The Snow Maiden
The Snow Maiden: A Spring Fairy Tale (Russian: Снегурочка–Весенняя сказка, Snegúrochka–Vesennyaya Skazka) is an opera in four acts with a prologue by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, composed during 1880–1881. The Russian libretto, by the composer, is based on the like-named play by Alexander Ostrovsky (which had premiered in 1873 with incidental music by Tchaikovsky).
The first performance of Rimsky-Korsakov's opera took place at the Mariinsky Theatre, Saint Petersburg on 29 January 1882 (OS; 10 February NS) conducted by Eduard Nápravník. By 1898 it was revised in the edition known today. It remained the composer's own favorite work.
Read more about The Snow Maiden: Analysis, Performance History, Roles, Principal Arias and Numbers, Derived and Related Works, Recordings
Famous quotes containing the words snow and/or maiden:
“I weathered some merry snow-storms, and spent some cheerful winter evenings by my fireside, while the snow whirled wildly without, and even the hooting of the owl was hushed. For many weeks I met no one in my walks but those who came occasionally to cut wood and sled it to the village.... For human society I was obliged to conjure up the former occupants of these woods.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Then louder cry’d the Clerk Colvill,
O sairer, sairer akes my head;
And sairer, sairer ever will,
The maiden crys, ‘till you be dead.”
—Unknown. Clerk Colvill (l. 33–36)