Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Mythic” Operas

At the end of this past October, I wrote about the two “folk operas” composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Readers may recall that, following the composer’s Wikipedia page, I had classified his operas into three categories: historical drama, folk operas, and fairy tales and legends. The last of these is the largest category, accounting for fourteen of the CDs in the 25-CD album of the all of those operas. The seven operas in this category are as follows:

1. The Snow Maiden
2. Mlada (described as a “magic opera-ballet”)
3. “Sadko”
4. The Tale of Tsar Saltan
5. “Kashchey the Deathless” (a one-act opera in three scenes)
6. The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya
7. The Golden Cockerel

With two exceptions these operas are better known for orchestral excerpts that frequently are included in concert programming and recordings. The exceptions are “Kashchey the Deathless” and the Invisible City of Kitezh operas. However, Kashchey will probably be familiar to most readers, since he is a key character in Michel Fokine’s ballet “The Firebird." Those familiar with Igor Stravinsky’s score for this ballet should not have much trouble recognizing that the opening theme of the ballet amounts to a reflection on the opening measures of Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera. Indeed, both Prince Ivan and the princess he rescues are also characters in “Kashchey the Immortal.” However, the opera has no Firebird; but it does include Kashchey’s daughter. In addition, Kashchey makes an appearance in the spooky third act of Mlada in a setting that will probably remind many listeners of Modest Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain.”

Indeed, Rimsky-Korsakov brings highly imaginative approaches to the exotic throughout the scores of these seven operas. Nevertheless, it is in Invisible City that his capacity of narrative expressiveness probably attains its high point. This is definitely the darkest opera, dealing with warfare at its most gruesome. It may well be that this opera has never been excerpted because of the tight coupling of the music as a whole to the narrative does not easily allow for segmentation.

Where the more familiar is concerned, I feel a need to make note of one particular surprise. Those readers aware of “Sadko” at all will probably attribute that awareness to the “Song of India,” which takes place during the fourth scene. (This is an opera with seven scenes. Its Wikipedia page suggests two ways in which that scenes may be segmented into acts.) This used to be a popular encore selection for soprano recitals, although all of my own encounters have been through recordings.

Feodor Chaliapin as the Varangian Guest in the world premiere performance of “Sadko” (from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

However, in the opera itself, the song is sung by an “Indian guest,” who is a tenor! This guest is preceded by a “Varangian,” whose part was sung by bass Feodor Chaliapin at the world premiere performance. The two CDs for “Sadko” conclude with a “bonus track” of a 1927 recording of the song of the Varangian guest made during a performance Chaliapin gave in London on October 20, 1927.

What is more important, however, is that, over the course of these seven operas, one comes to appreciate Rimsky-Korsakov’s skill at providing the right music for the underlying narrative, no matter how unconventionally imaginative that narrative may be. Thus, while most listeners are impressed with the music Stravinsky composed for both “The Firebird” and “Petrushka,” the operas in this collection remind us that Rimsky-Korsakov was a major positive influence on Stravinsky’s early development. (It probably also helped that Stravinsky’s father was an opera singer, who created the role of Grandfather Frost in The Snow Maiden!)