Сharacters in the play
Boris Statsenko performs the role of Napoleon
Natalya (Natasha) Rostov — soprano
Count Pyotr (Pierre) Bezukhov — tenor
Prince Andrei Bolkonsky — baritone
Field-Marshal Prince Mikhail Kutuzov — bass
Napoleon Bonaparte — baritone
Count Ilya Rostov (Natasha’s father) — bass
Hélène Bezukhova (Pierre’s wife) — mezzo-soprano
Prince Anatole Kuragin (her brother) — tenor
Creation
War and Peace (Op. 91) (Война и мир in Russian, Voyna i mir in transliteration) is an opera in two parts (an Epigraph and thirteen scenes), sometimes arranged as five acts, by Sergei Prokofiev to a Russian libretto by the composer and Mira Mendelson, based on the novel of the same name by Leo Tolstoy.
Сontents
Part 1 (Peace)
The Overture or the Epigraph usually precedes the action
Scene 1
takes place after dark in the garden of Count Rostov’s country estate in May, 1806. Andrei, who is a guest there, is depressed by the loss of his wife. Natasha, who also cannot sleep, looks out of her window and tells Sonya how beautiful the garden looks in the moonlight, and Andrei recovers his spirits.
Scene 2.
On New Year’s Eve, 1810, at a ball in St Petersburg attended by the Tsar, Pierre encourages Andrei, who is attracted to Natasha, to ask her to dance. Anatole, also attracted to her, asks Hélène to arrange an introduction.
In Scene 3,
Count Rostov and Natasha visit the town house of Prince Nikolai, the father of Andrei, to whom she is engaged (it is now February, 1812, and Andrei is abroad for a year). Princess Marya indicates that her father will not see them, and Count Rostov departs. However, the Prince, dressed eccentrically and behaving boorishly, does appear, and Natasha realises that he does not approve of the marriage.
A dance at Pierre’s Moscow house in May of the same year is the setting for
Scene 4.
Hélène tells Natasha that Anatole is attracted to her, and, after some hesitation, Natasha hears his declaration of love and agrees to meet him.
Scene 5
takes place on 12 June in the apartment of Dolokhov, who has made the arrangements for his friend Anatole’s elopement with Natasha. The coach-driver Balaga, Dolokhov and Anatole drink to the escapade and to the latter’s mistress Matriosha.
Scene 6.
Later that night, Natasha discovers that Sonya has given away her secret to Madame Akhrosimova, with whom they are staying. Anatole and Dolokhov are sent away by Gavrila, and Akhrosimova reduces Natasha to tears. Pierre arrives, reveals that Anatole is married, and agrees to ask Andrei to forgive Natasha. He shyly admits that he himself would want to marry her if he were free. Natasha makes her peace with Sonya.
Scene 7.
Later still, Hélène is entertaining Anatole, Metivier and an Abbé. Pierre, returning home, upbraids Anatole and demands that he leave Moscow immediately. He agrees, and Pierre is left alone to bemoan his own circumstances. Denisov arrives with the news that Napoleon and his army are crossing into Russia. War is inevitable.
Part 2 (War)
The Epigraph is usually performed here if it was not used at the start of Part 1.
Scene 8
(25 August, 1812, near Borodino). Amid preparations for the defence of Moscow, Andrei and Denisov discuss utilising partisans to make life difficult for Napoleon’s army. Pierre, wanting to observe the scene, arrives, and he and Andrei embrace, perhaps for the last time. Field-Marshal Kutuzov offers Andrei a position on his staff, but Andrei prefers to go into battle with his own regiment. The battle starts.
Scene 9.
Later that day, Napoleon ponders his position, first refusing to commit more men, then agreeing. An unexploded cannon-ball lands at his feet and he kicks it away.
Scene 10.
Two days later, Kutuzov and his generals are holding a Council of War at Fili, near Smolensk. The army will be at risk if Moscow is to be defended to the last — but if the army retreats, Moscow will be at the mercy of the French. Kutuzov decides that only by retreating, and potentially sacrificing Moscow, will there be any hope of victory.
In Scene 11,
Moscow is burning — set on fire by its citizens to avoid a surrender. Pierre is caught up among some Muscovites, including the veteran Platon Karataev, who are accused by the French of fire-raising. As the asylum and theatre burn, lunatics and actresses flee — but Napoleon has to admit that the courage of the people has frustrated his plans.
Scene 12.
Meanwhile, in a peasant’s hut at Mitishi, the wounded Prince Andrei, delirious, has been evacuated with the Rostovs from Moscow. Natasha, who had been unaware that he was among her fellow evacuees, visits him. She tries to apologise for her conduct, but he again declares his love for her, and they sing of their happiness as Natasha reassures him that he will live. He falls asleep, and his heartbeat (conveyed by an offstage chorus) stops for ever.
Scene 13
(November, 1812). On the road to Smolensk, the retreating French are escorting a group of prisoners through a snow-storm. Karataev cannot keep up and is shot, but Pierre and the others are rescued by the partisans. Denisov tells Pierre that Andrei is dead but that Natasha is alive and well. Kutuzov and his men rejoice in their victory, and celebrate the indomitable will of the Russian people.
Music
Broadly speaking, the music for Part 1 is lyrical and that for Part 2 is dramatic. There are a number of arias, though these are rarely free-standing and are usually preceded and/or followed by arioso or short conversational passages. Dance music is prominent in Part 1, military music and choruses in Part 2. A number of themes, associated especially with Natasha, Andrei and Pierre, recur throughout the opera. Prokofiev borrowed Natasha’s and Andrei’s principal themes from incidental music that he had written for a dramatisation of Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin: Natasha’s theme had been associated with Lensky, and Andrei’s with Tatyana. Kutuzov’s aria in Scene 10 (also sung by the chorus at the end of the opera) re-used music that Prokofiev had written for Eisenstein’s film Ivan the Terrible.