DEATH OF IVAN ILYCH
A Full-Length Chamber Opera in One Act
A Full-Length Chamber Opera in One Act
Death of Ivan Ilych premiered with Opera Orlando in February 2021, the first opera since the pandemic. It received its second production with Thompson Street Opera in Chicago the following September. Grant Preisser directed both productions, with audiences and reviewers enthusiastically receiving both productions. The opera is based on the novella by Leo Tolstoy (1886). While it is considered a masterpiece of short fiction, this story is personal to the composer. In 2010, John Young, the composer, was diagnosed with inoperable cancer. Once a promising opera tenor, John lost his singing voice from the cancer treatments. The musical themes found in this opera are from a musical suite for piano and oboe, composed when he was facing his mortality. John was treated successfully and continues to be cancer-free. This opera asks: If death is a certainty, how do we want to live our lives today?
Creative Team: John Young, Composer, Alan Olejniczak: Libretto
Duration: 80 minutes
Style of Music: Neo-Romantic
Language: English
Read the Libretto
Listen to the Music
For inquiries for production contact Alan Olejniczak at [email protected]
Synopsis:
We are at the end. Pyotr Ivanovich is in the wake of his colleague, Ivan Ilych. He looks forward to leaving but must first pay his respects to the grieving widow, Praskovya Fedorovna. She presses Pyotr Ivanovich to help her with a grant of money, but he feels he is not the one to ask. Gerasim, Ivan’s loyal manservant, reminds him that death is fate for us all. We start at the beginning, where we meet Ivan Ilych and his wife and son, Vladimir. Ivan Ilych is pleased with the new décor of his home but unexpectedly seizes in pain. He fell from a ladder some time ago and has hurt his side. His wife insists he visits a physician, but the doctor cannot find the cause of his ailment. Still, the pain continues, and Ivan Ilych spends his days in bed, and Gerasim continues to be his comfort. It eventually becomes clear when Ivan Ilych’s condition worsens that it’s now become terminal. At first, Ivan Ilych is resentful, believing he does not deserve his suffering because he lived a good life, so pain and death are senseless. He continues to blame God, but Ivan Ilych begins to question his comfortable existence and realizes his life was indeed the most simple, the most ordinary, and, therefore, the most terrible. Ivan Ilych spent his life working a job he disliked, fruitlessly seeking social status, and enduring an unhappy marriage. Ivan Ilych realizes his life and marriage are his own making, and he asks his wife, Praskovya Fedorovna, for forgiveness. They then both reminisce about the time they fell in love. She admits she pursued and fell in love with him for his dancing. Why did they ever stop? The couple becomes hopeful and considers their new life together, but the pain returns and the doctor reminds Praskovya Fedorovna that her husband is indeed dying. Ivan Ilych begins to understand his artificial life masks the true meaning of life and makes one fearful of dying. As death approaches, Ivan Ilych hopes his death will bring a release, and in doing so, the terror leaves him. Ivan Ilych embraces his death with joy and finally dies in peace.
Casting: (five principals with one non-singing role for a child)
IVAN ILYCH, Lyric Baritone (forties)
PRASKOVYA FEDOROVNA, Soprano (thirties)
GERASIM Tenor (twenties)
PYOTR IVANOVICH / PRIEST Bass-Baritone (forties)
DOCTOR Bass (older than forty)
VLADIMIR Non-Singing Role (a boy who looks eight years old)
Instrumentation: Two violins, viola, cello, double bass, piano, and oboe
Reviews:
"To experience this work in the pandemic was powerful." Opera Magazine
"New opera poignantly puts life in death" Matthew J. Palm, Orlando Sentinel
"Superb!" Quinn Delaney, PlaylistHQ
"A stirring premiere... this opera has become more relevant than the creators could have imagined." Chicago Classical Review
Creative Team: John Young, Composer, Alan Olejniczak: Libretto
Duration: 80 minutes
Style of Music: Neo-Romantic
Language: English
Read the Libretto
Listen to the Music
For inquiries for production contact Alan Olejniczak at [email protected]
Synopsis:
We are at the end. Pyotr Ivanovich is in the wake of his colleague, Ivan Ilych. He looks forward to leaving but must first pay his respects to the grieving widow, Praskovya Fedorovna. She presses Pyotr Ivanovich to help her with a grant of money, but he feels he is not the one to ask. Gerasim, Ivan’s loyal manservant, reminds him that death is fate for us all. We start at the beginning, where we meet Ivan Ilych and his wife and son, Vladimir. Ivan Ilych is pleased with the new décor of his home but unexpectedly seizes in pain. He fell from a ladder some time ago and has hurt his side. His wife insists he visits a physician, but the doctor cannot find the cause of his ailment. Still, the pain continues, and Ivan Ilych spends his days in bed, and Gerasim continues to be his comfort. It eventually becomes clear when Ivan Ilych’s condition worsens that it’s now become terminal. At first, Ivan Ilych is resentful, believing he does not deserve his suffering because he lived a good life, so pain and death are senseless. He continues to blame God, but Ivan Ilych begins to question his comfortable existence and realizes his life was indeed the most simple, the most ordinary, and, therefore, the most terrible. Ivan Ilych spent his life working a job he disliked, fruitlessly seeking social status, and enduring an unhappy marriage. Ivan Ilych realizes his life and marriage are his own making, and he asks his wife, Praskovya Fedorovna, for forgiveness. They then both reminisce about the time they fell in love. She admits she pursued and fell in love with him for his dancing. Why did they ever stop? The couple becomes hopeful and considers their new life together, but the pain returns and the doctor reminds Praskovya Fedorovna that her husband is indeed dying. Ivan Ilych begins to understand his artificial life masks the true meaning of life and makes one fearful of dying. As death approaches, Ivan Ilych hopes his death will bring a release, and in doing so, the terror leaves him. Ivan Ilych embraces his death with joy and finally dies in peace.
Casting: (five principals with one non-singing role for a child)
IVAN ILYCH, Lyric Baritone (forties)
PRASKOVYA FEDOROVNA, Soprano (thirties)
GERASIM Tenor (twenties)
PYOTR IVANOVICH / PRIEST Bass-Baritone (forties)
DOCTOR Bass (older than forty)
VLADIMIR Non-Singing Role (a boy who looks eight years old)
Instrumentation: Two violins, viola, cello, double bass, piano, and oboe
Reviews:
"To experience this work in the pandemic was powerful." Opera Magazine
"New opera poignantly puts life in death" Matthew J. Palm, Orlando Sentinel
"Superb!" Quinn Delaney, PlaylistHQ
"A stirring premiere... this opera has become more relevant than the creators could have imagined." Chicago Classical Review
