Friday, 9 April

In the evening I invited all to watch a play again. The title was Gold Shoe, which was written by Gogol. The music was composed by the “Saint of Music” Tchaikovsky. There were four scenes. The first scene was on a snowy night in a village in Ukraine. There was a dissolute widow who could communicate and sing with ghosts. The main female character acted vividly as the dissolute widow. She even had ghost admirers. The song and acting were both good. The second scene was about a young girl called Oksana who was alone at home. The main character was M.F. Butenina, her song was about self-pity, and was full of youthful love. In the same village there was a young ironsmith called Bakyla (Teuor B.C.Didkovskogo) who liked the girl, and expressed his love to her. The girl also liked him but pretended to reject him. She always thought of the young man but she also rejected him. This kind of thing was universal. Her song and acting on accepting and rejecting were both agreeable. I think that Russians are good at playing drama in their own settings, and these were better than those who learnt techniques from classical operas in Western Europe. The father of the girl was an alcoholic. When Bakyla talked to her daughter he was back. Bakyla didn’t know he was her father and he pushed him outside. The second scene was about a widow at home (Bakyla’s mother) talked with the ghost and her girlfriend came. Her cunning made us laugh. The last boyfriend who came was the girl’s father. Her son Bakyla was suddenly back. All the boyfriends hid, and the widow’s facial gestures made this a wonderful comedy scene. The facial gestures of A.K.Toorchina who acted as the widow Slova were also very good. In this scene there were not many songs but many facial expressions. The music was quite nice and it is not easy to use music to express a comedy. The other setting was Christmas at the village. Many young men and girls had graduated. They sang and danced. The girl saw one of her female friends had new shoes and was envious. Bakyla happened to arrive and talked to the girl. The girl said if he could get the gold shoes of the Queen she would marry him. He asked her female friends to be witnesses. Bakyla was very sad and left the village. In this scene Bakyla sang with the girl. It was good. In the third scene, Bakyla was very sad. The ghost friend of his mother encouraged him and carried him to the palace. They came across the guards. It happened that they came from the same region, the head of the guards asked him to be a guard as well. They danced in the palace of Catherine II. The setting was fine. After the dance, the queen reviewed the guards. Bakyla kneeled down before the Queen and requested the gold shoes and told her about the whole thing. The Queen smiled and bestowed the shoes to him. After the Queen left the ghost friend carried him back to the village. In the fourth scene, Bakyla’s mother was at home, and she  thought of her son and cried, the girl also missed him and felt remorseful. She sang to console his mother. The solo and duet were both lovely. It happened it was Sunday, people in the village gathered, and her father was also there. Bakyla was back and first gave a gift to her father and then he gave the shoes to the girl and they were together.