Gustav Styger wrote:

>The second part was the one act opera by Rimsky-Korsakov, sung in Russian.
>I assume Rimsky- Korsakov used the Pushkin play, as is for the libretto,
>because the action of both are almost identical.

In September 1997 I wrote:

>...  Rimsky-Korsakov (1897, first performance 1898). His opera is a belated
>attempt to set a play verbatim to music (he deleted only a few of  Pushkin's
>lines*). The first one was The Stone Guest by Dargomyzhsky (1863-9), to whose
>memory Rimsky-Korsakov dedicated his opera. The idea of composing a text
>without changing a word was popular in the 1860s with the composers of the
>Mighty Five, but soon proved unsuitable for writing an opera.

*) although he first wanted to set the whole play (note added to avoid just
repeating the List Archive)

Gustav Styger wrote:

>The opera is for chamber orchestra and tenor and baritone and consists of
>two operatic scenes in recitative-arioso style.  The music is (to my ears)
>a strange mix of Russian romanticism and a deliberate attempt at a
>pseudo-classical style.

It is indeed.  The excerpt of Mozart's requiem is set for choir ad libitum.
I once attended a performance in Holland, where a choir was employed for
the whole evening to sing just these few bars.

Gustav Styger wrote:

>Does anyone know if this opera has been recorded on CD?

I have two recordings on CD:

The one mentioned by Walter Meyer with Stoyan Angelov conductor, Andreev,
Mozart; Gerdjibov, Salieri.

The one mentioned by Jonathan Knapp with Ermler conductor, Fedin, Mozart,
Nesterenko, Salieri, which has Musorgsky's Marriage as an added bonus.
(That is, if you like that work, which I don't.  It is merely a curiosity,
abandoned by Musorgsky after the first act).

I prefer the performance featuring Nesterenko, who has the most important
part.

If only we could have a recording of a 1898 private performance (soon after
the first one) with Shalyapin singing both parts with Rachmaninov at the
piano!

Willem Vijvers <[log in to unmask]>