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On Christmas Eve in Dikanka, Oksana demands the Tsaritsa’s slippers before she will marry Vakula. With the Devil’s help, Vakula travels to the royal court to get them; on Christmas Day he returns, and Oksana accepts his proposal.
In Egypt, Ta-Hor and Amoun meet in a temple. When Cleopatra arrives, Amoun becomes captivated by her and declares his love. Cleopatra agrees to spend a night with him on condition that he drink poison the next morning. Ta-Hor tries to stop him, but returns to find him dead.
The imprisoned Tsarevna longs for Ivan, while Kashchey hides his death in a tear of his daughter Kashcheyevna. Ivan resists Kashcheyevna’s enchantment; moved by the Tsarevna’s kiss, she weeps, ending Kashchey’s immortality and freeing the lovers.
Set in 1682 Moscow, the opera depicts political conflict among Prince Ivan Khovansky and the Streltsy, the Old Believers led by Dosifey, and the supporters of Tsar Peter. Khovansky is murdered, Golitsin is exiled, and the Streltsy are pardoned. Dosifey, Marfa, Andrey Khovansky, and the Old Believers ultimately die by self-immolation as Peter’s forces approach.
Levko and Hanna are in love, but the Mayor also pursues Hanna. Levko tells Hanna the story of Pannochka, a drowned maiden who leads the rusalki and seeks the witch who became her stepmother. Levko rallies the village lads to mock the Mayor, whose household is thrown into confusion by their tricks. At the pond, Pannochka asks Levko to identify the witch among the rusalki. He recognizes her, and the rusalki drag her into the water. Pannochka gives Levko a letter instructing the Mayor to allow his marriage to Hanna, and the villagers celebrate.
In the ninth or tenth century, Voyslava kills Mlada, bride of Prince Yaromir, with a poisoned ring so she can have Yaromir for herself. Voyslava’s nurse offers her help if she pledges allegiance to Morena, goddess of the underworld. Although Morena bewitches Yaromir, Mlada’s spirit draws him away from Voyslava. He learns that Voyslava murdered Mlada and kills her. Morena destroys the temple and city of Rethra in a storm and earthquake, while Yaromir is united with Mlada in heaven.
On Christmas Eve in Dikanka, Oksana demands the Tsaritsa’s slippers before she will marry Vakula. With the Devil’s help, Vakula travels to the royal court to get them; on Christmas Day he returns, and Oksana accepts his proposal.
In Egypt, Ta-Hor and Amoun meet in a temple. When Cleopatra arrives, Amoun becomes captivated by her and declares his love. Cleopatra agrees to spend a night with him on condition that he drink poison the next morning. Ta-Hor tries to stop him, but returns to find him dead.
The imprisoned Tsarevna longs for Ivan, while Kashchey hides his death in a tear of his daughter Kashcheyevna. Ivan resists Kashcheyevna’s enchantment; moved by the Tsarevna’s kiss, she weeps, ending Kashchey’s immortality and freeing the lovers.
Set in 1682 Moscow, the opera depicts political conflict among Prince Ivan Khovansky and the Streltsy, the Old Believers led by Dosifey, and the supporters of Tsar Peter. Khovansky is murdered, Golitsin is exiled, and the Streltsy are pardoned. Dosifey, Marfa, Andrey Khovansky, and the Old Believers ultimately die by self-immolation as Peter’s forces approach.
Levko and Hanna are in love, but the Mayor also pursues Hanna. Levko tells Hanna the story of Pannochka, a drowned maiden who leads the rusalki and seeks the witch who became her stepmother. Levko rallies the village lads to mock the Mayor, whose household is thrown into confusion by their tricks. At the pond, Pannochka asks Levko to identify the witch among the rusalki. He recognizes her, and the rusalki drag her into the water. Pannochka gives Levko a letter instructing the Mayor to allow his marriage to Hanna, and the villagers celebrate.
In the ninth or tenth century, Voyslava kills Mlada, bride of Prince Yaromir, with a poisoned ring so she can have Yaromir for herself. Voyslava’s nurse offers her help if she pledges allegiance to Morena, goddess of the underworld. Although Morena bewitches Yaromir, Mlada’s spirit draws him away from Voyslava. He learns that Voyslava murdered Mlada and kills her. Morena destroys the temple and city of Rethra in a storm and earthquake, while Yaromir is united with Mlada in heaven.
Salieri, who has devoted himself to music, privately resents Mozart’s effortless talent and believes Mozart’s work is superior. He invites Mozart to dinner and poisons his drink. Mozart speaks of the Requiem commissioned by a mysterious stranger and asks whether genius can coexist with crime. As Mozart plays, Salieri weeps and urges him to continue. Mozart feels ill and leaves; Salieri remains troubled by Mozart’s belief that a genius could not be a murderer.
In 16th- and 17th-century Poland, the Voyevode abducts Maria, an orphan promised to Czapliński, and forces her to marry him. His jealous former lover Jadwiga plots to poison Maria, but shifting affections and a mistaken poisoned toast kill the Voyevode instead; Maria frees Czapliński.
Prince Igor sets out from Putivl to fight the Polovtsians despite a solar eclipse that Yaroslavna sees as a bad omen. His army is defeated, and Igor and his son Vladimir are captured. In Khan Konchak’s camp, Vladimir falls in love with Konchakovna; Igor refuses an offer of freedom in exchange for a promise not to fight again. Igor escapes with help from Ovlur, while Vladimir stays behind and marries Konchakovna. Igor returns to Putivl and reunites with Yaroslavna.
The gusli player Sadko leaves his wife Lyubava and Novgorod to seek his fortune. With help from the Sea Princess Volkhova, he catches golden fish and sails abroad, later marrying her in the Sea Tsar’s realm. After a storm destroys the undersea kingdom, Sadko returns to Novgorod wealthy, and Volkhova becomes a river flowing from Lake Ilmen to the sea.
In Nero’s Rome, Servilia’s father seeks to arrange her marriage to Trasea, but she loves his adopted son Valerius. The freedman Egnatius exploits Valerius’s disappearance to force Servilia toward him; when Valerius returns with news that the tribunal is dissolved, Servilia dies, and the others turn to Christianity.
A ballet using elements of Russian folklore, set to music from Rimsky-Korsakov's The Snow Maiden.
Tsar Dodon fears invasion and asks an Astrologer for advice. The Astrologer gives him a magical Golden Cockerel, which alerts the Tsar to danger from the Tsaritsa of Shemakha. Dodon sends his sons to war, but they kill one another. He then leads the army himself and becomes enamored of the Tsaritsa, who encourages his marriage proposal. At the wedding, the Astrologer asks for the Tsaritsa as his reward. Dodon strikes him dead, and the cockerel pecks Dodon’s throat. The Tsaritsa and cockerel disappear.
Fevroniya, who lives in the forest, meets Prince Vsevolod and becomes betrothed to him. During the wedding festivities at Little Kitezh, Tatar invaders capture her and threaten Great Kitezh. She prays for the city to become invisible, and a golden fog hides it from the attackers. After Vsevolod dies in battle, Fevroniya frees the remorseful Grishka, who later runs away in terror. Fevroniya dreams of a transformed forest and welcomes death; she and Vsevolod then appear in the invisible city, where their wedding is celebrated.
During Ivan the Terrible’s campaign against Pskov, Princess Olga loves the rebel Mikhail Tucha but is pledged to Nikita Matuta. Ivan discovers Olga is his daughter and changes his stance toward the city; after she is abducted and Tucha attacks the Tsar’s camp, Olga is fatally shot, and Ivan reveals her parentage.
In 1555, Vera confesses to her sister Nadezhda that her newborn daughter Olga was conceived during an encounter with Ivan the Terrible, not her husband. When Vera’s husband returns and questions the baby’s origins, Nadezhda protects her sister by claiming to be the mother.
The Snow Maiden, daughter of Spring Beauty and Grandfather Frost, longs to live among people. Her parents allow her to be adopted by Bobyl-Bakula and his wife. She is enchanted by Lel’s songs, while Kupava’s wedding to Mizgir is disrupted when Mizgir becomes enamored of the Snow Maiden. The Tsar offers a reward to whoever wins her love. She ultimately falls in love with Mizgir, but her mother warns her to avoid the sun. When she appears with Mizgir at the celebration of Yarilo’s Day, sunlight melts her. Mizgir drowns himself, and the Tsar tells the people that the Snow Maiden’s death ends their long winter.
Dargomyzhsky sets Pushkin’s blank-verse play about Don Juan directly as an opera, retaining its text unchanged. The work consists principally of characters’ melodic recitative solos, with two small romances for Laura.
Saltan chooses Militrisa as his bride and goes to war. Her jealous sisters and Babarikha replace the message telling him of the birth of his son, so he orders mother and child sealed in a barrel and cast into the sea. They reach the island of Buyan, where Gvidon rescues a Swan-Bird. She creates a city and helps Gvidon visit his father disguised as a bumblebee. After hearing sailors describe the island’s wonders, Saltan travels there. The Swan-Bird reveals herself as a princess, and Saltan is reunited with his wife and son.
In 1572, oprichnik Gryaznoy loves Marfa, who is betrothed to Lykov, and seeks a potion to make her love him. His former mistress Lyubasha obtains another potion from the Tsar’s physician, Bomelius. At a feast, Gryaznoy gives Marfa what he believes is a love potion, but Lyubasha has substituted poison. Ivan the Terrible chooses Marfa as his bride. She becomes gravely ill; Lykov is executed, and Gryaznoy learns that the potion killed Marfa. Lyubasha confesses, and Gryaznoy kills her. In her delirium, Marfa mistakes Gryaznoy for Lykov and dies.
In seventeenth-century Scotland, Mary is being married to Douglas, although she loves William Ratcliff. Ratcliff’s father killed Mary’s mother after an affair, and their ghosts haunt him; he has already killed two men betrothed to Mary. After Douglas wounds Ratcliff in a duel, Ratcliff returns to Mary’s room. A song by her nurse Margaret drives him into a frenzy: he kills Mary and her father, then takes his own life. The ghosts of his parents appear and embrace.