Natalka Poltavka

In a Ukrainian village, the young maiden Natalka greets her fellow villagers as she carries a yoke with two buckets to the well. At the well, she begins to cry and remembers a sad moment in her life: During a dance in the square of the village of her birth, Poltava, she teasingly runs from her sweetheart Petro, an orphan who had been given a home by her parents. As the assemblage kneel in prayer, the two lovers slip away hand-in-hand. Later, Natalka's father orders Petro to leave the village, and he complies so as not to destroy the family. He and Natalka vow to belong to each other forever, even though they are separated. He wanders by a votiv cross, and Natalka envisions Petro's face and the cross. Back in the present, Natalka addresses Petro's image in the well, wondering where he is, and the image dissolves as water pours from her bucket. A peasant couple pass Natalka on their way to the house of Vozny, a high-hatted money baron. After Vozny wheedles a bribe from the couple, whose cow has been arrested, he learns that the widow Diachonicha is waiting for him to come to her house. His lustful desires aroused, Vozny starts out with his new hat and cane. On his way to the widow's, Vozny sees Natalka in the distance hanging up laundry. Struck by her beauty, he greets her and, to her outrage, says he loves her and asks her to marry him. Natalka protests that they are not equals, but he responds that love makes everyone equal and admits that he has loved her since she moved there. As he continues his plea, Natalka squirts him in the face as she wrings out a piece of clothing before running to the house. Meanwhile, in a field near another town, Petro pitches hay and sings, still longing for Natalka. Mariyka, the landowner's daughter, rides by in her carriage and stops to question him. She learns that he is an orphan and that he has been working for her for two years. Attracted to him, she invites him to work at her home. When Natalka's mother, whose husband has since died, begs Natalka to marry to relieve their poverty, Natalka grudgingly agrees to marry the first man who wants her. Vozny's drunken pal Vyborny then arrives to make his case for Vozny, and although Natalka contends that one should marry to live in happiness and harmony and fears that if she marries a society man, he will always look down on her and that her life will be worse than a servant's, she agrees to the marriage, but asks that she not be rushed. After a year has passed, Mariyka, seeing that Petro is always sad, confesses that she loves him. He says he is not her equal, but she throws her arms around him and kisses him. At night, Petro prays by the water for help to get Natalka back. When Mariyka comes by, he reveals that he loves another, whereupon she says he should go to her, and proudly walks off. Mariyka's father gives Petro money, and Marikya sadly watches him leave. Meanwhile, Natalka goes through a ritual of tying a scarf around Vozny's arm, which means that she has voluntarily consented to marry him. At a creek outside of town, Petro, on his way to find Natalka, meets Mykola, another orphan, who is grazing cattle, and they become friends. As Petro and Mykola walk to town, they meet Vozny and Vyborny coming from Natalka's house, and from their conversation, Petro suspects that Vozny's fiancée is Natalka. During the dances before the wedding, Mykola questions Natalka, and she tells him that her only choice besides marriage was to drown herself. He then reveals that Petro is waiting by the water. As she and Vozny kneel, and her mother blesses their union, she imagines Petro beside her. When she then sees Vozny instead, she flees the gathering. A mob led by Vozny follows, and they find Petro and Natalka embracing by the river. Vozny commands Petro to leave, and Vyborny threatens to have Natalka imprisoned for breech of promise. When Mykola raises his sickle against the mob, Petro consents to go and urges Natalka to learn to love Vosni. He gives her his bag of money so that Vozny will not be able to say he married a penniless girl and says goodbye. Mykola, however, huddles with Vozny and Vyborny, and Vozny then stops Petro from leaving. He says that Petro's noble action has changed his mind and relates that since his birth, he has had the feeling that he must do a good deed, but that until now, he has not done anything of worth. He then blesses the couple and gives Natalka her freedom. After her mother blesses the union, Mykola takes the scarf from Vozny's arm and puts it on Petro's, and Natalka asks Vozny to be the guest of honor at the wedding party, to which she invites the mob. They march to the town in song and leave Petro and Natalka to embrace as the sun sets.