The Coachmen at the Relay Station

{{Short description|1787 opera by Yevstigney Fomin and Nikolay Lvov}}

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The Coachmen at the Relay Station (Russian: Ямщики на подставе), also referred to as Coachmen on a stand, or an accidental game, is a 1787 one-act comic opera by Yevstigney Fomin with the libretto authored by N. A. Lvov,{{Cite book |last=Taruskin |first=Richard|author-link=Richard Taruskin|url=http://archive.org/details/definingrussiamu0000taru |title=Defining Russia Musically: Historical and Hermeneutical Essays |date=1997 |location=Princeton, New Jersey|publisher=Princeton University Press|via=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0-691-01156-1|page={{page needed|date=May 2024}}}} and was dedicated to friend of Lvov and folk song collector S. M. Mitrofanov,K. Yu. Lappo-Danilevsky. "Comments: N. A. Lviv. Coachmen on stand", in Lvov N. A. Selected works, Cologne; Weimar; Vienna: Böhlau-Verlag; St. Petersburg: Pushkinsky House; Rus. Christian. hum. Institute; Publishing house "Acropolis", 1994, [https://web.archive.org/web/20200920153206/https://rvb.ru/18vek/lvov/02comm/123.htm#c1 p. 408]. (in Russian) although it was specifically written on occasion of Catherine the Great's visit to Tambov. Although the scheduled visit never occurred, the opera was completed and performed without Catherine's appearance to resolve the plot as Fomin intended.[https://billets.mbam.qc.ca/uploads/80d9bf41-eaf0-475c-82cb-e6cde3d96a68.pdf "Karina Gauvin soprano Pacific Baroque orchestra"], Arte Musica (2020), 7.

The work is hallmarked by Fomin's usage of the Russian folk song tradition known as the "drawn out song".{{Cite book |last=Frolova-Walker |first=Marina |url=http://archive.org/details/russianmusicnati0000frol |title=Russian Music and Nationalism; from Glinka to Stalin |date=2007 |location=New Haven, Connecticut; London |publisher=Yale University Press|via=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0-300-11273-3|page={{page needed|date=May 2024}}}} It was premiered that same year on January 2 (November 8), 1787, although its location of premiere is dubious, performances having taken place in both Tambov and Saint Petersburg that year. The latter is considered to be the official place of premiere, however.{{Cite web |date=2020-05-21 |title=Опера Фомина «Ямщики на подставе» (The Coachmen at the Relay Station) {{!}} Belcanto.ru |url=https://www.belcanto.ru/yamschiki.html |access-date=2024-05-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200521104705/https://www.belcanto.ru/yamschiki.html |archive-date=2020-05-21 }} On its premiere, however, the work was not popular with the audience and as a result, it fell out of performance.

Much of Mikhail Glinka's attempts and artistic recreation of Russian folk music practices originated with Fomin, while the nativist project known as, "The Five", specifically Alexander Borodin, continued the focus on authenticity and realism in the ways they attempted to incorporate the choral practices of Russian folk music into their work.Frolova-Walker, 170.