Aleko

• Rachmaninov wrote his one-act opera Aleko as a conservatory graduation exercise. He received top grades for it. ¹
  • Rachmaninov was 19 when he composed Aleko, and he finished the work in a little over three weeks.²
• Aleko is based on the poem Tsïganï (“The Gypsies”) by Alexander Puskin (1799-1837).³
• Aleko premiered at the Bol’shoy Theater in 1893. Tchaikovsky attended and liked it.⁴

“Of course there are faults, but they are far outweighed by merits, which lead one to expect much from this young composer in the future”

A review of the premiere of Aleko, from Moskovskiye vedomosti (29 April/11 May 1893)⁵

• Story: in Aleko, a world-weary man joins a Romani [“gypsy”] tribe, falls in love with a woman from the tribe, then murders her when she takes a lover from her own ethnic group. The story is meant to underscore the differences between the two cultures, with Aleko’s city values being perceived as more debased.⁶

1. Geoffrey Norris, “Rachmaninoff [Rakhmaninov, Rachmaninov], Serge,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed January 2, 2020, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000050146. 
2. Richard Taruskin, “Aleko,” Grove Music Online (2002), accessed January 2, 2020,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-5000003766. 
3. Norris, “Rachmaninoff [Rakhmaninov, Rachmaninov], Serge,”Grove Music Online.
4. Ibid.
5. Quoted in Ibid.
6. Taruskin, “Aleko,” Grove Music Online.