War and Peace

    

War and Peace is the most monumental of all Tolstoy's novels, spanning decades and thousands of miles in its far-reaching, quintessentially Russian narrative. Its story describes the social intrigues of Moscow and St Petersburg, and travels from the rambling Russian country estates to the blood-spattered fields in Europe, charting Napoleon’s over-arching ambition for power and his eventual downfall.

The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, in collaboration with Scottish Opera and the Rachmaninov State Conservatoire of Rostov-on-Don in Russia, present the premiere of the original version of Prokofiev's opera, prepared by the renowned Prokofiev scholar Dr Rita McAllister.

In this, his original concept, Prokofiev is far more concerned with the intimate personal relationships of the young Natasha and the men in her life than the epic conflict taking place on the world stage. However, the threat of Napoleon is never far away and Russia's fate hangs in the balance, as do that of the principal characters in this most powerful of stories and Prokofiev’s undoubted operatic masterpiece.

This production has a cast of 75 and a running time of approximately 3 hours.

 

Sung in Russian.