Dorothea is a comic opera written by Tikhon Khrennikov, which he wrote in 1983 for the Stanislavsky and V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko The composer used the plot of the play Duenna (1775) written by the English playwright Richard Sheridan.
In Spanish, dueña means donna, hostess. This is the name given to older women who look after young unmarried girls. The play ‘Duenna’ was very successful and shown in theaters around the world. Musicians also drew attention to it — for example, the composer Sergei Prokofiev wrote the opera ‘Betrothal in a Monastery’ based on the plot of the work.
Khrennikov met with ‘Duenna’ in 1978, when director Mikhail Grigoriev invited him to write music for the film of the same name. The film was released in 1979 and immediately fell in love with the audience. The composer decided to transfer the action to the theater stage. This is how Dorothea appeared. The composer’s daughter, Natalia, acted as production designer and created a series of sketches for costumes and decors.
According to the plot, the opera takes place in a small Spanish town — Seville. The main characters — a girl and a young man, loved each other, but could not be together for one simple reason — the girl had to marry another man. The duenna Dorothea came to help the young people. She “always patronized lovers” and called herself “a fan of tender passions”. An elderly woman helped her foster daughter escape from the parental home, and she pretends to be her senorita in front of her fiance. The opera is filled with confusion of places and names, numerous disguises and abductions.
You can see a sketch of Mendozo’s costume — the very groom from whom the girl ran away. He was an elderly merchant but tried to look like a young nobleman. According to the plot, Mendozo wore bright costumes decorated with lace, ribbons and feathers — such an outfit emphasized the hero’s wealth.
In the English play, Mendozo is a greedy merchant who thinks only of the bride’s dowry. But Khrennikov made him a funny, simple-minded fat man, who is easily misled by the quick-witted duenna Dorothea.
The premiere of the opera took place on May 26, 1983 in Moscow.
In Spanish, dueña means donna, hostess. This is the name given to older women who look after young unmarried girls. The play ‘Duenna’ was very successful and shown in theaters around the world. Musicians also drew attention to it — for example, the composer Sergei Prokofiev wrote the opera ‘Betrothal in a Monastery’ based on the plot of the work.
Khrennikov met with ‘Duenna’ in 1978, when director Mikhail Grigoriev invited him to write music for the film of the same name. The film was released in 1979 and immediately fell in love with the audience. The composer decided to transfer the action to the theater stage. This is how Dorothea appeared. The composer’s daughter, Natalia, acted as production designer and created a series of sketches for costumes and decors.
According to the plot, the opera takes place in a small Spanish town — Seville. The main characters — a girl and a young man, loved each other, but could not be together for one simple reason — the girl had to marry another man. The duenna Dorothea came to help the young people. She “always patronized lovers” and called herself “a fan of tender passions”. An elderly woman helped her foster daughter escape from the parental home, and she pretends to be her senorita in front of her fiance. The opera is filled with confusion of places and names, numerous disguises and abductions.
You can see a sketch of Mendozo’s costume — the very groom from whom the girl ran away. He was an elderly merchant but tried to look like a young nobleman. According to the plot, Mendozo wore bright costumes decorated with lace, ribbons and feathers — such an outfit emphasized the hero’s wealth.
In the English play, Mendozo is a greedy merchant who thinks only of the bride’s dowry. But Khrennikov made him a funny, simple-minded fat man, who is easily misled by the quick-witted duenna Dorothea.
The premiere of the opera took place on May 26, 1983 in Moscow.
