Tsar Saltan: Askar Abdrazakov
Tsaritsa Militrisa: Natalya Pavlova
Tsarevich (Prince) Guidon: Dmitry Voropaev
Swan Princess: Olga Trifonova
Tkachikha ("Weaver"): Varvara Solovyova
Povarikha ("Cook"): Tatiana Kravtsova
Matchmaker-Crone Babarikha: Elena Vitman
World premiere: 21 October 1900, Mamontov’s Opera on the stage of the Solodovnikov Theatre, Moscow
Premiere at the Mariinsky Theatre: 2 March 1915
Premiere of this production: 8 March 2005
Running time 3 hours
The performance has one interval
In all probability, everyone knows the virtuoso piece Flight of the Bumblebee, a dazzling example of musical perpetuum mobile. And yet this is but one highlight from the brilliant opera by Rimsky-Korsakov – a maestro and poet of the orchestra. In The Tale of Tsar Saltan there are also scenes of the sea, a forest at night, of dawn, affixed by the composer to each act. Audiences will remember the captivating melodies of the Swan-Princess in the orchestra and the ominous march of the noisy knights of the sea. The composer himself, not without pride, called the score “a guide to magic tricks”.
In as much as Russian audiences know the plot inside-out, the librettist Vladimir Belsky and the composer, once again narrating a fairy tale, complicate the intrigue with new characters and situations and they provide an abundance of detail: Saltan’s nameless wife is called Militrisa, Saltan’s kingdom is known as Tmutarakan, and Tsarevich Guidon rules on the island of Ledenets. Whereas, however, Pushkin notes that the fairy-tale squirrel, gnawing nuts, “sings in front of all the honest people ‘Whether in the garden or in the kitchen garden’”, Rimsky-Korsakov does not deny himself the pleasure of quoting this song. And Guidon’s meeting with the inhabitants of the island of Buyan is illustrated by the chorus to a motif of the famous refrain, because the poet states that at that moment “the church chorus praises God”. Recognising this reveals much of the pleasure to be gained from the opera: for young audiences it is a magical fairy-tale-come-to-life on the stage, for more sophisticated audiences it is an example of conditional theatre, an artistic commentary by one artist, a “magician”-composer, on the text of another – a “fairy-tale-narrator” poet.
This production is one of the most colourful at the Mariinsky Theatre. The St Petersburg State Musical Theatre for Children Zazerkalye stage director Alexander Petrov typically strives to occupy his audience’s attention with vivid scenes. Here he is assisted by set designer Vladimir Firer. It is not by chance that in the sets and costumes one may see the famous book illustrations of Ivan Bilibin: the production was conceived as a recognition of the fairy tale by Pushkin, well-loved from childhood. Anna Petrova
The highlighting of performances by age represents recommendations.
This highlighting is being used in accordance with Federal Law N436-FZ dated 29 December 2010 (edition dated 1 May 2019) "On the protection of children from information that may be harmful to their health"