ON THE. Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Snow Maiden

The opera "" did not immediately fall in love with musicians and listeners. Like a play, it reveals its facets only to the most sensitive perception. But having once managed to comprehend her true cosmic beauty, no one will be able to stop loving her. Like a young heroine, out of modesty, she does not show all the depth at once. But through a fairy tale in Rus' since ancient times, the most valuable thoughts were conveyed.

Summary of the opera Rimsky-Korsakov "Snegurochka", history and Interesting Facts read about this work on our page.

Characters		Description
Freezing	bass	father of the Snow Maiden, the embodiment of harsh natural forces
Spring	mezzo-soprano	mother of the Snow Maiden, hope, charm and warmth of nature
	soprano	daughter of cold and heat, beauty incapable of love
Lel	contralto	shepherd and poet-singer, delighting hearts
Kupava	soprano	Snow Maiden's girlfriend
Mizgir	baritone	Kupava's fiancé, overseas merchant
Berendey	tenor	ruler of the Berendey kingdom
Bobyl	tenor	foster parents of the Snow Maiden who took her into their home
Bobylikha	mezzo-soprano
People (Berendey), royal servants

Summary of "Snow Maiden"

The libretto was based on Alexander Ostrovsky's play The Snow Maiden. The second title of the work is "Spring Tale". There is a lot of allegorical in it - in the spring such transformations take place with nature that this process can be compared with magic. The fairy tale is inhabited by fairy-tale characters, and the development of the plot is not built on the canons usual for that time.

The daughter of Spring and Frost, the Snow Maiden, grew up in the forest under the protection of mystical forest creatures. But for a long time he has been watching people, and with all his might strives to understand their world. She begs her parents to let her live among people.

Once in the house of Bobyl and Bobylikh, she begins to explore the world of human relations. It turns out that people are looking for love and get married when they meet it. The heart of the Snow Maiden is cold from birth. She listens to Lel's songs, talks with her friend Kupava, but does not feel anything.

Measured move village life violates the appearance of Mizgir - the groom of Kupava. The wedding has already been scheduled, when suddenly Mizgir meets the Snow Maiden and is captivated by her coldly restrained beauty. He rushes after the Snow Maiden, begging her to become his wife.

Kupava is disgraced and cannot recover from grief. Neighbors advise her to go to the wise Tsar Berendey. Their philosophical conversation about whether to love and believe is touching and compassionate. Calling Mizgir to court, Berendey cannot solve the dilemma: how can one force a person to love against his will? To which Mizgir invites the king to look at the Snow Maiden, the culprit of the misfortune. At one glance at her, the king understands who is standing in front of him. She is the reason that God Yarilo sends trials to the realm. Berendey gives a decree: until the morning of the next day (the day of Yarila's holiday), someone must melt the icy heart of the Snow Maiden - to fall in love with her. Lel, a shepherd who sings sweet songs, undertakes to complete the task. Mizgir begs permission to try too.

The Snow Maiden reaches out to Lelya, with whom she has become friends. But he suddenly turns his gaze to Kupava. And this hurts the Snow Maiden painfully. She begins to experience hitherto unknown feelings. Passionately she prays to mother Vesna to bestow the ability to love. Spring comes to meet her, but warns that from now on the rays of the sun are dangerous for the Snow Maiden, she can melt under them.

Awakened for love, the Snow Maiden meets Mizgir and now looks at him with different eyes - she loves, and asks him to be with her. Together they go to Yarilina Glade, where the wedding ceremony is already taking place - Tsar Berendey sanctifies the union of everyone.

And Mizgir and the Snow Maiden ask for blessings. At this moment, the sun is already rising high, and the Snow Maiden begins to melt. Until the very last minute, she says how happy she was able to love. Mizgir from grief rushes into the lake.

Now Berendey is sure that the hardships of his people are over. Life goes on. The opera ends with a choral scene depicting a happy people freed from the curse, singing the hymn "Light and power, God Yarilo!".

Performance duration
I - II Act		III - IV Act
45 min.		55 min.

Photo:

Interesting Facts:

Work on the opera was completed on March 31, 1881, on the composer's fiftieth birthday.
This is one of the heralds of the fantasy genre - the plot involves fabulous (Leshy, Frost, Spring) and realistic (Lel, Kupava, Mizgir) characters, the plot itself has an archetypal structure.
The image of the Snow Maiden is unique in the entire world culture - there is nothing like it anywhere else, except for Russian folklore. It is shrouded in mystery, there are no clear ideas about its origin, but this image is present in fine arts, stories, songs.
V. Dal mentioned that snowmen, bullfinches, snowmen were called "boobs made of snow", having the image of a man.
It is believed that the image of the Snow Maiden appeared after the baptism of Rus'.
For Viktor Vasnetsov, the image of the Snow Maiden has become a key in his work.
In 1952, a cartoon was filmed to music from the opera. ON THE. Rimsky-Korsakov .

Famous arias and numbers from the opera "The Snow Maiden"

Snegurochka's aria "Walk for berries with girlfriends" (prologue) - listen

Lel's third song "The cloud conspired with thunder" (III act) - listen

choir "Ay, in the field there is a linden" (III act) - listen

duet of the Snow Maiden and Mizgir "Wait, wait!" (IV act) - listen

final chorus "Light and power, god Yarilo" (IV act) - listen

The history of the creation of the "Snow Maiden"

He began work on the opera in the summer of 1880. As a basis for the plot, he took Alexander Ostrovsky's verse play "The Snow Maiden", which was published in 1873. The play itself caused a great resonance in society. Few appreciated it. The fairy tale was admired by F.M. Dostoevsky, A.I. Goncharov, I.S. Turgenev. Young at that time, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, at the request of the author, was invited to write music for the theatrical production of The Snow Maiden.

But most of the public and especially critics met the play coldly. Her images and allegory were incomprehensible to contemporaries. Oral Russian folk art, ritual song folklore and mythology, the cult and beliefs of the ancient Slavs were something distant and uninteresting for the then audience. Superficially perceiving the play, critics immediately accused the author of escaping from reality. Having become accustomed to his already established role as a exposer of the vices of Russian society, the audience was not ready to plunge into the complex world of fairy tale allegories.

Ostrovsky was accused of being seduced by decorative images and a light fairy-tale subject, "fantastic" and "meaningless." The poetic syllable with which the play was written also complicated the perception. The ingenious Russian playwright traveled to the farthest provinces, collecting motifs and rhythms of folk songs and legends, the play contains many Old Slavonic words and phrases. Only a true connoisseur and connoisseur of Russian folklore can truly understand and appreciate the beauty of the style of these poems.

And Rimsky-Korsakov himself, on his first acquaintance with the play, was not too imbued with it. Only after a while, upon re-reading (in the winter of 1879-1880), did he suddenly “see the light”, the whole depth and poetry of the work was revealed to him. He was instantly ignited by the desire to write an opera on this plot. This desire led him first to Ostrovsky - to ask permission to write music for his magical work, and then to the Stelyovo estate, where the opera was written in unison.

The composer himself acted as a librettist, making changes to Ostrovsky's original text. All work was completed in a matter of months. By the end of March 1881, the opera was completed, and in January 1882 the premiere took place. Rimsky-Korsakov himself described the period of creation of the opera as creatively filled, he wrote extremely quickly and easily, with inspiration. The Snow Maiden became his favorite opera.

First productions

Despite the fact that Ostrovsky spoke very enthusiastically about Rimsky-Korsakov's music for his Spring Tale, the music was much closer to him. Tchaikovsky written for the play. And the thrill that Nikolai Andreevich himself experienced for his opera was not supported by the musicians and the audience of the first performances. So the first performances were saturated with disappointment.

The scenery for the stage was made by Viktor Vasnetsov, an itinerant artist, moreover, he designed both the theatrical production of the play and the opera. Using specific elements of Russian architecture, architecture, embroidery motifs, he achieved a realistic embodiment of the atmosphere of peasant life.

Music

WITH early childhood he was very fond of Russian folk music, its special rhythm, close to colloquial, expressive intonations, melodious melody. In The Snow Maiden, he expressed this love with the skill of a mature composer. He practically does not use direct quotes from folk songs, but he stylizes them very accurately, creating his songs that are amazingly similar in spirit to folk songs.

This music is very picturesque - the imagination vividly draws pictures winter forest, the chirping of birds, the appearance of Spring-Red, the coldness and detachment of the Snow Maiden. The gradual awakening of nature and the Snow Maiden's desire for human warmth and love are also shown in music, it becomes passionate, even expressive. At the same time, the fantastic character of the fairy tale is sustained.

The opera opens with a prologue, in which the main characters are presented by musical means - the forces of nature, the severe Frost, the tender Spring, the fragile Snow Maiden. The orchestra imitates bird trills, ringing streams, natural metamorphoses. The Shrovetide scene at the end of the prologue almost completely illustrates the ancient rite of the meeting of spring with winter, the choral episodes colorfully describe folk festivals. The scene is so colorful that it is often performed in gala concerts.

Creating images of the main characters, the author carefully thought out the melodic and dramatic characteristics of each. For each category actors (fairy tale characters, real people, representatives of the elements) created a separate intonational-rhythmic and timbre sphere. Rimsky-Korsakov's operatic vocal numbers are notable for their melodiousness combined with simplicity. The chorus is often another character for him - the people, and also brings additional color to the whole sound. At the same time, the richness of orchestration never argues with the vocal beginning, but, on the contrary, complements and enriches it.

The composer is characterized by a special attitude to the female lyrical image. His Snow Maiden Martha from The Tsar's Bride , Olga from "The Maid of Pskov" are examples of touching, sublime, reverent femininity, the embodiment of captivating ideal beauty. The transformation of the image of the Snow Maiden is also reflected in her vocal part. If at the beginning of the opera its melody is close to instrumental (and is accompanied by overflowing flutes ), then the more she reaches out to people, the more melodiousness, melody, and ardor appear in the music (there are now more strings in the orchestra).

In general, the composer himself provided a complete musical analysis of the opera in the book “Chronicle of my musical life"And the article" Analysis of the "Snow Maiden". In it, the author spoke in detail about artistic intent and its implementation. It should be noted that the need for such documents was caused by the dissatisfaction of the author with the first productions. Like Ostrovsky's play itself, the opera production did not initially meet with a response from the performers, conductor, and critics. Later, after the appearance of explanations, a more successful performance took place, close to the author's interpretation.

It is amazing how mathematically accurately he designed the dramaturgy and the development of the action. The depth and innovation of the composer could not meet with instant acceptance of this music. They did not coincide with the main themes in the art of that time. However, already a decade later, it becomes the locomotive of artistic transformation in national art.

Allegory in fairy tale and opera

Rimsky-Korsakov's music is most often said to be light, pure, sublime. The fairy tale "The Snow Maiden" has a truly naive plot, which attracted the composer. It contains a description of the way of life of an ideal society, the Berendeys, with a surprisingly wise and unusual ruler - Tsar Berendey, who teaches his people to live according to their hearts, to preserve moral purity and nobility. This is a utopian picture even for a resident of the 19th century. However, in the Russian ancient epic it was not rare.

Russian land can be fertile and fruitful. But the climate is harsh and unpredictable. They survived the long winter at the expense of the summer harvest. And the yield depended on the vagaries of nature, and not on the diligence or talent of the peasant. Under such conditions, the sun, which gives warmth and growth to plants and animals, became the main deity. But he was not just worshiped, people were looking for (and found) a connection between their behavior and thoughts - and the answer of the Sun-God. Therefore, Berendey was worried and complained that the god Yarilo turned away from the Berendey kingdom, believing that its inhabitants began to think too much about self-interest.

Allegories in a fairy tale:

Opera "Snow Maiden" can be called a national treasure. he was a true patriot of his homeland, having traveled half the world while serving in the navy, he invariably returned his thoughts to the greatness of the Russian people. His aesthetic ideal and desire was to preserve the traditions of Russian folklore, to emphasize it. Inventing new artistic techniques and compositional techniques, he sought to place the people's sense of beauty at the center of his work. And in the "Snegurochka" he succeeded famously.

Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov "The Snow Maiden"

A play for the theater by A.N. Ostrovsky "Snow Maiden"

In 1873, A. N. Ostrovsky, under the influence of the ideas of A. N. Afanasyev, wrote a play, so famous and beloved by the Russian people, - “The Snow Maiden”. In it, the Snow Maiden appears as the daughter of Father Frost and Spring-Red, who dies during the summer ritual of honoring the sun god Yarila. Outwardly, she appears in the work as a beautiful pale fair-haired girl, she is dressed in white and blue clothes with a fur trim (fur coat, fur hat, mittens). This whole appearance represents winter with its white snow and cold frosts. The spring side of the character of the heroine is represented by her extraordinary emotionality and desire to know human feelings, albeit destructive for her. Surprisingly, the play was not initially successful with the public, it seemed rude and ineptly written. But that was only at the beginning...
The action takes place in the country of the Berendeys in prehistoric times. Prologue on Krasnaya Gorka, near Berendeev Posad, the capital of Tsar Berendey. The first action in the suburban settlement of Berendeevka. The second act in the palace of Tsar Berendey. The third act in the protected forest. The fourth act in Yarilina Valley.

A play for the theater of A.N. Ostrovsky "The Snow Maiden"

Cultural studies and art history

The work of Ostrovsky "The Snow Maiden" is an amazing fairy tale, which shows the beauty of the world, love, nature, youth. In "The Snow Maiden" the main place is occupied by human relations. At first glance, the plot looks absolutely fantastic. But then it turns out that living human characters are visible in this phantasmagoria.

MBOU LYCEUM №8

Essay

On the topic: “A play for the theater by A.N. Ostrovsky "Snow Maiden"

Completed:

Pupils of 8 "A" class

Savvateeva Irina

Bogdanova Olga

Akishina Maria
Malaeva Elena

Teacher:

Yudakova V.P.

Solnechnogorsk, 2015

History of creation

In 1873, A. N. Ostrovsky, under the influence of the ideas of A. N. Afanasyev, wrote a play, so famous and beloved by the Russian people, - “The Snow Maiden”.While working on the play, Ostrovsky carefully studied numerous folklore, historical, and ethnographic sources. Among the folklore sources of the "Snegurochka" it should be noted folk tales, ritual poetry, folk charms, folk songs. He, combining fairy tales, legends and songs together, gave folk art very unique coloring. Therefore, the plot basis of the story of the Snow Maiden in the play by A.N. Ostrovsky does not entirely coincide with any of the variants of the fairy tale that exist among the people.

Plot

In the spring fairy tale by A. N. Ostrovsky “The Snow Maiden”, from a little girl granddaughter, the heroine turns into a beautiful girl who can ignite the hearts of young Berendeys with a passionate feeling of love. Sheappears as the daughter of Santa Claus and Spring-Red, who dies during the summer ritual of honoring the sun god Yarila. Outwardly, she appears in the work as a beautiful pale fair-haired girl, she is dressed in white and blue clothes with a fur trim (fur coat, fur hat, mittens). This whole appearance represents winter with its white snow and cold frosts. The spring side of the character of the heroine is represented by her extraordinary emotionality and desire to know human feelings, albeit destructive for her.
The action takes place in a fabulous place the kingdom of Berendey. Describing the laws of this country, Ostrovsky seems to draw his own ideal of social order. In the kingdom of Berendey, people live according to the laws of conscience and honor, trying not to provoke the wrath of the gods. It's very great importance given to beauty. The beauty of the surrounding world, the beauty of girls, flowers, songs are valued. It is no coincidence that the singer of love Lel is so popular. He, as it were, personifies youth, ardor, ardor.

Reviews

Surprisingly, the play was not initially successful with the public, it seemed rude and ineptly written. But that was only at the beginning...

Spring fairy tale by A.N. Ostrovsky was highly appreciated by A.I. Goncharov and I.S. Turgenev, however, many responses from contemporaries were sharply negative. The playwright was reproached for departing from social problems and "progressive ideals". So, the caustic critic V.P. Burenin complained about A.N. Ostrovsky to false, "ghostly-meaningless" images of Snow Maidens, Lelei, Mizgiri. In the great Russian playwright, critics wanted to see, first of all, an accuser of the “dark kingdom”.

Theater performance

The theatrical production of The Snow Maiden by the Moscow Maly Theater (May 11, 1873) actually failed. Despite the fact that all three troupes were involved in the performance: drama, opera and ballet, and the music for it was written by P.I. Tchaikovsky, despite the use of technical curiosities: moving clouds, electric lighting, beating fountains that hide the disappearance of the “melting” Snow Maiden in the hatch, the play was mostly criticized. The public, like the critics, was not ready for the poetic pirouette of the author of The Storm and The Deep. Only at the beginning of the 20th century did A.N. Ostrovsky was appreciated. A.P. Lensky, who staged The Snow Maiden in September 1900 in Moscow, remarked: “Ostrovsky would have had plenty of imagination to fill his fairy tale to the brim with native devilry. But he, apparently, deliberately economized on fantastic elements, economized in order not to obscure the other, more complex element, the poetic element, with the enchantment.

Petersburg, on stage Alexandrinsky Theater, the production took place only on December 27, 1900, for the benefit performance of the artist Varlamov.

In 1881, the composer N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov wrote the opera The Snow Maiden based on the text of the play. The opera was staged in St. Petersburg on January 29, 1882.

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"The Snow Maiden" is perhaps the least typical of all the plays by Alexander Ostrovsky, which stands out sharply among other things in his work with lyricism, unusual problems (instead of a social drama, the author paid attention to a personal drama, designating as central theme theme of love) and absolutely fantastic surroundings. The play tells the story of the Snow Maiden, who appears before us as a young girl, desperately longing for the only thing she never had - love. While remaining faithful to the main line, Ostrovsky simultaneously reveals a few more: the structure of his semi-epic, semi-fairytale world, the customs and customs of the Berendeys, the theme of continuity and retribution, and the cyclical nature of life, noting, albeit in an allegorical form, that life and death always go hand in hand.

History of creation

The Russian literary world owes the birth of the play to a happy accident: at the very beginning of 1873, the building of the Maly Theater was closed for major repairs, and a group of actors temporarily moved to the Bolshoi. Deciding to take advantage of the opportunities of the new stage and attract the audience, it was decided to arrange an extravaganza performance unusual for those times, immediately involving the ballet, drama and opera components of the theater team.

It was with the proposal to write a play for this extravaganza that they turned to Ostrovsky, who, taking advantage of the opportunity to put a literary experiment into practice, agreed. The author changed his habit of looking for inspiration in unsightly sides real life, and in search of material for the play turned to the work of the people. There he found a legend about the Snow Maiden, which became the basis for his magnificent work.

In the early spring of 1873, Ostrovsky was hard at work on the creation of the play. And not alone - since staging on stage is impossible without music, the playwright worked together with the still very young then Pyotr Tchaikovsky. According to critics and writers, this is precisely one of the reasons for the amazing rhythm of The Snow Maiden - words and music were composed in a single impulse, close interaction, and imbued with each other's rhythm, initially making up one whole.

It is symbolic that Ostrovsky put the last point in The Snow Maiden on the day of his fiftieth birthday, March 31. A little more than a month later, on May 11, the premiere performance was shown. He received quite different reviews among critics, both positive and sharply negative, but already in the 20th century literary critics firmly agreed that The Snow Maiden was the brightest milestone in the work of the playwright.

Analysis of the work

Description of the work

At the heart of the story - life path the girl-Snow Maiden, born from the union of Frost and Spring-Red, her father and mother. The Snow Maiden lives in the Berendey kingdom invented by Ostrov, but not with her relatives - she left her father Frost, who protected her from all possible troubles - but with the family of Bobyl and Bobylikh. The Snow Maiden longs for love, but she cannot fall in love - even her interest in Lelya is dictated by the desire to be the only and unique, the desire that the shepherd, who evenly gives all the girls warmth and joy, be affectionate with her alone. But Bobyl and Bobylikha are not going to bestow their love on her, they have a more important task: to cash in on the beauty of the girl by marrying her off. The Snow Maiden looks indifferently at the Berendey men, who change their lives for her sake, reject brides and violate social norms; she is internally cold, she is a stranger full of life Berendei - and therefore attracts them. However, misfortune also falls to the lot of the Snow Maiden - when she sees Lel, who is favorable to the other and rejects her, the girl rushes to her mother with a request to let her fall in love - or die.

It is at this moment that Ostrovsky clearly expresses the central idea of his work to the limit: life without love is meaningless. The Snow Maiden cannot and does not want to put up with the emptiness and coldness that exists in her heart, and Spring, which is the personification of love, allows her daughter to experience this feeling, despite the fact that she herself thinks bad.

The mother turns out to be right: the Snow Maiden, who has fallen in love, melts under the first rays of the hot and clear sun, having managed, however, to discover a new world filled with meaning. And her lover, who had previously left his bride and was expelled by the Tsar, Mizgir, parted with his life in the pond, seeking to reunite with the water, which became the Snow Maiden.

Main characters

(Scene from the ballet-performance "The Snow Maiden")

The Snow Maiden is the central figure of the work. A girl of extraordinary beauty who desperately wants to know love, but at the same time cold hearted. Pure, partly naive and completely alien to Berendey people, she is ready to give everything, even her life, in exchange for knowing what love is and why everyone is so hungry for it.
Frost is the father of the Snow Maiden, formidable and strict, who sought to protect his daughter from all sorts of troubles.

Spring-Krasna is the mother of a girl who, despite a premonition of trouble, could not go against her nature and her daughter's pleas and endowed her with the ability to love.

Lel is a windy and cheerful shepherd who was the first to awaken some feelings and emotions in the Snow Maiden. It was because she was rejected by him that the girl rushed to Spring.

Mizgir is a merchant guest, or, in other words, a merchant who fell in love with the girl so much that he not only offered all his wealth for her, but also left Kupava, his failed bride, thereby violating the traditionally observed customs of the Berendey kingdom. In the end, he gained the reciprocity of the one he loved, but not for long - and after her death he himself lost his life.

It is worth noting that despite the large number of characters in the play, even the secondary characters turned out to be bright and characteristic: that the king Berendey, that Bobyl and Bobylikh, that the former bride of Mizgir Kupava - all of them are remembered by the reader, have their own hallmarks and features.

"The Snow Maiden" is a complex and multifaceted work, both compositionally and rhythmically. The play is written without rhyme, but thanks to the unique rhythm and melodiousness that literally exists in every line, it sounds smoothly, like any rhymed verse. Decorates the "Snow Maiden" and the rich use of colloquial phrases - this is a completely logical and justified step by the playwright, who, when creating the work, relied on folk tales telling about a girl from the snow.

The same statement about versatility is also true in relation to the content: behind the outwardly simple story of the Snow Maiden (went out into the real world - rejected people - received love - imbued with the human world - died) lurks not only the assertion that life without love is meaningless, but also many other equally important aspects.

So, one of the central themes is the interconnection of opposites, without which the natural course of things is impossible. Frost and Yarilo, cold and light, winter and the warm season outwardly oppose each other, enter into an irreconcilable contradiction, but at the same time, the thought runs through the text that one does not exist without the other.

In addition to the lyricism and sacrifice of love, interest is also social aspect plays, displayed against the backdrop of fabulous foundations. The norms and customs of the Berendey kingdom are strictly observed, for violation they face expulsion, as happened with Mizgir. These norms are fair and to some extent reflect Ostrovsky's idea of an ideal old Russian community, where fidelity and love for one's neighbor, life in unity with nature are at a premium. The figure of Tsar Berendey, the “kind” Tsar, who, although he is forced to make harsh decisions, regards the fate of the Snow Maiden as tragic, sad, evokes unambiguously positive emotions; such a king is easy to sympathize with.

At the same time, in the Berendey kingdom, justice is observed in everything: even after the death of the Snow Maiden, as a result of her acceptance of love, Yarila's anger and argument disappear, and the Berendey people can again enjoy the sun and warmth. Harmony prevails.