The Snow Bogatyr (Снежный богатырь in Cyrillic; Snežnyj bogatyr' in transliteration) is an opera-fairytale for children in one act, two tableaux, by César Cui, composed in 1905. The libretto was written by a school teacher named Marina Stanislavovna Polʹ, using Russian folk tales.
The title can be translated also as The Snow Hero or The Snow Knight, but these renderings do not quite convey the notion of a Bogatyr.
As with the composer's other chi...
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The Snow Bogatyr (Снежный богатырь in Cyrillic; Snežnyj bogatyr' in transliteration) is an opera-fairytale for children in one act, two tableaux, by César Cui, composed in 1905. The libretto was written by a school teacher named Marina Stanislavovna Polʹ, using Russian folk tales.
The title can be translated also as The Snow Hero or The Snow Knight, but these renderings do not quite convey the notion of a Bogatyr.
As with the composer's other children's operas, this work was meant for children to perform in, as well as to watch.
The opera was premiered on 15 May 1906 (Old Style), in Yalta, by school students of Ms. Pol', who accompanied the performance at the piano. It was staged also on 4 March 1908 in Saint Petersburg, by opera students at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.
Like one of the composer's other children's operas, Puss in Boots, this opera seems to have had some staying power, or at least potential, in Soviet times, judging by the fact that it was re-published in 1953 --...
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