Feast in Time of Plague

A grand feast is taking place on a terrace, during the plague in London in 1665. Drinking and revelry is well underway, but several chairs sit empty. One such chair reminds the Young Man of one member of their party who they recently lost to the plague, and they offer a toast in his memory. The Chairman calls on Mary to sing for them, and she sings a mournful song which tells of how this plague has silenced the land. It is an old song, from a previous plague, and the Chairman recalls the history of the event.

The rattling of wheels calls a halt to their drinking and feasting, as the wagon for the dead passes them. One of the guests, Louise, faints at the sight of the wagon driver, and when she’s woken she said she saw a demon exactly like him in her dreams, carrying her away with the dead whilst she still lived. The Young Man calls for someone to offer a happier song to cheer them, but the Chairman wants to sing the hymn about the plague he wrote the previous night.

During his singing, a Priest approaches the table. He declares the feast and the guests as godless debauchery, and begs them to give up their revelry. In fact, he cannot believe that he can see President Walsingham sitting here drinking, after only burying his mother three weeks ago. The Priest warns them that if they continue they will never find a place in heaven, but the guests have no time for the Priest and only want to continue feasting.

Pushkin’s play Пир во время чумы (Feast in a Time of Plague) is set to music by Cesar Cui in this dark story which philosophises on the meaning of death, life, love, and sin.

Although this short opera is one through-composed scene, the following moments could be excerpted as arias;

• Почтенный председатель! я напомню / Pochtennyj predsedatel'! ja napomnju / Honorable Chairman! I remember - Young Man
• Было время, процветала / Bylo vremya, procvetala / There was a time, when flourished - Mary
• Когда могущая Зима / Kogda mogushchaya Zima / When the Mighty Winter - Chairman (President Walsingham)
• Безбожный пир, безбожные безумцы! / Bezbozhnyĭ pir, bezbozhnye bezumtsy! / Godless feast, Godless lunatics! - Priest