Cherevichki
Royal Opera
Tolomeo
English Touring Opera, Cambridge
Semele
Royal Academy of Music
The week’s operatic rarity was Tchaikovsky’s Cherevichki, inaccu-rately translated as The Tsarina’s Slippers. It is an adaptation of the Gogol story ‘Christmas Eve’, and is slightly more familiar in Rimsky-Korsakov’s version, which was mounted in a spirited production at ENO in 1988. Though I never thought I’d say so, the Rimsky score turns out to be considerably more engaging, certainly more suited to his temperament, and his flair for orchestral colour. Tchaikovsky was devoted to his own opera, which had a mild success as Vakula the Smith, and which he subjected to extensive revision. Some ardent Tchaikovskians, of whom it appears Francesca Zambello, director of this production, is one, also make high claims for the piece, even alleging that it is among the composer’s finest works, if not the finest of all.
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