"1907. Rimsky-Korsakov and Belsky first became interested in writing an opera on the Kitezh legend during the winter of 1898-1899, while they were working on the libretto to ""The Tale of Tsar Saltan"". The idea of combining the legend of St. Fevroniya into the story was part of the project from the beginning. The project remained in the minds of both composer and the librettist, but would have to wait until 1903 until serious work could begin. During the period between 1898 and the beginning of 1903, the composer was occupied with the composition of the operas ""The Tale of"
"opera came with Mikhail Glinka and his two great operas ""A Life for the Tsar"" (1836) and ""Ruslan and Lyudmila"" (1842). After him, in the 19th century in Russia, there were written such operatic masterpieces as ""Rusalka"" and ""The Stone Guest"" by Alexander Dargomyzhsky, ""Boris Godunov"" and ""Khovanshchina"" by Modest Mussorgsky, ""Prince Igor"" by Alexander Borodin, ""Eugene Onegin"" and ""The Queen of Spades"" by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, and ""The Snow Maiden"" and ""Sadko"" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. These developments mirrored the growth of Russian nationalism across the artistic spectrum, as part of the more general Slavophilism movement. In the 20th century, the"
"were the operas ""The Snow Maiden"" (""Snegurochka""), ""Sadko"", ""Boris Godunov"", ""Prince Igor"", ""Khovanshchina"", and symphonic suite ""Scheherazade"". Many of the works by Glinka and the Mighty Five were based on Russian history, folk tales and literature, and are regarded as masterpieces of romantic nationalism in music. This period also saw the foundation of the Russian Musical Society (RMS) in 1859, led by composer-pianists Anton (1829–94) and Nikolay Rubinstein (1835–81). The Mighty Five was often presented as the Russian Music Society's rival, with the Five embracing their Russian national identity and the RMS being musically more conservative. However the RMS founded"
"and the Mariinsky in Saint Petersburg remain famous throughout the world. The first known opera made in Russia was ""A Life for the Tsar"" by Mikhail Glinka in 1836. This was followed by several operas such as ""Ruslan and Lyudmila"" in 1842. Russian opera was originally a combination of Russian folk music and Italian opera. After the October revolution many opera composers left Russia. Russia's most popular operas include ""Boris Godunov"", ""Eugene Onegin"", ""The Golden Cockerel"", ""Prince Igor"", and ""The Queen of Spades"". Since the late Soviet times Russia has experienced another wave of Western cultural influence, which led to"
"celebrated in a German song by Rudolf Greintz in 1907, which was quickly translated into Russian and sung to a martial accompaniment. These lyrics mourned the fallen lying in their graves and threatened revenge. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov also reacted to the war by composing the satirical opera ""The Golden Cockerel"", completed in 1907. Although it was ostensibly based on a verse fairy tale by Alexander Pushkin written in 1834, the authorities quickly realised its true target and immediately banned it from performance. The opera was premiered in 1909, after Rimsky-Korsakov's death, and even then with modifications required by the censors. Some"
"Grigory Pirogov Grigory Stepanovich Pirogov (Григорий Степанович Пирогов) (Ryazan January 24, 1885 – February 20, 1931) was a Russian bass opera singer. Grigory was born in the village of Novoselki, Ryazan, one of four of five brothers who became singers, most notably including his younger brother Alexander Pirogov who from 1924 to 1954 was one of the bass soloists of the Bolshoi Theatre. Grigory also had earlier performed at the Bolshoi. Grigory notably followed basses Nikolay Speransky (premiere 1909) and Vasily Osipov (Bolshoi 1909) in performing the role of King Dodon in Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Golden Cockerel. As a soloist"
"Zimin Opera The Zimin Opera was founded by the Russian entrepreneur Sergei Zimin in Moscow, Russia in 1903. The company staged the premieres of such operas as Rimsky-Korsakov's ""Golden Cockerel"", Gretchaninoff's ""Beatris Sister"" and Ippolitov-Ivanov's ""Izmena"". It also staged the Russian premieres of Puccini's ""La fanciulla del West"", Wagner's ""Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg"", Mascagni's ""Iris"" and Leoncavallo's ""Zazà"". Many well-known Russian and Italian opera singers performed with the company, including Georges Baklanoff, Lina Cavalieri, Feodor Chaliapin, Leonid Sobinov, Valeria Barsova and Titta Ruffo. Stage sets and costumes were designed by such Russian artists as Ivan Bilibin, Viktor Vasnetsov and Nicholas"
"Maria Eklund Maria Eklund (born 1973) is a Russian-born Swedish conductor. In 2005, she became the first woman to conduct an orchestra at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, breaking the barriers of what so far was a strictly male area of expertise. She conducted ""The Golden Cockerel"" by Rimsky-Korsakov. Eklund was born in Moscow in a family of Russian intelligentsia. Her paternal grandmother was an accomplished pianist who graduated from The Moscow Conservatoire at the same time as the pianist and conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy. Her paternal grandfather is a physics scientist who worked at The Kurtchatov Institute in Moscow before"
"staged a new production of ""The Golden Cockerel"" on 25 December 2014, with Valery Gergiev as conductor. The stage director and costume designer was Anna Matison. The opera was presented in Russian during the 2015 winter season by the Sarasota Opera conducted by Ekhart Wycik, with set designs by David P. Gordon, and featuring Grigory Soloviov as Tsar Dodon, Alexandra Batsios as the Tsaritsa of Shemakha, Timur Bekbosunov at the Astrologer, and Riley Svatos as the Golden Cockerel. De Munt/La Monnaie staged a new production in Brussels in December 2016. This was a co-production with the Teatro Real of Madrid"
"political collisions of 20th century divided Russian opera composers into those who managed to escape to the West, successfully or not, and those who continued to live in not particular friendly atmosphere of the Soviet and Post-Soviet regimes. And nevertheless, the process of producing of new operas was not diminished, but just opposite, it was immensely grown. Zimin Opera established in 1904, Sergei Diaghilev's Saisons Russes began in Paris in 1913. Vladimir Rebikov (1866–1920) composer of more than 10 operas is best of all known for his opera ""The Christmas Tree"" (""Yolka"", 1894–1902) in which he presented his ideas of"
"Sergei Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (; ; 27 April 1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian Soviet composer, pianist and conductor. As the creator of acknowledged masterpieces across numerous musical genres, he is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century. His works include such widely heard works as the March from ""The Love for Three Oranges,"" the suite ""Lieutenant Kijé"", the ballet ""Romeo and Juliet""—from which ""Dance of the Knights"" is taken—and ""Peter and the Wolf."" Of the established forms and genres in which he worked, he created – excluding juvenilia – seven completed operas,"
"heard a note of Rimsky-Korsakov's music sent small monetary donations. Several faculty members of the St. Petersburg Conservatory resigned in protest, including Glazunov and Lyadov. Eventually, over 300 students walked out of the Conservatory in solidarity with Rimsky-Korsakov. By December he had been reinstated under a new director, Glazunov. Rimsky-Korsakov retired from the Conservatory in 1906. The political controversy continued with his opera ""The Golden Cockerel"". Its implied criticism of monarchy, Russian imperialism and the Russo-Japanese War gave it little chance of passing the censors. The premiere was delayed until 1909, after Rimsky-Korsakov's death, and even then it was performed"
"Alexander Borodin Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin (; 12 November 183327 February 1887) was a Russian Romantic composer of Georgian origin. He was one of the prominent 19th-century composers known as The Mighty Handful, a group dedicated to producing a uniquely Russian kind of classical music, rather than imitating earlier Western European models. Borodin is best known for his symphonies, his two string quartets, the tone poem ""In the Steppes of Central Asia"" and his opera ""Prince Igor"". Music from ""Prince Igor"" and his string quartets was later adapted for the US musical ""Kismet"". A doctor and chemist by profession, Borodin made"
"Askold's Grave (opera) Askold's Grave (also: ""Askold's Tomb"", Russian: Аскольдова могила – Askol’dova mogila) is an opera in four acts by Alexey Verstovsky (1799–1862) to a libretto by Mikhail Zagoskin (1789–1852). It was the most successful of Verstovsky's six operas, and its popularity even overshadowed Glinka’s two operas. It is a romantic opera with spoken dialogue, influenced by Weber's ""Der Freischütz"", the latter having become popular in Russia after its first Russian performance in 1824. The role of Torop was created specifically for Alexander Bantyshev. The directors of the Imperial Theatres paid 2,000 rubles to the composer for this opera."
"that after his father's death in the same year of 1870, Kadmina's family was left without money, he helped the girl not only become a student of the Moscow Conservatory in singing class, but also receive a scholarship. Among the teachers of Kadmina were such honored artists as Alexandra Alexandrova-Kochetova, Ivan Samarin and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Later, charmed by her velvety rich mezzo-soprano, Tchaikovsky wrote specially for her music to the spring fairy tale of Alexander Ostrovsky ""The Snow Maiden"". At the age of eighteen, her stage debut took place. Nikolay Rubinstein invited the budding Kadminа to the role of"
"Juliette, Manon, she also excelled in Russian operas, notably the leading female roles in works such as ""Ruslan and Lyudmila"", ""The Snow Maiden"", ""A Life for the Tsar"", ""Sadko"", ""The Queen of Spades"", ""The Golden Cockerel"". In 1929, she sang in concert in Berlin and made a tour of Poland. After retiring from the stage, she taught at the Moscow Conservatory from 1950 until 1953. She retired in Sochi on the Black Sea, where she died at 75. Valeria Barsova Valeria Vladimirovna Barsova (Astrakhan, 13 June 1892 – Sochi, 13 December 1967), PAU, was a Russian operatic soprano, one of"
"wife, who sang the parts of the Snow Maiden, the Swan Princess, and Princess Volkhova in Rimsky-Korsakov's operas. Using Russian fairy tales, he executed some of his most acclaimed pieces, including ""Pan"" (1899), ""The Swan Princess"" (1900), and ""Lilacs"" (1900). Vrubel was not only a painter. He was a master of majolica. He created a majolica frieze for hotel Metropol in Moscow. He was a member of Abramtsevo circle, creative community who tried to create the total work of art. Vrubel also made some architectural projects, such as project of the house of Mamontov in Moscow. In 1901, Vrubel returned"
"Valery Kritskov Valery Kritskov is a Russian conductor who used to take conducting lessons at the Moscow Institute of Culture which were taught by Kirill Tikhonov. He graduated from there in 1988 and then worked in Moscow-based Helikon Opera till he got employed with Novaya Opera in 2002. While there, he conducted many operas including Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's ""The Snow Maiden"" and ""The Tsar’s Bride"" as well as Anton Rubinstein's ""The Demon"" and Tchaikovsky's ""The Maid of Orleans"". He also conducted works by the Italian composers such as Pietro Mascagni's ""Cavalleria rusticana"" and Ruggero Leoncavallo's ""Pagliacci"" and German such as Richard"
"Valery Kritskov Valery Kritskov is a Russian conductor who used to take conducting lessons at the Moscow Institute of Culture which were taught by Kirill Tikhonov. He graduated from there in 1988 and then worked in Moscow-based Helikon Opera till he got employed with Novaya Opera in 2002. While there, he conducted many operas including Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's ""The Snow Maiden"" and ""The Tsar’s Bride"" as well as Anton Rubinstein's ""The Demon"" and Tchaikovsky's ""The Maid of Orleans"". He also conducted works by the Italian composers such as Pietro Mascagni's ""Cavalleria rusticana"" and Ruggero Leoncavallo's ""Pagliacci"" and German such as Richard"
"of Labour (1971), and Order of the Red Star (1946). Nikita Bogoslovsky Nikita Vladimirovich Bogoslovsky (; May 22, 1913 in Saint-Petersburg, Russian Empire – April 4, 2004 in Moscow, Russia) was a Soviet Russian composer, author of more than 200 songs, 8 symphonies (1940–1991), 17 operettas and musical comedies, 58 soundtracks, and 52 scores for theater productions. Bogoslovsky is best known for two Mark Bernes's trademark songs from the Great Patriotic War film ""Two Fighters"" (Dva boitsa, 1943), ""Tyomnaya noch"" (Dark Night) and ""Shalandy polnye kefali"" (Boats Full of Mullets). Among his many honorary titles and State awards were People's"
"as she falls in love, her heart warms and she melts. This version of the story was made into a play ""The Snow Maiden"" by Aleksandr Ostrovsky, with incidental music by Tchaikovsky in 1873. In 1878, the composer Ludwig Minkus and the Balletmaster Marius Petipa staged a ballet adaptation of ""Snegurochka"" titled ""The Daughter of the Snows"" for the Tsar's Imperial Ballet. The tale was also adapted into an opera by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov titled """" (1880–81). The story of Snegurochka was adapted into two Soviet films: an animated film in 1952 with some of Rimsky-Korsakov's music, also called ""The Snow"
"Ruslan and Lyudmila (opera) Ruslan and Lyudmila ( is an opera in five acts (eight tableaux) composed by Mikhail Glinka between 1837 and 1842. The opera is based on the 1820 poem of the same name by Alexander Pushkin. The Russian libretto was written by Valerian Shirkov, Nestor Kukolnik and N. A. Markevich, among others. Pushkin's death in the famous duel prevented him from writing the libretto himself as planned. Today, the best-known music from the opera is its overture. The premiere took place in Saint Petersburg on 27 November 1842 at the Bolshoi Kamenniy Teatr. The initial lack of"
"who performed it also at the Verbier Festival. The premiere of a German version of his opera ""Lolita"" was performed as the opening night of the Internationale Maifestspiele Wiesbaden in a production of the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden. ""Nina and the Twelve Months"" (1988). Musical in two acts on a libretto by T. Futjita after Samuil Marshak's story. First performance on 8 August 1988 in Tokyo. Rodion Shchedrin Rodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin (, ""Rodion Konstantinovič Ščedrin"", ; born 16 December 1932) is a Soviet and Russian composer and pianist, winner of the Lenin Prize (1984), USSR State Prize (1972), and the State"
"of his psychological insights and his mastery of stagecraft. Stravinsky created a number of roles in operas by Tchaikovsky: He also appeared in the premiere performance of Nikolai Soloviev's ""Cordelia"" (24 November 1880, St. Petersburg), and created the role of Moroz (King Frost) in Rimsky-Korsakov's opera ""The Snow Maiden"" (1882; his son Igor studied under Rimsky-Korsakov). Stravinsky was also known as an active advocate of the music by Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko, often performing the role of Mykola in the opera ""Natalka Poltavka"". Fyodor also posed as a Ukrainian Cossack for Ilya Repin's famous painting ""Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks"
"popular for his comic operas such as ""Yam, or The Post Station"" (1805), ""The Winter Party, or The Sequel to Yam"" (1808) and ""The Wedding Eve Party, or Filakin's Wedding"" (1809), which form a trilogy. All of them were staged in St. Petersburg. ""Note:this list is incomplete."" Alexey Titov's brother Sergey was a famous violinist, violist and cellist. On January 23, 1790 Titov married Yelizaveta Turchaninova (4 November 4, 1774 – March 25, 1827), the daughter of the business magnate Alexei Turchaninov. Titov got a huge dowry. With her sisters Natalya Koltovskaya and Nadezhda Ivelich, Yelizaveta was the co-heiress of"
"The Snow Maiden (play) The Snow Maiden (, Snegurochka) is a play by Alexander Ostrovsky written in 1873 and first published in the September 1873 issue of ""Vestnik Evropy"". The idea of the play based on a fairytale about Snegurochka came to Ostrovsky in his Shchelykovo estate, the place he admired and almost worshipped, imagining it as a piece of wonderland here on Earth, saturated with the spirit of Old Rus with its heroic warriors and gentle, benevolent tsars. The play tells the story of an idyllic utopian kingdom ruled by the Berendei, a poet and an artist who believes"
"Alexander Knaifel Alexander Aronovich Knaifel (; also ""Knayfel"", ""Knayfel"", or ""Kneifel""; born 28 November 1943 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan) is a Russian composer known for his operas ""The Ghost of Canterville"" and ""Alice in Wonderland"" as well as for his music for cinema. Knaifel studied cello with Mstislav Rostropovich at Moscow Conservatory from 1961 to 1963, then composition with Boris Arapov in Leningrad from 1964 until 1967. From the very beginning of his composing career he associated himself with the group of so to say ""avant-garde"" Soviet composers that include Andrey Volkonsky, Edison Denisov, Alfred Schnittke, Sofia Gubaidulina, Valentin Silvestrov, Leonid"
"Nikolai Prilutskiy Nikolai Stepanovich Prilutskiy ( (January 26, 1909, Moscow – July 25, 1990, Moscow) was a Soviet and Russian director of audiography, one of the first directors of audiography in USSR, who came create the sound for Soviet cartoon movies at the beginning of Soviet animation. Prilutskiy was one of the foremost Soviet directors of audiography and one of the founders of Soviet animation art. He was the director of audiography at the famous classics of Soviet animation, such as the prize-winning fairy tales ""The Snow Maiden"", ""The Enchanted Boy"", ""The Twelve Months"" and the full-length animation ""The Snow"
"Mariinsky Theatre. At this post, he directed the Paris premiere of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Golden Cockerel. From 1905 to 1917, he was principal of the conservatory of St. Petersburg, where he taught conducting. In 1918 he was invited to take the post of director of the National Conservatory of Tbilisi, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Georgia. Following the Bolshevik takeover of Georgia in 1921, he moved to Paris and lived there for the rest of his life. While in France, he worked with Anna Pavlova and her ballet troupe as composer and conductor (1922–4) and made concert"
"The Snow Bogatyr The Snow Bogatyr (""Снежный богатырь"" in Cyrillic; ""Snežnyj bogatyr""' in transliteration) is an opera-fairytale for children in one act, two tableaux, by César Cui, composed in 1905. The libretto was written by a school teacher named Marina Stanislavovna Polʹ, using Russian folk tales. The title can be translated also as ""The Snow Hero"" or ""The Snow Knight"", but these renderings do not quite convey the notion of a Bogatyr. As with the composer's other children's operas, this work was meant for children to perform in, as well as to watch. The opera was premiered on 15 May"
"of St. Petersburg three years later in 1885. It was presented by the Russian Private Opera (the Opera of Savva Mamontov in Moscow), conducted by Enrico Bevignani with scenic Design by Viktor Vasnetsov, Isaak Levitan, and Konstantin Korovin; Tsar Berendey – Grigoriy Erchov, Bermyata – Anton Bedlevitch, Spring Beauty – Vera Gnucheva, Grandfather Frost – Stepan Vlasov, The Snow Maiden – Nadejda Salina, Bobyl Bakula – G. Kassilov or Nikolay Miller, Lel – Tatyana Liubatovitch, Mizgir – Mikhail Malinin (Boris Mikhailovich Malinin and Marina Raskova’s father), Second Herald – M.Skuratovskiy. The Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow presented the opera in 1893."
"""Raymonda"" (1922), ""The Sleeping Beauty"" (1923), ""Don Quixote"" (1923), ""Khovanshchina"" (1926), ""The Red Poppy"" (1929), ""Coppélia"" (1934), ""The Snow Maiden"" (1947), and ""Pictures at an Exhibition"" (1963). Fyodor Lopukhov Fyodor Vasilievich Lopukhov (Russian: Фёдор Васи́льевич Лопухо́в; 20 October 1886, Saint Petersburg – 28 January 1973, Leningrad) was a choreographer in Soviet Russia. Lopukhov was born into a family of dancers, which included his brother, Andrei, and his two sisters, Evgenia and the renowned Lydia Lopokova, who was a dancer for Sergei Diaghilev. He graduated from the Saint Petersburg Theatre School in 1905 and began his career at the Mariinsky Theatre."
"Alexander Mosolov Alexander Vasilyevich Mosolov (; – 11 July 1973) was a Russian composer of the early Soviet era, known best for his early futurist piano sonatas, orchestral episodes, and vocal music. Mosolov studied at the Moscow Conservatory and achieved his greatest fame in the Soviet Union and around the world for his 1926 composition, ""Iron Foundry"". Later conflicts with Soviet authorities led to his expulsion from the Composers' Union in 1936 and imprisonment in the Gulag in 1937. Following an early release, which had been argued for by his Conservatory teachers, Mosolov turned his attention to setting Turkmen and"