Tchaikovsky’s only comic opera, The Tsarina's Slippers (Cherevichki in Russian) is a very Russian folk tale, quirky, charming and entirely ridiculous. He loved it, and called it his best opera, not a judgement supported by posterity.
The British disagreed. When Royal Opera House mounted the extravagant production we’re viewing, (trailer here) there was a scathing review from The Independent, and The Telegraph was not impressed, offering an “Important warning: Covent Garden is marketing this as a family show for Christmas, but please don't think of taking the children – they'll be bored rigid and never want to go anywhere near an opera again.”
But read the rave comments below the Youtube snippets! “Wonderful, joyful, fantastic, moving; great melodies, choirs, ballet, colorful orchestration, action, humor, real life like (human) roles. One of the most beautiful and moving operas I have seen.” (Not an English contributor.)
For more about the place of this opera in the composer’s life, go to Wiki, or to this NPR summary – both have the (absurd) plot synopsis.
And is it a different sort of comic? You have to admit that Gogol’s story, “Christmas Eve”, full of Ukrainian myth, magic, devils and water gnomes, is a lot more fun than ‘The Night Before Christmas” with Ma in her kerchief (no one has tried to make an opera of that.) And that Gogol's lunkish hero’s battle with the lecherous devil, who has stolen the moon and hidden it in his pocket, allowing him to wreak havoc on the village, is more interesting than Orpheus’ confrontation of Satan, even in Offenbach’s version.
There’s an interesting comment in The Guardian’s cool review, “Tchaikovsky, who could turn against his own music if he considered it too self-revealing, probably adored Cherevichki because it is safe and a bit anonymous.” But is that perhaps its charm? Just as with the Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky embraced the fairytale mood, set it to sweet and folksy music and a lot of ballet – and loved the result.
