Mlada (Rimsky-Korsakov)

Mlada
Opera-ballet by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Fyodor Stravinsky as Mstivoy in the premiere
Native title
Russian: Млада
LibrettistViktor Krylov
LanguageRussian
Premiere
1892 (1892)
Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg

Mlada (Russian: Млада, romanized: Mláda listen) is an opera-ballet in four acts, composed between 1889 and 1890 by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, to a libretto by Viktor Krylov that was originally employed for an aborted project of the same name from 1872.

In the middle of Mlada, a fantasy tale about ancient pagan Slavs, Cleopatra emerges in a scene that exudes sensuality. Rimsky-Korsakov said "Among my musical impressions of Paris [at the World Exhibition, summer 1889] I reflect on music in Hungarian and Algerian cafes. The virtuoso playing of a Hungarian orchestra on tsevnitsas (Pan flutes) gave me the idea of introducing this ancient instrument... during the dances at Cleopatra's. In an Algerian cafe, I was attracted to the beat of a large drum... This effect I also borrowed for the scene of Cleopatra."[1]

  1. ^ Naroditskaya, Inna (2012). Bewitching Russian Opera: The Tsarina from Stage to Stage. Oxford University Press. p. 213. ISBN 978-0-19-534058-7.