Le Coq d'Or or The Golden Cockerel is an opera by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov which debuted in 1907.
Story
The bumbling King Dodon talks himself into believing that his country is in danger from the neighbouring State governed by the beautiful Queen Shemakhan.
He asks for advice from a mysterious Astrologer, who gives him a magic Golden Cockerel, which promises to look after his interests.
The Golden Cockerel confirms that Queen Shemakhan certainly has some territorial ambitions, so King Dodon foolishly decides to make a pre- emptive strike against the neighbouring State, and sends his army, led by his two sons, to start the battle. However, his sons are both the Russian equivalent of Mark Thatcher, and are so inept that they both manage to kill each other on the battlefield.
King Dodon then decides to lead the army himself, but further bloodshed is averted because the Golden Cockerel ensures that the old king becomes besotted when he actually sees the beautiful Queen. The Queen herself encourages this situation by performing a seductive dance - which tempts the King to try and partner her, but he is clumsy and makes a complete mess of it.
The Queen realises that she can take over Dodon’s country without further fighting - she engineers a marriage proposal from Dodon, which she coyly accepts.
The final scene starts with the great Bridal procession in all its splendour - and when this is reaching its conclusion, the Astrologer appears and says to the king “You promised me anything I could ask for if there could be a happy resolution of your troubles.......” “Yes, Yes, “ said the king, “Just name it and you shall have it”. “Right,” said the Astrologer, “I want Queen Shemakhan!”. At this, the King flares up in fury, and strikes down the Astrologer with a blow from his mace. The Golden Cockerel, loyal to her Astrologer master, then swoops across and pecks through the King’s jugular.
Factors in the writing of the opera
Four factors influenced Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov to write this opera-ballet.
R-K’s other works inpired by Alexander Pushkin’s poems, especially Tsar Saltan, had been very successful. The Golden Cockerel had the same magic!
Ivan Bilibin had already produced artwork for the Golden Cockerel, and this conjured up the same traditional Russian folk flavours as those in Tsar Saltan.
The Czar had foolishly started the Russo-Japanese War by making a pre-emptive strike against the Japanese forces in Manchuria and Korea. This war was highly unpopular amongst the Russian people - it proved to be a military disaster, and Russia was eventually defeated. (Remember that in the Golden Cockerel, King Dodon foolishly decides to make a pre-emptive strike against the neighbouring State, and there is huge chaos and bloodshed on the battlefield. The king himself gives more attention to his personal pleasures, and comes to a sticky end!)
- (4) RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITY IN 1905
The Russian people were not only upset by the Russo-Japanese War, but more importantly by their feudal living conditions. On January 9th, 1905, several thousand people, led by a priest, demonstrated peacefully in the Palace square in St Petersburg. They tried to hand in a petition asking for better working conditions, an 8- hour day, a minimum wage, and the prohibition of child labour. However, more than 1000 were shot by the Tsarist troops, and the date has become known as Bloody Sunday. News of this spread rapidly - there was an uprising in Odessa, where the sailors in the battleship Potemkin took over the ship and fired on the headquarters of the tsarist troops. Again, there was a massacre of people on the Odessa steps. The Students in the St Petersburg Conservatoire also demonstrated against the Czar, and Rimsky Korsakov supported their protest. For this he was dismissed from his post as head of the Conservatoire. Glazunov and Lyadov resigned and left with him.
So Rimsky-Korsakov decided to create a work exposing the disastrous tsarist regime, and in 1906 he started work on his Golden Cockerel opera. It was finished in 1907. The opera was immediately banned by the Palace, and was not allowed to be staged – the resemblance between the Czar and the foolish King Dodon was too close! Rimsky-Korsakov’s health was undoubtedly affected by this, and he was dead by the time it was performed two years later.
Last updated: 06-01-2005 01:49:33
