The Tsar's Bride

Kate and the Prince are going to be married this week. They seem like a nice couple, he being or acting good natured and one of the guys and she, very good looking and with a genuine smile and manner. Good for them....and I mean that. Good for them. One hopes that, in the best keeping of Prince and Paupers, realizes that the other's roles in life, though vastly different, have their pitfalls and pratfalls and no one makes the journey without some sacrifice and dashed expectations.

We have talk in the United States of Czars appointed by the government to do specific work.  These appointees are our form of royalty as the President and Congress were formed by the founders to be precisely NOT royalty.  The term Czar is interesting as we would be loath as a nation for whatever reason to adopt a term from either Slavic origin or - gasp imperialist Russia.  Actually Czars  comes from the Roman "Caesar" and eventually meant a great many things but mostly someone who was the "head man (or woman)" and ruled the roost.  The European nations have a monarch and a monarchy while the rest of us get Czars or Tsars.

One of the intrepid broadcasters this morning offed the question of why we are interested in Kate and what's his name if we have interest at all.  I got to answer but they didn't hear me.  Because Kate is a "commoner" and she gets to marry her prince - a Czar without power.  The old saying is "that for every princess a prince or a frog"....well having four granddaughters I'm hoping for Princes.... But it is symbolic of the hope we all have that our female offspring and/or descendants get princes.  Not so in history as the Princes seem to be not such hot catches and when we get the Tsars, well things simply go to pot  (dare you to look up some of the offshoots of "despots" and the origination of terms and phrases).

Kate could have landed a Prince - which she did - or a Czar or Tsar.  Here is the synopsis of Acts III  and IV of "The Tsar's Bride" by the Russian composer Rimsky-Korsakov:

Act 3: The Best ManIn the meantime, the Tsar of the title, Ivan IV (known as "Ivan the Terrible"), is looking for a new bride from the best aristocratic maidens in Russia. The Tsar settles upon Marfa. At the celebration of the engagement of Marfa to Lykov, everyone is surprised when the news arrives of the Tsar's choice of Marfa as his bride. Gryaznoi had slipped what he thought was the love potion from Bomelius into Marfa's drink at the feast. 
Act 4: The BrideAt the Tsar's palace, Marfa has become violently ill. Lykov has been executed, at the instigation of Gryaznoi, on charges of attempting to kill Marfa. When Marfa learns that Lykov is dead, she goes insane. Eventually, Gryaznoi admits that he had slipped a potion into her drink, and after learning that it was poisonous, asks that he himself be executed. Lyubasha then confesses that she had substituted her portion from Bomelius for Gryaznoi's. In a rage, Gryaznoi murders Lyubasha, and is then taken to prison eventually to be executed. In her madness, Marfa mistakes Gryzanoi for Lykov, inviting him to return the next day to visit her, then dies.

Aside from sounding and reading like a Woody Allen knock off of Love and Death, this shows what amounts to be a pretty farcical look at nobility, the passions, faux-passions and grand gestures that we commoners associate with royalty.  Moreover, we ascribe special attributes to mere mortals who are impacted with the titles only deserved by birth and nothing else. 

I don't really know (or care) what happens to Marfa in this opera nor do I care other than she seems to have lived and probably died at the will of passion and power....thus a tale for all ages.  I do wish Kate well - she seems a sturdy sort and will have to be when tossed into this hotbed of noble intrigue. 

Here is the overture.  First act curtain will go up in a few days.