“The Story of a Real Man”, opera, Op. 117

Libretto by Sergei Prokofiev and Mira Mendelson-Prokofieva after Boris Polevoy. Composed in 1947-48. A closed performance took place in Leningrad in December 1948; the revised version was publicly...Read more

Libretto by Sergei Prokofiev and Mira Mendelson-Prokofieva after Boris Polevoy. Composed in 1947-48. A closed performance took place in Leningrad in December 1948; the revised version was publicly staged in Moscow in 1960.

Synopsis:
During the Second World War the pilot Alexei is shot down behind enemy lines. His injured legs make every step agonizing. Moving east towards his own side, he crosses a devastated battlefield and draws strength from thoughts of his beloved Olga, his home on the Volga and his fellow airmen.
After eighteen days two boys, Fedka and Seryonka, discover him in the snow. Their village has been burnt, and the inhabitants now live in forest dugouts. They carry him to safety. The villagers care for him despite their own hardship; Seryonka brings word to Alexei’s friend Andrei, who arranges his evacuation to a Moscow hospital.
Both Alexei’s feet must be amputated. In feverish visions he sees doctors, his mother, Olga and Andrei, and fears that his life as a pilot is over. The ward’s other patients offer contrasting responses to their suffering. Commissar Vorobyov encourages endurance; Andrei hopes to see Anyuta again. The Commissar shows Alexei an account of a First World War pilot who flew with an artificial foot. Although the Commissar later dies, his example helps Alexei resolve to return to flying.
At a sanatorium Alexei painfully learns to walk on prostheses and exercises until he can run and dance. He hesitates to tell Olga what has happened, but her love and letters sustain him. A medical commission initially refuses him permission to fly. By demonstrating his command of the artificial feet, including dancing, he persuades the doctors to send him to a training school.
Alexei, Andrei and Anyuta contemplate their friends still at the front. Back at a forest airfield, the squadron anxiously waits for Alexei to return from combat. The wounded Andrei describes how his friend saved him. Alexei’s aircraft finally appears; the airmen greet his successful return to active service.

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