Tchaikovsky Mazeppa

[sidrockafeller]

I see that his Opera Mazeppa has the Parts for Overture. But I've spoken to some Colleague's and from what I've understood that his Complete Opera is still under Copyright and The complete opera is owned by Russian publisher VAAP and is only available by rental through G. Schirmer?

Does anyone know what the Status are on The Complete Opera Parts? PD or non-PD?

[Davydov]

The full score of Mazeppa was published by Jurgenson (Moscow) in 1899, which means that copyright in the opera expired several decades ago.

[steltz]

This is probably a similar case to the Bruch clarinet/viola concerto, where it is in the public domain in many countries, but if the company with the orchestral parts decides not to issue it for sale, they can keep it in rental form forever if they wish. Photocopying is usually prohibited in the rental contract, so a lawsuit would be breach of contract, not breach of copyright.

In the case of the Bruch, I did manage to get a (bad) copy of the autograph score and some finale parts that someone else started, but I have to painstakingly do corrections to the finale parts. Last Christmas I did the first movement, but still have to finish the other two.

I dread to think how long it would take to do a whole opera this way!

I think the bottom line is that, unless someone other than Schirmer did their own set of orchestral parts, your only choice would be to rent or to start the very long process of doing your own parts.

[Carolus]

There are probably a few manuscript sets of parts that exist - most likely in Russian libraries and archives. The work itself is absolutely public domain, as p.davydov mentioned above. None of the Tchaikovsky complete works editions were eligible for restoration under GATT/TRIPs due to the fact that they were public domain in their country of origin, so Schirmer's claim is spurious. Kalmus only reprinted the overture and Cossack Dance, apparently because the complete opera was not worth bothering with, given the rarity of performances in the west.

[sidrockafeller]

I think that if Kalmus or Lucks decided to re-issue the Compete Opera Parts it would spruce things up here in the West. I think its a wonderful Opera and have many Violin 1 parts of several Opera's, Ballets and Symphonies in my Private Collection throughout the many years playing. But I wonder how many of it is PD in the US?