As a composer, Gliere followed the Russian romantic tradition, something that brought him official praise in 1948 when the music of Prokofiev and Shostakovich was condemned. In particular, his ballet music proved popular. The Red Poppy, later known, to avoid the connotation of opium, as The Red Flower, satisfied political choreographic demands and became a well known part of ballet repertoire from 1926 onwards, while the later ballet The Bronze Horseman, completed in 1949, also retained its place in Soviet repertoire.

The Red Poppy (Krasnj mak), with libretto and original decor by M. Kurilko and choreography by Lev Lashchilin and Vasily Tikhomikov, was first staged at the Bolshoy Theatre on 14 June 1927, when Ekaterina Geltser danced Tao-Hoa and Aleksey Bulgatov the heroic Captain. Set in a Chinese port, the story of the ballet is simply told. The dancer Tao-Hoa falls in love with the captain of a Soviet cargo ship, to whom she gives a red poppy. Li-Shan-Fu, her manager, plots to kill the captain by having her give him poisoned tea, but she refuses. Later, in a coolie uprising, she saves the life of the captain and is later killed by a bullet from Li-Shan-Fu. She hands a red poppy to a little Chinese girl, as she dies a sign of love and of freedom. Scope is given for divertissements in the second act, a dream-sequence, set in an opium den. Here, Tao-Hoa sees a Golden Buddha, ancient goddesses, butterflies, birds and flowers

The ballet starts with an appropriate introduction, suggesting a Chinese setting with its pentatonic melodic material. A more ominous mood appears, suggesting the oppression to which the coolies, dock-workers are subjected. The dancing-girl Tao-Hoa enters, in a more lyrical atmosphere. The restaurant itself has a cosmopolitan clientele, represented in the various dances that follow, including a Boston Waltz and finally leading to the entrance of the Russian captain and the dance of his sailors. The love of the couple is established in Tao-Hoa's scene and variation, followed by a coolies' victory dance and a celebratory dance by the Russian sailors.

The second act is set in an opium den. Here, there is a dance of Chinese women and an Adagio for the four goddesses of ancient times. Tao-Hoa dreams of the Buddha, of the fabulous phoenix of legend and of the ship of her beloved.

Reality returns with a Charleston and a dance in the restaurant, with preparations for the Chinese theatre, followed by an Umbrella Dance, a Puppet Dance, with xylophone, and a Chinese Acrobat Dance. The coolie uprising is plotted and in this the captain is only saved by the intervention of Tao-Hoa, allowing him to sail away with his men. In the aftermath Tao-Hoa is shot, to hand a red poppy to a little girl, as she dies. The flower, by its colour, symbolizes communism, which will bring freedom to the oppressed, a sign of hope of a better world, expressed in the well known Internationale, the Communist anthem.

The Red Poppy, its name changed to The Red Flower in 1957, was greeted with some acclaim at its first staging. It seemed innovative, with a clear and acceptable political message, fulfilling the aims of the Soviet cultural establishment. Musically the libretto presented the composer with a number of problems. While the oriental setting provided an exotic background, enabling Gliere to make use of characteristic pentatonic melodies, there were inevitable juxtapositions of other musical material, associated with colonial oppression or with the gallant Russian sailors and their captain. It might, therefore, be suggested that the work as a whole lacks something of the unity that might have been found in a more traditional ballet. Whatever reservations might be held about the score, Gliere certainly won lasting success with The Red Poppy, of which excerpts, such as the Russian Sailors' Dance, have become very familiar.

Writer: Keith Anderson