The Tsar’s Bride

Composer: RIMSKY-KORSAKOV, Nikolai
  • Rimsky-Korsakov composed his opera Tsarskaya nevesta (The Tsar’s Bride) in 1899. It premiered the same year in Moscow.1
  • Unlike some of R.-K.’s earlier operas, which had attempted to set text in a distinctly Russian rhythmic idiom, this opera is extremely lyrical, and its style owes much to Tchaikovsky.2
  • Story: a (wholly) fictionalized account of Ivan the Terrible’s third marriage to Marfa Sobakina, a commoner. Very little is known about the details of the relationship, so this opera libretto spins a dramatic piece of tragic historical fiction, complete with plots, murder, poison and love potions. (Synopsis here)3

Sources

  1. Marina Frolova-Walker, Mark Humphreys, Lyle Neff, Rita McAllister, Iosif Genrikhovich Rayskin, and Detlef Gojowy, “Rimsky-Korsakov family,” Grove Music Online (2001), January 8, 2020, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000052074. 
  2. Ibid.
  3. Richard Taruskin, “Tsar’s Bride, The,” Grove Music Online (2002), accessed January 8, 2020,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-5000905011. 

Cut IDs

42988