Word: kutuzov
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...listens to it. In Schnittke's dark, Russo-Germanic artistic universe, strings do not soar, they brood; woodwinds do not chirp, they protest; brass does not shine, it glowers. Created in the caldron of Central Europe, his music speaks of epic battles and terrible defeats; it is Kutuzov and Napoleon at Borodino, Von Paulus at Stalingrad. Why, then, is it suddenly so popular...
...coincidence that Washington, Lincoln, Wilson and Roosevelt waged successful wars. All were strategists, students of their times and places, calculating with rare skill the human and industrial capacities of the nation, the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy. One of Hart's heroes is General Mikhail Kutuzov, whose patient strategy in turning back Napoleon's invasion of Russia is immortalized in Tolstoy's War and Peace. The old general used time, weather, distance, maneuver and surprise to defeat the mightiest army ever assembled in Europe. "General Kutuzov outfought Napoleon, he didn't just overwhelm him with...
...fingers," and the historian believes him. But, Tolstoy implies in his epic novel, chance--and the random effect it has on the lives of millions of people--is history's major determining factor. The victory at Borodino towards the end of the novel belongs to the aging Russian general Kutuzov not because he stopped the French but because, looking at the carnage, he realizes that no one can either understand or control events...
Most of the other actors skillfully manipulate their minor roles with characteristic panache. Sarah McClusky's bubbling Countess Rostova is particularly entertaining as is Tom Myers'' self-important Napoleon Bonaparte. Chris Clemenson squeezes the wisdom of General Kutuzov from a wonderfully wizened frame. And John Blazo as the soldier Kuragin easily seduces Natasha with a slickness worthy of the serpent in the garden...
...singing of Soprano Makvala Kasrashvili as Natasha and Baritone Yuri Mazurok as Andrei -lay in the company's willingness to take War and Peace for what it is and never what it is not. It is an epic; but unlike the heroes of Verdi or Wagner, Napoleon and Kutuzov never meet face to face, nor do we ever see Andrei suffer his fatal wound, nor can Natasha save him. But although War and Peace is no lyric drama, Prokofiev is capable of remarkably delicate touches, like the soft rasping of strings that evoke the delirium of Andrei...