Debuts in the opera

Scene from the opera
The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia

The legend of the city of Kitezh, submersed under water “by God’s will” in order to be saved from the invading Tatars, became widely known among more erudite circles in Russia thanks to the epic novel In the Woods by Pavel Melnikov-Pechersky. The libretto for the opera, written by Vladimir Belsky, occupies a prominent position in the history of literature and is considered one of the finest in the history of the operatic genre. Based on a legend about the Old Believers and the early Russian Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom, the libretto was awarded the Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin Prize, one of the most prestigious Russian literary awards of the time. “Nowhere in the work can one find a single detail that, one way or another, is not imbued with a feature of some legend, poem, tale or other form of Russian folk art,” wrote Vladimir Belsky.

For Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, The Legend was to be his fourteenth and penultimate opera, one of the most significant ever works in the classical Russian repertoire. Rimsky-Korsakov’s longest opera – not just in terms of its title but also its duration (almost four hours of music) – rarely features on theatre playbills.

This evening bass Vladimir Felyauer will be making his debut as the Tatar warrior Burunday, mezzo-soprano Yulia Matochkina will be appearing as the Boy for the first time, soprano Elena Zheleznyakova and mezzo-soprano Lyudmila Polulyashchenko will be performing the roles of the vatic birds Sirin and Alkonost while bass Vitaly Yankovsky will be appearing as the Singing Beggar.