Letter 2747
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Russian text (original)
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English translation
Copyright © 2010 by
Luis Sundkvist
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| 10 августа 1885, с. Майданово |
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10 August 1885, village of Maidanovo
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Дорогая, добрейшая моя
Эмилия Карловна! |
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My dear and ever so kind
Emiliia Karlovna! |
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Возвратившись из поездки к родным, нашёл здесь письмо Ваше, до крайности меня обрадовавшее. До сих пор я ещё никому не показывал
Черевичек в обновленном виде, ничьего мнения и отзыва не получал, а потому мне особенно приятно, что первый сочувственный отзыв пришёл мне от Вас, моя симпатичнейшая благодетельница. Уж, конечно, никому я так не желал угодить, как Вам, ибо возлагаю большие надежды на Ваше исполнение роли Оксаны. Когда-то это будет! В
Москве это очень трудно будет устроить. Я не того вовсе боюсь, что
Г-жа Климентова рассердится: пусть её сердится, если таков её нрав; но того боюсь, что на Вас в
Петербурге возложены все главные партии новых опер и, следовательно, трудно предположить, чтобы Вас отпустили в
Москву, хотя бы и не надолго. Вероятнее всего, что мне придётся испытать радость видеть Вас в роли Оксаны в
Петербурге в дальнейшем за наступающим теперь сезоне. Авось, доживу до этого! А покамест буду радоваться при мысли, что роль Вам по сердцу. Я в самом деле живо воображал себе Вас, когда весной занимался переработкой оперы.
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On my return from a trip to see some relatives I found your letter waiting for me here. It made me extremely happy. Until now I hadn't shown
Cherevichki
in its renovated form to anyone [1], I had received no one's opinion or response, and that is why it was especially pleasant for me that the first sympathetic response should come to me from you, my ever so nice
benefactress [2]. It goes without saying that there was no one I wanted to please more than you, since I place great hopes on your performance of the role of Oksana. But when will this happen?! It will be very difficult to organize this in
Moscow. I am by no means afraid of the possibility of
Miss Klimentova being angry at me—let her be angry if such is her temperament. No, what worries me is that all the principal roles in the new operas in
Petersburg have been allocated to
you [3], and, consequently, it seems very improbable that they would release you so that you can come to
Moscow, even if only for a short time. It is far more likely that I shall get to experience the joy of seeing you in the role of Oksana in
Petersburg during the season coming after this one. Maybe I shall live to see this! But for the time being I can rejoice at the thought that this role is to your liking. You were indeed vividly present in my imagination when I worked on the revision of my opera this spring.
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| Что касается моих Московских исполнителей, то, между нами будь сказано, меня гораздо менее беспокоит
Оксана, чем Вакула. Климентова с её хорошеньким голоском, с её наружностью и ухватками простой
девчины будет во всяком случае не дурна, хотя
не заменит для меня и Вашей сотой частички. Но милейший мой
Усатов, несмотря на всё моё уважение и сочувствие к его достоинствам, кажется мне мало подходящим к партии Вакулы, и я очень, очень беспокоюсь на этот счёт. Ну, да там увидим! |
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As for my Moscow cast, I must say—this is between you and me—that
Oksana worries me far less than does Vakula. With her pretty little voice, her good looks and those manners she has of a simple
country lass, Klimentova will in any case not be bad, although in my eyes she
cannot replace you, not even one-hundredth part of you. But my dear
Usatov [4], all my respect and sympathy for his merits notwithstanding, seems to me very unsuitable for the role of Vakula, and I am very, very worried on his account. |
| Я страшно, неимоверно устал от своей теперешней работы и ради небольшого отдыха совершил поездку в деревню по Курской жел. дор. Но увы! мне остаётся ещё по крайней мере месяц трудной работы. Зато, мне кажется, что симфония моя будет лучшим из всех моих сочинений в симфоническом роде. Беру с Вас слово, что, когда её будут играть в
Петербурге, Вы пойдёте слушать. Я очень горжусь этим произведением и хочу, чтобы люди, сочувствием которых больше всего на свете дорожу (а Вы между ними в первейшем ряду), испытывали, слушая его, отражение восторга, с которым я писал эту вещь. Ах! лишь бы с теперешней чёрной работой поскорее разделаться. Тогда я, вероятно, в
Петербург съезжу и Вас повидаю. А покамест крепко, крепко целую Вашу ручку. |
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I am frightfully, incredibly tired as a result of my current work, and for the sake of taking a small break I went down the Kursk railway on a trip to a
village [5]. But alas! I have at least a month of hard work to do left. On the other hand, I think that my symphony
[Manfred] will turn out to be the best of all my compositions in the symphonic genre. You must give me your word of honour that when it is played in
Petersburg you will go and hear it. I take great pride in this work and I want those people whose sympathy I value more than anything else in the world (among whom you are in the foremost row) to experience, when listening to it, a reflection of the delight with which I wrote this thing. Oh! if only I could be through quicker with my current heavy
labour [6]. Then I would probably make a trip to
Petersburg and call on you. Anyway, for now I kiss your hand very warmly. |
| Ваш до гроба |
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Yours unto the grave |
| П. Чайковский |
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P. Tchaikovsky |
[На 1-й стр. вверху:]
Сергею Евграфовичу и сестре Вашей потрудитесь передать мои приветствия. |
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[At the top of p. 1:]
Be so kind as to give my greetings to Sergei Evgrafovich[7] and your sister. |
Notes:
- Strictly speaking, Tchaikovsky should have said
"Vakula the Smith in its renovated form", because
Cherevichki was the revised version of that earlier opera. The piano-vocal score of
Cherevichki had been published by
Jurgenson earlier that summer
[back]
- In her letter to Tchaikovsky of 3/15 August 1885 Emiliia Pavlovskaia spoke enthusiastically about
Cherevichki, whose piano score she had been studying, and emphasized how happy she was to see that Tchaikovsky had had her in mind when rewriting the part of Oksana. She added that she was now looking for a way in which she might be released from her obligations at the
Saint Petersburg Bol'shoi
(Kamennyi) Theatre so that she could come to Moscow for a week and sing in some performances of
Cherevichki. (The opera had been accepted only for staging in
Moscow). These hopes were not fulfilled, though, and
Mariia Klimentova was the first to sing Oksana at the opera's première at the
Moscow Bol'shoi Theatre on 19/31 January 1887.
Pavlovskaia's letter has been published in:
Чайковский на московской сцене (1940), p.
353–355 [back]
- The scheduled new additions to the repertoire of the
Saint Petersburg Imperial Theatres for the
1885/86 season included Bizet's
Carmen, Eduard Nápravník's
Harold, and Nikolai
Solov'ev's Cordelia [back]
- Dmitrii Andreevich Usatov (1847–1913), Russian lyrical tenor. Tchaikovsky dedicated to him the romance
Death (No. 5 of the Six
Romances, Op. 57) [back]
- Earlier that day Tchaikovsky had returned from a brief trip to the village of
Pleshcheevo, where he had gone together with
Modest, Anatolii, and the latter's wife and daughter
[back]
- Tchaikovsky had completed the rough sketches for the
Manfred symphony in early/mid July 1885, but its orchestration over the following months cost him a great deal of effort
[back]
- Emiliia
Pavlovskaia's husband, Sergei Evgrafovich Pavlovskii (1846–1915), was also a singer (a baritone) and a member of the
Saint Petersburg Mariinskii Theatre's troupe
[back]
This page was last updated on 16 February 2011 |