Letter 3358
| Date | 19 September/1 October 1887 |
|---|---|
| Addressed to | Emiliya Pavlovskaya |
| Where written | Maydanovo |
| Language | Russian |
| Autograph Location | Moscow (Russia): Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum (Pavlovskaya collection) |
| Publication | Чайковский на Московской сцене (1940), p. 406–407 П. И. Чайковский. Полное собрание сочинений, том XIV (1974), p. 220 |
Text and Translation
| Russian text (original) |
English translation By Luis Sundkvist |
19 сент[ября] [18]87 г[ода] Дорогая благодетельница!
Посылаю сейчас на имя Э. Ф. Направника клавираусцуг со всеми переменами и купюрами. Я думаю, что Вы будете довольны. Дуэт Кудьмы с Княгиней я решился во что быто ни стало сохранить, но зато дальше сделал взамен этой другие большие купюры. В понедельник я еду в Москву по разным делам и там буду ожидать уведомления, когда ехать в Питер. Пока до свиданья, дорогая Эмилия Карловна! Целую Ваши ручки! Ваш, П. Чайковский |
19 September 1887 Dear benefactress! [1]
I am now sending the piano reduction with all the alterations and cuts in a parcel addressed to E. F. Nápravník. I think you will be satisfied. I have decided to retain the duet between Kudma and the Princess at all costs [2], but later on I have made other big cuts instead of that one. On Monday I am going to Moscow on various business matters [3], and there I shall await notification of when I am supposed to come to Piter. Until we meet, dear Emiliya Karlovna! I kiss your hands! Yours, P. Tchaikovsky |
Notes and References
- ↑ From his earliest letters to Pavlovskaya Tchaikovsky had called her his "benefactress", thereby emphasizing how grateful he was to her for her enthusiastic attitude towards Mazepa (in which she created the role of Mariya at the opera's premiere), as well as towards Yevgeny Onegin, in which she sang Tatyana many times. Now of course he was also grateful for the enthusiasm with which she was preparing to create the role of Kuma/Nastasya in The Enchantress.
- ↑ The minor role of the sorcerer Kudma was to be performed by Emiliya Pavlovskaya's husband, the baritone Sergey Yevgrafovich Pavlovsky (1846–1915). Nápravník had demanded that the duet between Kudma and the Princess in Act IV be omitted, but Tchaikovsky decided otherwise, partly so as not to offend Pavlovskaya.
- ↑ Tchaikovsky in fact left for Moscow not on Monday, 21 September/3 October, but on Tuesday, 22 September/4 October. He returned to Maydanovo on the evening of 24 September/6 October, and then, on 28 September/10 October, set off for Saint Petersburg to conduct the first orchestral rehearsal of The Enchantress. The main purpose of his trip to Moscow was to meet Pyotr Jurgenson in order to discuss with him the possibility of buying a plot of land from Mrs Novikova, the proprietress of Maydanovo — note by Vasily Kiselev in Чайковский на московской сцене (1940), p. 407.
