Mavra (Russian: Мавра) is a one-act comic opera composed by Igor Stravinsky, and one of the earliest works of Stravinsky's neo-classical period. The libretto, by Boris Kochno, is based on Alexander Pushkin's The Little House in Kolomna. Mavra is about 25 minutes long, and features two arias, a duet, and a quartet performed by its cast of four characters. The opera has been characterised as both an homage to Russian writers, and a satire of bourgeois manners and the Romeo and Juliet subgenre of romance. Philip Truman has also described the music as satirising 19th-century comic opera.[1] The dedication on the score is to the memory of Pushkin, Glinka and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.[2][3]
Mavra premiered at the Théatre national de l'Opéra in Paris on 3 June 1922, under the auspices of Sergei Diaghilev, staged and choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska, conducted by Grzegorz Fitelberg, and with Oda Slobodskaya, Stefan Belina-Skupevsky, Zoya Rozovskaya, and Yelena Sadoven in the original cast.[4][2][5]
The opera was a failure at the premiere, partly because the large space of the Paris Opéra overwhelmed the small scale of the opera.[3] One critic, Émile Vuillermoz, so enraged Stravinsky that he cut the review out and pasted it onto his manuscript copy.[6][7]
Stravinsky himself thought very highly of this composition, saying once that "Mavra seems to me the best thing I've done".[8]Erik Satie praised the work after its premiere.[9] The composer reacted with hostility to people who criticized it in later years.[10]
Parasha is in love with her neighbour, Vassili, a young hussar, but they have difficulty in meeting. After they sing a duet, Vassili leaves, and then Parasha's mother enters. She is lamenting the difficulty of finding a new maid-servant after their prior maid-servant, Thecla, died. The mother orders her daughter to find a new maid-servant. Parasha comes up with a scheme to smuggle Vassili into her house disguised as Mavra, a female maid-servant. The ruse initially succeeds, and Parasha and Vassili are happy at being under the same roof. Parasha and her mother go out for a walk. At one moment, Vassili shaves. The ladies return, disconcerted to see their new maid-servant shaving. Vassili escapes out the window, her mother faints, the next door neighbour rushes in to try to help, and Parasha laments the loss of her young love.
^Truman, Philip, "An Aspect of Stravinsky's Russianism: Ritual" (1992). Revue belge de Musicologie/Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Muziekwetenschap, 46: pp. 225–246.
^ abThis information is from the Boosey & Hawkes 1947 reprint (copyright assigned to Boosey & Hawkes) of the 1925 Édition Russe de Musique vocal score of this work (based on a copy of this vocal score in the library of the State University of New York @ Fredonia.) B&H plate 16304.
^ abRobinson, Harlow (1989). "The Case of the Three Russians: Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich". The Opera Quarterly. 6 (3): 59–75. doi:10.1093/oq/6.3.59.
^Stuart Campbell , "The 'Mavras' of Pushkin, Kochno and Stravinsky". Music & Letters, 58(3), pp. 304–317 (July 1977).
^Peter Dickinson, Review of The Writings of Erik Satie (translated and edited by Nigel Wilkins). Music & Letters, 63(3/4), pp. 293–295 (July–October 1982).
^Stephen Walsh, Review of Stravinsky and the Russian Traditions: A Biography of the Works Through "Mavra"byRichard Taruskin. Music & Letters, 78(3), pp. 450–455 (August 1997).
^ Eric Walter White (1979). Stravinsky, the Composer and His Works. University of California Press. ISBN0520039831.
