# A "Contemporary's" Impression of Opera



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Please see the link below. A chapter from _War and Peace_ by Leo Tolstoy, consisting of a description of a night at the Opera in 1812 Russia.

http://www.online-literature.com/tolstoy/war_and_peace/154/

How do you opera fans feel about it? What is your impression? When I first read it, I thought it very intriguing. This was a man who really lived in the time of opera, who knew how others around were understanding it and feeling it. It's almost as if Tolstoy was... well, you read it yourself. 

And by the way, can anyone guess what opera is being performed by the scarce details of plot, setting, etc.?


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## Air (Jul 19, 2008)

I believe that the opera referred to in Book Eight, Chapter IX of Tolstoy's _War and Peace_ actually reflects a conglomerate of operatic experiences that Tolstoy drew from rather than a single work. According to Joel Hewett, Verdi, Meyebeer, and Gounod were primary influences as was as Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment and probably a couple of Rossini and Bellini operas as well.


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## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

Opera also comes up repeatedly in The Count of Monte Cristo where it seems it was more "the place to be seen", and to meet up with friends / gossip, then as a cultural or artistic experience.


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## emiellucifuge (May 26, 2009)

It must be War and Peace, isnt the whole book about that opera?


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

There are a lot of such opera scenes in XIXth century prose. The most recent I did read was in Father Goriot by Balzac. Like rgz wrote, it often has more to do with meeting people and seeing them than with the music. Btw, I don't like Natasha from War and Peace, what a annoying character. Almost as annoying as the book itself HO HO HO


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## Lipatti (Oct 9, 2010)

Tolstoy doesn't bash opera nearly as much in that passage from "War and Peace" as he does in his late essay "What is Art?", where he devotes an entire chapter ridiculing Wagner and his Ring. He notoriously also calls Shakespeare, Beethoven and himself as bad/lowly artists.


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## Lipatti (Oct 9, 2010)

Aramis said:


> Btw, I don't like Natasha from War and Peace, what a annoying character.


There's no character in War and Peace who's not annoying. Come to think of it, there's almost no character in any Tolstoy story or novel who's not annoying. Even he himself comes across as pretty annoying in his autobiographical works.


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## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

Lipatti said:


> There's no character in War and Peace who's not annoying. Come to think of it, there's almost no character in any Tolstoy story or novel who's not annoying. Even he himself comes across as pretty annoying in his autobiographical works.


Levin in Anna Karenina isn't really annoying imo, nor is Kitty. In fact, I find Levin particularly interesting as something of an early stab at a Ayn Rand style character (though with more depth than the typical Rand uber-mensch).

That said, Tolstoy is no Dostoevsky.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

rgz said:


> Levin in Anna Karenina isn't really annoying imo, nor is Kitty. In fact, I find Levin particularly interesting as something of an early stab at a Ayn Rand style character (though with more depth than the typical Rand uber-mensch).
> 
> *That said, Tolstoy is no Dostoevsky*.


Well thank goodness for that.


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## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

mamascarlatti said:


> Well thank goodness for that.


You don't like Dostoevsky? "The Idiot" is really really great and if you haven't read it, I strenuously urge you to before coming to a judgement on his body of work.
I think I made a comment in another thread that it would be particularly well suited for an operatic adaptation

Ah yes, here:



> I just finished Dostoevsky's "The Idiot" and holy cow it would be great as an opera (obviously with extreme abridgement to plot and characters). The Prince would be a tenor, Nastasia would be a coloratura, Aglaya a lyric soprano, Rogozhin as a baritone. I can damn near picture the whole staging in my head, with the climactic quartet being the show stopper. Nastasia's madness would be such a plum role for a certain French soprano.
> 
> Ah, I see on the wikipedia page that it almost became an opera
> _The Russian composer Nikolai Myaskovsky planned an opera on The Idiot during World War I, but did not complete it._
> ...


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

rgz said:


> You don't like Dostoevsky? "The Idiot" is really really great and if you haven't read it, I strenuously urge you to before coming to a judgement on his body of work.
> I think I made a comment in another thread that it would be particularly well suited for an operatic adaptation
> 
> Ah yes, here:


I don't mind Dostoyevsky but I LOVE Tolstoy. I'm just glad they are different.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Unfortunately, Tolstoy held far too dearly to the belief in the notion of the artist (himself) as prophet. Opera would surely fall alongside Beethoven and Shakespeare as something less than visionary. I'll stick with Oscar Wilde, Flaubert, and Proust.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Well, it seemed to me that Tolstoy was making fun of opera, because Natasha was a good singer, but she was confused by the standards of Society. Her final sentence in that chapter proves her to be won over. I thought it was funny that the music wasn't at all described, just the motions and visuals, as if that's all opera is. 

Of what I've heard, Dostoevsky is much harder to read because his language is more formal. Tolstoy has been really easy for me to read, the stories are just really long. _War and Peace_ is over 1400 pages long.


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## crmoorhead (Apr 6, 2011)

Does anyone ever go to an opera in an opera as part of the plot? Just wondering.....


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## Air (Jul 19, 2008)

crmoorhead said:


> Does anyone ever go to an opera in an opera as part of the plot? Just wondering.....


Nixon in China.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

crmoorhead said:


> Does anyone ever go to an opera in an opera as part of the plot? Just wondering.....


Scarpia listens to an opera singer, sort of


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

sospiro said:


> Scarpia listens to an opera singer, sort of


Not sure how much actual listening is going on.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

mamascarlatti said:


> Not sure how much actual listening is going on.


:lol:

I'm tired, it's the best I can think of right now!


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

crmoorhead said:


> Does anyone ever go to an opera in an opera as part of the plot? Just wondering.....


Again, it's not quite the same thing, but in Strauss you get opera (a portion of it, anyway) going on the road to perform in the salons of the nobility. I don't know if the Italian singer in Rosenkavalier is specifically identified as an opera star, but the two in Capriccio definitely are.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

Are you all forgeting about Ariadne auf Naxos? It's the opera in an opera _par excellence!_


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

Almaviva said:


> Are you all forgeting about Ariadne auf Naxos? It's the opera in an opera _par excellence!_


Wow . . . how did I mention Strauss and blank out on Ariadne? Total slip of the synapses! I'm gonna' claim exhaustion . . . it worked for Annie!


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## crmoorhead (Apr 6, 2011)

Lol, thanks guys! I love this forum.  I notice that Ariadne auf Naxos is available on the streaming videos.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

crmoorhead said:


> Lol, thanks guys!* I love this forum*.  I notice that Ariadne auf Naxos is available on the streaming videos.


 Me too!!!!


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