The Tsar's Bride

Bolshoi Theatre, Historic Stage, Moscow, Russia

Scene 1 from the opera "The Tsar's Bride", photo 4

Scene 2 from the opera "The Tsar's Bride", photo 5

Scene 3 from the opera "The Tsar's Bride", photo 6

Scene 5 from the opera "The Tsar's Bride", photo 7

Scene 6 from the opera "The Tsar's Bride", photo 8

Scene 7 from the opera "The Tsar's Bride", photo 9

Scene 8 from the opera "The Tsar's Bride", photo 10

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7 PM

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Important Info

Type: Opera

City: Moscow, Russia

Starts at: 19:00

Acts: 4

Intervals: 1

Duration: 3h 30min

Sung in: Russian

Titles in: English

Ticket delivery: E-Tickets

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

Can I choose my seats?

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Cast

Performers

Conductor: Valery Gergiev

Choir: Bolshoi Theatre Chorus

Orchestra: Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra

Creators

Composer: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Music Director: Gennady Rozhdestvensky

Designer: Alyona Pikalova

Light: Damir Ismagilov

Choreography: Ekaterina Mironova

Costume designer: Elena Zaitseva

Librettist: Ilya Tyumenev

Director: Julia Pevzner

Poet: Lev Mei

Librettist: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Overview

Libretto by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Ilya Tyumenev based on Lev Mey’s play of the same name

Lev Mey’s play, The Tsar’s Bride, first attracted Rimsky-Korsakov’s attention in the 60’s of the XIX century. But more than thirty years were to pass before Rimsky-Korsakov set to work on composing the music for The Tsar’s Bride, in the spring of 1898, having already written a libretto for the opera with the assistance of his former student, Ilya Tyumenev. Work on The Tsar’s Bride proceeded “quickly and easily”, as the composer put it, which with Rimsky-Korsakov was always a sure sign that he was engrossed in what he was doing and in a good creative frame of mind. By summer, his opera was ready in draft form, and by the autumn he had completed the orchestral score.

The Tsar’s Bride, like his first opera, Pskovityanka, is set in the time of Ivan the Terrible (the action takes place, in 1572, in the Aleksandrov sloboda where Ivan lived for a long time). But, in The Tsar’s Bride, as distinct from Pskovityanka, there is no description of major historical events. The Tsar’s Bride is a historical-social drama. The opera centers round the tragedy of a woman of old Russ. This tragedy unfolds against a broad historical background of vividly truthful pictures of life in the age of Ivan the Terrible. Ivan the Terrible himself is no an active participant in the opera. Rimsky-Korsakov only brings him on stage briefly: in a silent (Ivan does not utter a word) scene with Marfa in the street. But this short meeting is very significant and marks a turning point in the development of the drama — for now Marfa is destined to be the Tsar’s bride.

A lot of space in the opera is devoted to the oprichnina (Oprichnina — special administrative elite established in Russia by Ivan, also the territory assigned to this elite. Oprichnik — member of the oprichnina). The oprichniks are preparing in ore reprisals against the boyars and the people watch their drunken antics in horror: “Someone is in for a bad time”. Making merry in Gryaznoy’s chamber, the oprichniks sing the Tsar’s praises.

In The Tsar’s Bride, as in Rimsky-Korsakov’s other operas, the crowd scenes of dancing and singing are magnificent. But these domestic scenes just serve to emphasize the drama that is unfolding before the audience’s eyes. At the centre of the action is Marfa, whose tragedy Rimsky-Korsakov develops with great artistic skill. Her genuine humanity and profound sincerity make her a very appealing figure. In the words of Lev Mey, the author of the play on which the opera is based, Marfa is a “shy, timid girl, submissive to her father’s will and resigned to her fate”

The first performance of The Tsar’s Bride took place a year after the opera had been completed, on October 22, 1899, аt Moscow’s Private Opera (Mamontov’s Company). Since then, this much-loved opera has been presented at opera-houses all over Russia. The première of The Tsar’s Bride at the Bolshoi was in 1916 and it has been a staple item in the repertoire of the latter theatre for the past eighty years.

History

Premiere of this production: Private Opera Society, Moscow

The Tsar's Bride is an opera in four acts by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, the composer's tenth opera. The libretto, by Ilia Tyumenev, is based on the drama of the same name by Lev Mey. Mey's play was first suggested to the composer as an opera subject in 1868 by Mily Balakirev. (Alexander Borodin, too, once toyed with the idea.) However, the opera was not composed until thirty years later, in 1898. The first performance of the opera took place in 1899 at the Moscow theater of the Private Opera of S.I. Mamontov.

Synopsis

Act I

The Carousal

Chamber in Oprichnik Grigory Gryaznoy’s house. Grigory is desperate: he has fallen passionately in love with Marfa, daughter of the merchant Sobakin, but she is already betrothed to the young boyar Ivan Lykov. In order to put his love out of his mind, Grigory called some guests to a drinking-party. One of them is the Tsar’s foreign physician Bomelius, the other is Lykov.

The guests arrive, led by Malyuta Skuratov, Gryaznoy’s friend. Lykov who just returned to Russia, tells the assembled company of the life abroad. The guests sing the praises of their sovereign, Ivan the Terrible, drink and dance.

Malyuta mentions Lyubasha and tells Gryaznoy to call her. “Who is Lyubasha?”, Bomelius asks. “Gryaznoy’s mistress, a right bonny lass!”, Malyuta replies. At Malyuta’s request, Lyubasha sings a song about bitter fate of a girl who is forced to marry a man she doesn’t love. The carousal comes to an end and the guests depart. Gryaznoy detains Bomelius.

Lyubasha, sensing that something is wrong, hides and listens to their conversation. Gryaznoy asks Bomelius for a love potion. The physician promises to provide him with powder that can arouse love in a girl’s heart. After Bomelius has gone, Lyubasha accuses Grigory of having fallen out of love with her but Grigory won’t listen. He can think of nothing else but his passion for Marfa and leaves when the bells sound for the early morning service. Lyubasha is left alone with her despair. She vows to find the girl who is the cause of her troubles and bewitch her away from Gryaznoy.

Act II

The Love Potion

A street in the Alexandrovskaya Sloboda. The parishioners are coming out of the monastery after the evening service. At the porch of her house, Marfa stands talking to her friend Dunyasha of her betrothed, Ivan Lykov. A group of Oprichniks appears through the monastery gates. Marfa doesn’t recognize Ivan the Terrible who is leading the group, but the stranger’s intent gaze frightens her. It is only when she catches sight of her father and her betrothed, who are approaching the house, that she calms down.

Sobakin invites Lykov into the house and the girls follow them in. Dusk is falling. A shadow is circling round the Sobakin house. It is Lyubasha. She cautiously steals up to the porch: she wants to have a look at her rival. Having peeped through the lit-up window, Lyubasha is struck by Marfa’s beauty. The desperate girl rushes to Bomelius’s house. Bomelius appears in asnwer to her call. Lyubasha begs him to sell her a potion which will destroy human beauty. Bomelius agrees, demanding in return Lyubasha’s love. Indignant, Lyubasha wants to leave, but Bomelius threatens to tell Gryaznoy what she has asked him for. The sound of Marfa’s laughter coming from the Sobakins house, makes Lyubasha agree to Bomelius’s terms. The potion is ready, and she goes into his house.

The Oprichniks appear on the street, coming back from an execution ride.

Act III

The Best Man

Chamber in Merchant Sobakin’s house. Sobakin tells Ivan Lykov and Gryaznoy that Marfa and Dunyasha have been summoned to the palace along with 10 other girls as the Tsar intends to choose himself a bride. This alarms both Lykov and Gryaznoy. Sobakin tries to calm Lykov down. Gryaznoy offers to be Lykov’s best man at his wedding.

Domna Saburova, Duniasha’s mother, appears. She describes the ceremony: the Tsar hardly glanced in Marfa’s direction, but he paid Dunyasha a lot of attention, joking and talking with her. Lykov sighs with relief.

Following the betrothal ceremony rules, Gryaznoy fills two goblets for the bride and bridegroom. Unnoticed, he pours the powder that Bomelius has given him into Marfa’s goblet — the love potion. As soon as Marfa, who has returned from the palace together with Dunyasha, enters the room, Grigory congratulates the couple, hands them their goblets and makes them drink. Saburova strikes up a song in honour of the bride, and all the household joins in.

Malyuta appears with the boyars and proclaims the Tsar’s will — Marfa is to be his wife.

Act IV

The Bride

The Tsar’s chamber where Marfa, the Tsar’s bride, is now living before her wedding. But she is ill, and bitter fears give Sobakin no peace. Domna Saburova tries in vain to allay his anxiety.

Gryaznoy appears, and Marfa comes out of her room, pretending to be well. Gryaznoy tells Marfa that Lykov had confessed to giving Marfa a potion, and that he, Gryaznoy, with his own hands had carried out the Tsar’s sentence. Learning of the death of her beloved, Marfa falls unconscious to the floor. When she recovers, she recognizes no one. Mistaking Gryaznoy for Lykov, she converses tenderly with him, recalling the happy days they have spent together. Shaken by Marfa’s words, Gryaznoy admits that he had slandered Lykov and that he was the one who gave Marfa the love potion. But Marfa doesn’t hear him at all, though. Gryaznoy is desperate with guilt. But before going to his trial, he wants to have his revenge on Bomelius. Lyubasha who has appeared in the palace, tells Grigory how she had substituted poison for the love potion Bomelius had given him, and which Grigory had then given to Marfa. Grigory kills Lyubasha.

But Marfa sees and hears nothing. All her thoughts are in the past, with Lykov.

Time: Autumn, 1572

Place: Aleksandrovsky settlement, Moscow, Russia

Act 1: The Feast

The Oprichnik Gryaznoi loves Marfa, daughter of the merchant Sobakin, even though Gryaznoi already has a mistress, Lyubasha, whom he has neglected of late. Marfa is already beloved of the boyar Lykov. In a jealous rage against Lykov, Gryaznoi arranges to cast a spell on Marfa with a magic potion from Bomelius, the Tsar's physician. Lyubasha has overheard Gryaznoi's request.

Act 2: The Love Philtre

Lyubasha in turn obtains from Bomelius another magic potion with which to cancel any feelings of Gryaznoi for Marfa. Bomelius consents, but at the price of an assignation with Lyubasha for himself.

Act 3: The Best Man

In the meantime, the Tsar of the title, Ivan IV (known as "Ivan the Terrible"), is looking for a new bride from the best aristocratic maidens in Russia. The Tsar settles upon Marfa. At the celebration of the engagement of Marfa to Lykov, everyone is surprised when the news arrives of the Tsar's choice of Marfa as his bride. Gryaznoi had slipped what he thought was the love potion from Bomelius into Marfa's drink at the feast.

Act 4: The Bride

At the Tsar's palace, Marfa has become violently ill. Lykov has been executed, at the instigation of Gryaznoi, on charges of attempting to kill Marfa. When Marfa learns that Lykov is dead, she goes insane. Eventually, Gryaznoi admits that he had slipped a potion into her drink, and after learning that it was poisonous, asks that he himself be executed. Lyubasha then confesses that she had substituted her potion from Bomelius for Gryaznoi's. In a rage, Gryaznoi murders Lyubasha, and is then taken to prison eventually to be executed. In her madness, Marfa mistakes Gryaznoi for Lykov, inviting him to return the next day to visit her, then dies.

Venue Info

Bolshoi Theatre - Moscow
Teatralnaya Square 1

The Bolshoi Theatre is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, originally designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds ballet and opera performances. Before the October Revolution it was a part of the Imperial Theatres of the Russian Empire along with Maly Theatre (Small Theatre) in Moscow and a few theatres in Saint Petersburg (Hermitage Theatre, Bolshoi (Kamenny) Theatre, later Mariinsky Theatre and others).

The Bolshoi Ballet and Bolshoi Opera are amongst the oldest and most renowned ballet and opera companies in the world. It is by far the world's biggest ballet company, with more than 200 dancers. The theatre is the parent company of The Bolshoi Ballet Academy, a world-famous leading school of ballet. It has a branch at the Bolshoi Theater School in Joinville, Brazil.

The main building of the theatre, rebuilt and renovated several times during its history, is a landmark of Moscow and Russia (its iconic neoclassical façade is depicted on the Russian 100-ruble banknote). On 28 October 2011, the Bolshoi re-opened after an extensive six-year renovation. The official cost of the renovation is 21 billion rubles ($688 million). However, other Russian authorities and other people connected to it claimed much more public money was spent. The renovation included restoring acoustics to the original quality (which had been lost during the Soviet Era), as well as restoring the original Imperial decor of the Bolshoi.

The company was founded on 28 March [O.S. 17 March] 1776, when Catherine II granted Prince Peter Ouroussoff a licence to organise theatrical performances, balls and other forms of entertainment. Ouroussoff set up the theatre in collaboration with English tightrope walker Michael Maddox. Initially, it held performances in a private home, but it acquired the Petrovka Theatre and on 30 December 1780, it began producing plays and operas, thus establishing what would become the Bolshoi Theatre. Fire destroyed the Petrovka Theatre on 8 October 1805, and the New Arbat Imperial Theatre replaced it on 13 April 1808, however it also succumbed to fire during the French invasion of Moscow in 1812.

The first instance of the theatre was built between 1821 and 1824, designed and supervised to completion by architect Joseph Bové based upon an initial competition-winning design created by Petersburg-based Russian architect Andrei Mikhailov that was deemed too costly to complete. Bové also concurrently designed the nearby Maly Theatre and the surrounding Theater Square, The new building opened on 18 January 1825 as the Bolshoi Petrovsky Theatre with a performance of Fernando Sor's ballet, Cendrillon. Initially, it presented only Russian works, but foreign composers entered the repertoire around 1840.