Ivan the Fool (Cui)
Encyclopedia
Ivan the Fool is an opera-fairytale for children in three tableaux, by César Cui
César Cui
César Antonovich Cui was a Russian of French and Lithuanian descent. His profession was as an army officer and a teacher of fortifications; his avocational life has particular significance in the history of music, in that he was a composer and music critic; in this sideline he is known as a...

, composed in 1913. The libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 was written by Nadezhda Nikolaevna Dolomanova, using Russian folk tales. (It is not derived from Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...

's story of the same name
Ivan the Fool (story)
Ivan the Fool is an 1886 short story by Leo Tolstoy, published in 1886.Its plot is about the struggles of three brothers and a sister with the Old Devil...

.)

The title can be rendered in English in a number of ways, depending upon whether one wishes to consider the diminutives involved: Foolish Ivan, Ivan the Little Fool, Johnny the Little Fool, etc. (The printed Russian score
Sheet music
Sheet music is a hand-written or printed form of music notation that uses modern musical symbols; like its analogs—books, pamphlets, etc.—the medium of sheet music typically is paper , although the access to musical notation in recent years includes also presentation on computer screens...

 of 1913 adds a parallel title in French, Jeannot "le bêtà".)

The performance history of this opera has yet to be traced.

Roles

  • Tsar: alto
    Contralto
    Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...

  • Tsarevna [i.e., his daughter Elena]: soprano
    Soprano
    A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...

  • Ivanushka: mezzo-soprano
    Mezzo-soprano
    A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...

  • 1st Brother of Ivan: soprano
  • 2nd Brother of Ivan: mezzo-soprano
  • Father of Ivan: alto
  • Mother of Ivan: soprano
  • Horse: alto or bass
    Bass (voice type)
    A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C...


  • Courtier
    Courtier
    A courtier is a person who is often in attendance at the court of a king or other royal personage. Historically the court was the centre of government as well as the residence of the monarch, and social and political life were often completely mixed together...

    s, skomorokh
    Skomorokh
    The skomorokhs were medieval East Slavic harlequins, i.e. actors, who could also sing, dance, play musical instruments and compose most of the scores for their oral/musical and dramatic performances. The etymology of the word is not completely clear...

    i, gusli-players, wooden stumps: chorus
    Choir
    A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...


Synopsis

Tableau I. In a clearing in a forest, Ivan has set his horse free. His wagon contains things that are supposed to be driven home for his family, but he empties the wagon so as to place the pots around the freezing tree stumps and to throw out the grain for the birds to eat. When his parents and brothers find him and reprimand him for his foolish slackness, they tell him that he cannot eat dinner with them.

Tableau II. Within the forest, Ivan has gathered many mushrooms. His brothers enter and inform him that the Tsar is going to give a feast. His daughter, the Tsarevna, is Elena. The man who manages to get her kerchief and bring it to the feast will win her hand in marriage. When his brothers leave, Ivan is intent on going to the feast, but realizes that his clothes are not suitable, so he calls his horse, who magically provides him with proper new clothes.

Tableau III. Inside the Tsar's palace, the skomorkhi and the courtiers amuse themselves. Elena's kerchief having been taken, she wishes to know where her mysterious bridegroom can be. She notices that Ivan is hiding behind a stove, and that he has the kerchief, whereupon the Tsar welcomes his new son-in-law. Realizing who the bridegroom is, Ivan's brothers at first consider escaping, but instead approach him and reconcile, as the courtiers praise Ivan, the Tsar, and his daughter.
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