It looks like you waited too long. There are no tickets left for the SF Symphony's Thursday and Saturday performances of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Mlada," although there may be some available for Sunday. If at first you don't succeed... you may have to wait another 110 years. That's how long it took for "Mlada" to make it from Saint Petersburg to San Francisco, the weird, inexcusable "Rimsky curse" making its impact again. Why is this wonderful work neglected - along with a dozen others by Rimsky? It is, certainly in the US, but pretty much everywhere outside Russia as well. Kudos, no, "slava!" to Michael Tilson Thomas for producing this semi-staged version, a local premiere, as the conclusion of the Symphony's Russian Festival. Let the would-be buyer beware, however. Much as I love this work, diabetics must be warned. This is rich, thick, sweet music, Wagner at his most romantic, with a dose of Puccini, lots of Dvorak and - yes - classy Hollywood 1930s soundtrack here and there, in what sounds like John Williams orchestration. A kind of Rhine Journey intersecting with "La Rondine," Fafner breathing fire to Richard Strauss and early Schoenberg accompaniment, and look at those 12 musicians playing non-chromatic horns on-stage! (Well, they did at the Mariinsky.) If woodwind tremolo over massed strings, pan pipes with harps, throbbing rhythms and soaring melodies don't ring your chimes, you may not be a fellow "Mlada" fan. Further disclosure: the convoluted story ("Disneyfied Wagner `Ring'," according to MTT) won't help much. What's the attraction then? The music, the kind of Russian cast we haven't heard here since the Unshaven One switched coasts and took the Kirov with him, and the opportunity to see the "retired" but ever so youthful Evelyn Cisneros dance again - choreographed by Val Caniparoli, who was responsible for Cisneros' "Lambarena" triumph, among many others. WHAT is "Mlada" then? An opera-ballet, with a story line from pre-Christian Slavic legends. For starters, Mlada (Cisneros), fiancee to Prince Yaromir (Gegam Grigorian) is murdered by Prince Mstivoy (Tigran Martirossian) and his daughter Voislava (Ljuba Kazarnovskaya). Underworld spirits - good and bad - get involved, dream sequences and spectacular struggles ensue, until Yaromir and Mlada have a stately apotheosis above storms and floods. Imagine a straight line from "Aida" to the final scene (albeit with a Spielberg touch) of "Gotterdammerung," and you'll have a pretty good idea. Also in the cast: Susanna Poretsky, Susan Narucki, Vladimir Glushchak and Brian Asawa. Do check out what's left for Sunday. Janos Gereben/SF [log in to unmask]