Even in 2018, when Bavarian State Opera first proposed staging War and Peace, it faced a formidable challenge, not only in the monumental scale of this usually four-hour epic.
Prokofiev omits the happy, bucolic ending of Tolstoy’s pacifist novel as Pierre is united with Natasha. Instead, writing in 1943, with Russia invaded by Nazi Germany, the composer was forced to incorporate bombastic nationalistic choruses and peons to Stalin himself, such as that with which he ended the opera.
Russia’s war upon Ukraine in 2022 made any performance even more problematic, so much so that conductor Vladimir Jurowski and director Dmitri Tcherniakov—both Russians who have condemned the invasion—considered abandoning the project.
What unlocked the production, premieèred on 5 March 2023, the 70th anniversary of the deaths of Prokofiev and Stalin on the same day in 1953, was Tcherniakov’s bold concept of presenting the piece as a microcosm of Russia, and the stripping away some 30 minutes of the most egregious aspects of the libretto.
The tenth scene, in which the crowd vow to defy death "together with the Supreme Marshal" (the title both for the tsarist General Kutuzov and for Stalin) is cut completely, and the closing militaristic chorus is replaced by an onstage brass band.
Tolstoy originally entitled his novel War and Society, using the word міръ (Mir), not the later spelling миръ meaning peace, and this carries through into Tcherniakov’s production. All the action takes place in a reproduction of the Hall of Columns in central Moscow, which will be familiar to all Russians as a place of state occasions, concerts, chess championships and show trials.
A lopsided and disintegrating banner hailing the invincible Stalin hangs over a mass of humanity, Russians indistinguishable from French, trapped in the space like wartime fugitives in an underground station, who are whipped into frenzy, before adulation turns to riot, plunder and anarchy. Napoleon (read Hitler) is turned into a figure of ridicule, Kutuzov (read Stalin) into an anti-heroic slob in a soiled vest, who delivers his farewell atop a huge pile of ribbons commemorating the dead.
Confining the 12 remaining scenes within the single set inevitably sacrifices the colour and spectacle of Prokofiev’s filmic imagination, but the masterly direction of up to 90 performers on stage, each a convincing and individual character, commands attention throughout. Tcherniakov largely ignores any nationalist symbolism or any overt reference to the political situation today, but rather seeks to present what he sees as a society turning in upon itself. Thus Andrei, fatally wounded by the enemy in Tolstoy, here turns a gun on himself in despair at what life has become. The effect is still profound, and laced with pessimism.
A magnificent cast comprises both Russians and singers from the old Soviet republics, headed by Moldovan baritone Andrei Zhilikhovsky as Andrei and Ukrainian soprano Olga Kulchynska, both of whom don T-shirts with a Ukrainian logo for the curtain call.
Zhilikhovsky, coutured to look like Volodymyr Zelensky, accidentally or not, twists with anguish even as he sings of spring. His sensitivity delivers Prokofiev’s inventive, unpredictable lines with remarkable smoothness of tone. Kulchynska exudes charm as fresh as a daisy, naïve, starry-eyed and easily led, and sings with a shining clarity to match.
With no fewer than 42 soloists listed, one can give proper credit only to a few, but among them should be tenor Bekhzod Davronov as the rake Anatole, Sergei Leiferkus as the grouchy Prince Nikolai, Alexandra Yangel as Sonia and the bass Dmitry Ulyanov as Kutuzov. He played the same role, but immaculately uniformed, in Alex Titel's 2022 highly conventional production at the Stanislavski Theatre Moscow.
For me, the standout voice, however, is that of Arsen Soghomonyan as Pierre, his distinctive tenor flowing like liquid gold, an unmistakable sound. I look forward to hearing more of him.
Jurowski marshals the huge forces with remarkable control, a general manoeuvring each section of his great army of performers so that each remains clearly defined and acting within the great arc of the musical drama.
The DVD comes with an excellent booklet containing background information and with an enlightening interview with conductor and director.