real Teatro De Retiro offers a new production aimed at family audiences (from 8 years old) titled 'A Fairy Tale: The Tale of Tsar Saltan'. It is a piano version by Nadezhda Rimskaya-Korsakova, with dramaturgy, stage direction, and presentation by Eduardo Aguirre de Cárcer, with illustrations by Fran Parreño and Eva Serrano, animation by Fran Solo, lighting by Cristina Cejas, piano performance by Samuel Martín and Gonzalo Villaruel, and voice-over by Elisa Hipólito.