The Story of a Real Man

Template:Short description Template:Infobox opera The Story of a Real Man (Template:Langx) is an opera in four acts by the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev, his opus 117. It was written from 1947 to 1948, and was his last opera.

The libretto, by the composer and his wife Mira Mendelson, is based on the eponymous novel by Boris Polevoy; this in turn was based on the story of pilot Aleksey Maresyev. The opera received its premiere on 3 December 1948 at the Kirov Theatre in Leningrad. The audience was made up of Soviet cultural officials who gave the work a poor reception. This was a great disappointment to the composer who had intended the opera to rehabilitate his reputation with the Communist authorities after he had been accused of "formalism" earlier in the year. As a result, performances of The Story of a Real Man were forbidden to the general public until after Prokofiev's death. It received its public premiere on 7 October 1960 at the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow.

Roles

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Role	Voice type	Premiere cast, closed rehearsal 3 December 1948 Conductor: Boris Khaykin Leningrad, Kirov	Bolshoi cast, public premiere 8 October 1960 Conductor: Mark Ermler Studio recording, 1961
Aleksey Maresyev, pilot	baritone		Yevgeny Kibkalo
Andrei Dzhegtyarenko, pilot	bass		Georgi Pankov
Klaudiya Michailovna, nurse	contralto		Kira Leonova
Konstantin Kukushkin, pilot	tenor		Aleksei Maslennikov
Grandfather Mihailov	tenor		Georgi Shulpin
Olga, Aleksey's fiancée	soprano		Glafira Deomidova
Commissar Semyon Vorobyev	baritone / bass		Arthur Eisen
Sinocka	soprano		Maria Zvenzdina
Varya	mezzo-soprano		Margarita Miglau
Surgeon Vasilyevich	bass		Mark Reshetin
Grandmother Vasilissa	contralto		Vera Smirnova

Synopsis

The story is set during the Second World War. Aleksey, a Soviet fighter pilot, is shot down in combat against the Germans and badly wounded. He is rescued and cared for by villagers from a collective farm before being transferred to a hospital, where both his legs are amputated. He is inspired by the thought of his girlfriend and the support of his fellow patients, one of whom tells him the story of a First World War ace who continued to fly after losing one of his legs. The opera ends with Aleksey taking to the air again in his new plane.

Recordings

• Yevgeny Kibkalo (as Aleksey), Glafira Deomidova (as Olga). Chorus and orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre, dir. Mark Ermler. Studio recording, 1961, Moscow, based on 1960 Bolshoi Theatre production; CHANDOS CHAN 10002 (2CD, with libretto in Cyrillic, and translations). The recording is abridged.

Further reading

• Holden, Amanda (Ed.), The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York: Penguin Putnam, 2001. Template:ISBN