- Glière composed The Red Poppy [Krasnïy mak] in 1926-7, and it was first performed in Moscow in 1927. He revised the ballet in 1949 as The Red Flower [Krasnïy tsveto].1
- In 1925, the Bolshoi Ballet was struggling to rebrand their art form as something appealing to the masses and reflective of Soviet values (rather than a decadent Western art form associated with the old Russian aristocracy). They held a contest for a modern ballet and Glière won with The Red Poppy.
- Story: the plot of The Red Poppy is based on an account Glière read of a Soviet ship impounded by British authorities in China. In the ballet, a Chinese girl falls in love with a Soviet sailor, but their love and political freedom is threatened by the imperialist port commander. The red flower is a symbol of love and resistance that appears several times in the ballet. [3]
- The reason the title was revised to “The Red Flower” in the 40s is that the government wanted to avoid accidental associations with the opium trade. [4]
- This movement: The “Russian Sailors’ Dance” is based on a Russian folk tune. Glière often used Russian folk music as source material and that helped cement his status as a composer approved by the Soviet government.2
Sources
- Galina Grigor′yeva, “Glier, Reyngol′d Moritsevich,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed October 10, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000011278.
- Georg Predota, “Muses and Musings: The Red Poppy: Reinhold Glière and Yekaterina Geltzer,” Interlude (March 24, 2016), accessed October 10, 2019, https://interlude.hk/red-poppy-reinhold-gliere-yekaterina-geltzer/.
Cut IDs
40740