About the work
Aleko is a one-act opera by Sergei Rachmaninoff with a libretto by Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, based on Alexander Pushkin's narrative poem 'The Gypsies' (1827). Rachmaninoff wrote the score in 1892 as his graduation piece at the Moscow Conservatory – reportedly in just seventeen days – earning the Great Gold Medal. The premiere took place on 9 May 1893 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, with Pyotr Tchaikovsky in the audience praising the nineteen-year-old composer.
Plot
Aleko has abandoned settled life to live among the Roma with the young Zemfira. When he discovers she has taken another lover, he kills both of them in a jealous rage. The Roma then banish him from their camp, unwilling to travel on with a murderer among them.
Cultural significance
As the graduation work of a nineteen-year-old, Aleko established Rachmaninoff's reputation as an opera composer and remains, alongside 'The Miserly Knight' and 'Francesca da Rimini', one of only three operas he completed.