First act

The opera begins on the banks of the Volga in the eighteen-forties. Wearing the uniform of a Russian soldier, Alexis is leaning against a birch tree. He gazes out over the broad peaceful Volga as it catches the rays of the rising sun. A small boat comes out of the bay at the right and anchors not far from Alexis. In the boat Sergey is preparing to do some angling. The soldier Alexis is escorting a convoy of prisoners bound for Siberia.

Feeling disturbed by the old man, Alexis tries to scare him away by threatening to open fire. Sergey's daughter Tatyana comes along. Alexis is fascinated and only has eyes for her. Tatyana is likewise attracted to the soldier; they feel they are meant for each other. But Alexis is scheduled to leave for Kara the next day. Tatyana removes an icon from her necklace and gives it to him as a sign of troth.

Sasha, in love with Tatyana himself, has observed the scene and takes Alexis to task, provoking him to the extent that the soldier strikes him. The two men part as enemies.

In the third scene two peasants visit Sergey, whom 'he villagers credit with healing powers. One of them has a black tomcat under his arm. The animal is ailing and Sergey is to heal it - which he does by employing all kinds of magical tricks.

The fourth scene is headed the “Great Fishermen's Scene”. Fishermen, peasants and children appear in colourful traditional costumes and the boats are decorated, for it is St George's day, the day on which the sturgeon-fishing season begins. A festive mood prevails; the Volga is praised as the river of life. The dramatic action is resumed in the two following scenes. The fishermen cast their nets. Sergey appears and is defamed as a bringer of bad luck by the fisherman Dimitri. Sergey quits the scene to find another spot where he hopes to do some fishing undisturbed. His harpoon transfixes a splendid specimen through the breast, causing a sensation and arousing envy. Nikushka and the others steal the fish and Tatyana tries to pacify her father. The fishermen have in the meantime begun hauling in their nets. As Sergey prophesied when his sturgeon was taken from him, they have not caught a single fish. This seems at last to prove that Sergey is in league with the devil. Nikushka tries to incite the crowd to throw him into the Volga. The starosta, the Tsar's representative, observes the scene from a safe distance- Alexis appears and tries to end the uproar by protecting Sergey. The starosta now intervenes, ordering Alexis to step aside and let the people's will prevail. The situation escalates and Alexis finally fires at and wounds the starosto, Alexis is banished to Siberia. He and Tatyana bid one another farewell before he is led away.

Second act

We are in Siberia - the gold mines of Kara. Sasha sings an old song of the steppe. Djerid enters. Sasha laments having been cost out by his tribe, for Alexis has besmirched his honour. Two other banished men, Pimen and Punin, are more stoical about their fate.

Alexis is totally dejected; unable to put Tatyana out of his mind, he cannot come to terms with his lot. The others comfort him.

Sasha plans to restore his honour by murdering Alexis. He fails in his attempt, for Alexis grasps the situation in a flash, snatches the knife and turns it upon Sasha. But instead of killing him, he decides to be merciful and hurls the knife away. Now feeling indebted to Alexis, Sasho offers him his horse so that he may escape. Alexis flees.

Third Act

A new convoy of prisoners has arrived in Kara. Tatyana too has travelled with it, driven by her need to find Alexis. The scene begins with loud activity. Soldiers appear and those returning home introduce a note of elation. Raisa, a peasant maid, takes leave of Dimitri, who is at last able to leave Kara. Tatyana appears, poorly dressed but happy in the belief that she is at lost near the end of her search. She is given shelter by Nikolayev, Raisa's father. Raisa and Tatyana get to know each other. But now Tatyana learns that Alexis has long since fled. Sasha enters and confesses that he helped Alexis to escape, eventually agreeing to escort Tatyana through the steppe in search of Alexis. The sixth scene takes us to the steppe, where we meet up with Alexis, whose steed has collapsed under him; in his exhaustion, he is tormented by shivering fits and hallucinations. He believes he can see Cossacks on the horizon. Suddenly Tatyana plunges into his arms with a heart-rending cry. The lovers embrace, laughing and crying at once.

Snow begins to fall, ever more heavily. Tatyana and Alexis are swallowed up by the snow and the night.

The End

A note on performances, versions and premieres.

First performed in Leipzig in November 1896, the opera was then named ‘Kukushka’ [Cuckoo, the sign of Spring]. Lehar had just given up a promising career in the Imperial and Royal Navy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire as a bandmaster at Pula in Croatia. There he had directed a band of 103 musicians, the largest in the empire. He had already composed an unperformed one-act opera Rodrigo and was inspired to create a full-length opera while in Pula. He found a sympathetic librettist in Felix Falzari, a fellow officer. The story is adapted from George Kennan’s popular travel accounts in ‘Tent life in Siberia’. The opera was written in 9 months with Lehar trying out various orchestration ideas with his bandsmen. The director of the Municipal Theatre in Leipzig agreed to stage ‘Kukushka’ and Lehar confidently resigned his commission. Lehar’s father, himself a bandmaster was appalled. When the income from the first performances [seven in Leipzig and four more in Königsberg (modern day Kaliningrad)] dried up, Lehar was fortunate to take over his recently deceased father’s old band position in Budapest. The opera was again staged in Budapest in May 1899 under Karl Muck and Mahler considered staging it in Vienna. However, Mahler rejected Kukushka for the Vienna Court Opera and it flopped when presented at the Vienna Volksoper in 1906. Two months later, all this changed when The Merry Widow premiered. Lehar once again resigned his band master’s position and his career was away. However, he never did realise his ambition of writing Grand Opera. Kukushka/Tatyana then languished with a radio performance noted in Leipzig in 1937 [conducted by Lehar] in its revised version as Tatyana.

There were three versions of Kukushka/Tatyana. The first had its premiere in Leipzig in 1896. For the Budapest version, Lehar inserted a ballet [in the first Act] as required by the audiences and theatre management in that city. The ballet was a series of Russian style dances. He also inserted an additional aria for Raisa in the Budapest version. The third version came about when Max Kalbeck, the biographer of Brahms, created a new performance for Brno in 1906. The musical director on that occasion was a very young Robert Stolz. The ballet was shifted from the first Act to the beginning of the third Act and Kalbeck changed the last Act by removing an aria for Sasha thereby weakening the dramatic end. While the eminent Kalbeck lent his fame and prestige to the still unknown Lehar, there are those who say that the final version is not necessarily the best.

Adapted from the notes by Stefan Frey supplied with the CPO recording.