Rimsky-Korsakov

"All shall be forgotten, and time will end..."

Marina Rakhmanova

Article: 
HERITAGE
Magazine issue: 
#3 2021 (72)

The composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) and the painter Mikhail Vrubel (1856-1910) were among the greatest Russian artists of the Silver Age. They did, however, belong to different generations - Vrubel’s entire career fit into this exceptional period in Russian cultural life, whereas Rimsky-Korsakov began writing music as early as the 1860s. Nonetheless, the composer reached his prime and created his best work in exactly that era, the late 19th to the early 20th centuries.

"All shall be forgotten, and time will end..."

“Tsar Berendey is a portrait of Nikolai Andreyevich [Rimsky-Korsakov].”
From Anna Vrubel's letter to Nadezhda Zabela-Vrubel. July 29, 1909*

* From Anna Vrubel's letter to Nadezhda Zabela-Vrubel. July 29, 1909*

MIKHAIL VRUBEL’S "THE SWAN PRINCESS": "Unlock this secret, Tsar..." *

Vera Bodunova

Article: 
HISTORY OF A MASTERPIECE
Magazine issue: 
#3 2021 (72)

The composition “The Swan Princess” (Tretyakov Gallery) was produced by Mikhail Vrubel in 1900, when he was designing sets for Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s operas at Savva Mamontov’s Russian Private Opera. Like the images from the “Demon” series, this painting projects an inscrutable magnetism. Many mysteries remain about both the history of the creation of the painting and the image of the enchanting bird maiden from the fairy tale. Among the most important of these is the identity of the model for the fair Swan Princess. Does the composition indeed feature Nadezhda Ivanovna Zabela-Vrubel - the artist’s wife and muse, as well as a splendid opera diva who performed the Swan Princess in Rimsky- Korsakov’s opera - or is it a composite image born of the artist’s imagination?

MIKHAIL VRUBEL’S "THE SWAN PRINCESS": "Unlock this secret, Tsar..."

* Quoted from: Libretto by Vladimir Belsky (after Pushkin) to the opera “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” by Rimsky-Korsakov. See: http://az.lib.ru/b/belxskij_w_i/text_1900_skazka_o_tzare_saltane.shtml

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “The Golden Cockerel”

Margarita Chizhmak

Article: 
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Magazine issue: 
#1 2012 (34)

“This poor opera by Rimsky-Korsakov has been through so many ordeals! It turned out that it was not easier for the cockerel to go through theatre censorship than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. It has lost so many feathers and so many colours...” That is how a contemporary in 1909 commented on the difficult staging of the opera “The Golden Cockerel” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “The Golden Cockerel”

“This poor opera by Rimsky-Korsakov has been through so many ordeals! It turned out that it was not easier for the cockerel to go through theatre censorship than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. It has lost so many feathers and so many colours...”1 That is how a contemporary in 1909 commented on the difficult staging of the opera “The Golden Cockerel” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

Goncharova, Music and Theatre

Inessa Kouteinikova

Article: 
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Magazine issue: 
#1 2014 (42)

NATALIA GONCHAROVAS SUBTLE, DISTINGUISHED, HIGHLY MUSICAL AND LEARNED DESIGNS FOR THE THEATRE ELUCIDATE A FUNDAMENTAL SHIFT FROM THE EMPHASIS ON THE BOMBASTIC, GLORY-OBSESSED CELEBRATIONS FOR DIAGHILEV'S SPECTACLES TO PERFORMANCES THAT STRESSED THE VIRTUES OF INDIVIDUALITY, FANTASY AND HISTORY. DIAGHILEV'S ABSOLUTE POWER WITHIN THE RUSSIAN WORLD OF THEATRE, SIMILAR TO THAT OF LOUIS XIV, RESIDED IN ITS REPRESENTATION AND CONTROL OF THAT REPRESENTATION, WHICH RESIDED NOT ONLY WITH DIAGHILEV BUT ALSO WITH HIS ARTISTS, WHO, LIKE THE KING'S HISTORIOGRAPHERS, CREATED THEATRICAL IMAGES ON WHICH THE OPINION OF POSTERITY DEPENDED.

Goncharova, Music and Theatre

NATALIA GONCHAROVAS SUBTLE, DISTINGUISHED, HIGHLY MUSICAL AND LEARNED DESIGNS FOR THE THEATRE ELUCIDATE A FUNDAMENTAL SHIFT FROM THE EMPHASIS ON THE BOMBASTIC, GLORY-OBSESSED CELEBRATIONS FOR DIAGHILEV'S SPECTACLES TO PERFORMANCES THAT STRESSED THE VIRTUES OF INDIVIDUALITY, FANTASY AND HISTORY.

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