The Judge
RAVES!
Date: 15/02/09
"Alliluiya Lyubvi!"
Another musical memory.
Back in the days when Channel 4 was the place where you could find intellectual sustenance, they showed a film presentation of a Russian musical - or perhaps it could just about be called a 'rock opera', although that term had become one of derision by that time.
It was called Juno and Avos', and told the story of the love affair between Nikolai Petrovitch Rezanov, Chamberlain of Tsar Alexandr I of Russia, and Maria de la Concepción Marcela Arguello, daughter of the comandante of the Presidio of San Francisco (then ruled by the Spanish). On his way back to Russia to arrange their wedding in St Petersburg, Rezanov fell ill and died. On hearing this, Concepción took the veil, dying in a Dominican convent some fifty years later. The full story is here.
The musical, whatever, was composed by Alexey Rybnikov from a libretto by Andrey Voznesenskiy, and was first staged in 1981 at Lenkom in Moscow. It became a huge hit and the cast album sold millions.
I only saw the programme once (it was subtitled, which enabled me at least to keep up with the plot), and on the whole I forgot about it. Except for one song. It was the finale, Alliluiya, and its melody has stayed with me for over twenty-five years.
It occurred to me a couple of hours ago to go looking for it, and I found it on YouTube. Here it is, in what I think is the original production. I haven't been able to find a coherent translation, except that I know that the repeated line, "Alliluiya lyubvi!" means "Hallelujah for love!".
Sentimental old Hector that I am, I'm sure you can guess my emotional state after watching this. Because I don't think you have to understand the lyrics to be affected by it.
Update (15/05/09): The clip I originally linked to has since been removed by YouTube for "terms of use violation". Luckily, I found another version.
