The Polovetsian Dances (or Polovtsian Dances) are perhaps the best known selections from Alexander Borodin's opera Prince Igor (1890). They are often played as a stand-alone concert piece as one of the best known works in the classical repertoire. In the opera the dances are performed with chorus, but concert performances often omit the choral parts. The dances do not include the "Polovetsian March" which opens Act III (No. 18), but the overture,...
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The Polovetsian Dances (or Polovtsian Dances) are perhaps the best known selections from Alexander Borodin's opera Prince Igor (1890). They are often played as a stand-alone concert piece as one of the best known works in the classical repertoire. In the opera the dances are performed with chorus, but concert performances often omit the choral parts. The dances do not include the "Polovetsian March" which opens Act III (No. 18), but the overture, dances, and march from the opera have been performed together to form a suite from Prince Igor. In the opera Prince Igor, the dances occur in Act II (in the original edition). A typical performance lasts between 11 and 14 minutes.
The first dance, which uses no chorus and is sometimes omitted in concerts, is No. 8, entitled "Dance of the Polovetsian Maidens" ["Пляска половецких девушек"]: Presto, 6/8, F Major; it is placed directly after the "Chorus of the Polovetsian Maidens" which opens the act and is followed by "Konchakovna's Cavatina"....
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