• Sergey Vasil’yevich Rachmaninov. Opera in one act. 1892.
• Libretto by Vladimir Ivanovich Nemirovich-Danchenko, after Pushkin’s Tsigani.
• First performance at the Bol’shoy Theatre, Moscow, on 9 May 1893.

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CHARACTERS

Aleko	bass-baritone
Zemfira	soprano
Old Woman	mezzo-soprano
Young Gypsy	tenor
Old Gypsy	bass

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A graduation piece for Rachmaninov, Aleko deals with the liaison between the young Aleko, tired of his life, with a gypsy girl, her rejection of him in favour of another, and his murder of the couple. Rachmaninov’s early career in Russia brought work with Mamontov’s opera company, although in later life his name came to be associated above all with the piano.