Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Modest Mussorgsky
Ruggero Leoncavallo
Giacomo Puccini
César Cui. Igor Stravinsky
Gioachino Rossini
Francesco Cilea
Richard Wagner
Richard Strauss
Gaetano Donizetti
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Giuseppe Verdi
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Georges Bizet
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Andrei Rubtsov
Gioacchino Rossini
Alexander Ostrovsky, music by Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Richard Strauss
Umberto Giordano
Sergei Prokofiev
Alexei Verstovsky
Giuseppe Verdi
Anton Rubinstein
Benjamin Britten. Camille Saint-Saëns
Mieczysław Weinberg
Sergei Banevich
Modest Mussorgsky
Grigory Frid. Udo Zimmermann
Dimitry Rostovsky
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Georg Philipp Telemann
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Sergei Prokofiev. Maurice Ravel
Dmitry Shostakovich
Tatiana Kamysheva
Georges Bizet
Giacomo Puccini
Jacques Offenbach
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Dmitry Shostakovich
Hector Berlioz
Alexander Ostrovsky’s The Snow Maiden owes its birth to quite unusual circumstances. At the beginning of 1873, the Maly Theatre was closed for renovation, and its artists performed on the stage of the Bolshoi. The Moscow directorate of the Imperial Theatres decided to stage a performance which could have three troupes involved at once: opera, ballet and drama — and appealed to Ostrovsky with a request to create a new play. At the playwright’s personal wish, the music was commissioned from Tchaikovsky, who was already a professor at the Moscow Conservatory, but still a very young man then.
Ostrovsky was one of the composer’s favourite dramaturgs. Both Tchaikovsky’s first opera overture (The Storm) and his first opera (The Voyevoda) are associated with his plays. So, having received the order, Tchaikovsky enthusiastically set to work. “This is one of my favourite creations”, he later wrote to Nadezhda von Meck. “— It was a wonderful spring: my soul felt good, as always when summer and three months of freedom approached. I liked Ostrovsky’s play, and in three weeks I wrote the music effortlessly. It seems to me that in this music the joyful spring mood with which I was then imbued should be noticeable.”
Celebrating the 150th anniversary of the world premiere and Alexander Ostrovsky’s bicentenary.
Premiered on February 8, 2024.
Co-production with the Maly Theatre of Russia.
With participation of the Circus artists.
Sunday, 14:00
Saturday, 19:00
Saturday, 12:00
Friday, 19:00
Thursday, 19:00
Wednesday, 19:00
Sunday, 14:00
Saturday, 19:00
Friday, 19:00
Thursday, 19:00
Prologue
Land of the Berendeys.
Sixteen years ago, Spring Beauty and Frost gave birth to a daughter, Snegurochka the Snow Maiden, and since then the angry solar god Yarilo has not been giving the Earth enough light and warmth.
The Wood-Sprite heralds the approach of Spring Beauty. Surrounded by an escort of birds, she descends. The birds sing and dance to keep warm. The forest is covered with snow, the land is cold.
Frost appears. It's time for him to leave the country of the Berendeys. But who will protect his child? After all, Yarilo is just waiting for an opportunity to ignite the fatal fire of love in the girl’s heart. The parents decide to send their daughter to the Berendey settlement in the care of the childless Bobyl Bakula and his wife Bobylikha. The Snow Maiden is happy: she has long been attracted to people by the wonderful songs of the shepherd Lel. Spring and Frost entrust the Wood-Sprite to guard his daughter.
The Berendeys cheerfully see off Maslenitsa, welcoming the onset of spring. Suddenly Bakula notices an outlandish young lady. To the great joy of Bobyl and Bobylikha, she asks them to take her as their daughter.