The Snow Maiden in the mid-20th century

While rehearsals are under way for a concert performance of The Snow Maiden, we recall the history of Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera at our theatre.

The opera has been performed 392 times in the Mikhailovsky Theatre in four different stagings. The longest-running production was by created by Alexey Kireyev and was premiered on 22 March 1947. It was performed 126 times on the theatre’s stage and was the young director’s first independent work for a professional theatre.

In that new staging, unofficially dedicated to the fortieth anniversary of the composer’s death, Konstantin Korovin’s legendary scenery was used for the second time in the theatre’s history. In combination with the director’s new subtle and lyrical interpretation of the production, the scenery made the opera «poetic and spiritual». In his review of The Snow Maiden for the newspaper Vecherny Leningrad, the composer Georgy Sviridov wrote: «Kireyev has a good feel for the perpetual motion of the music and the production’s best mise-en-scènes are full of genuine musicality.»

A scene in Act I. Vera Shestakova as the Snow Maiden, Irena Leliva as Lel

One of the features of the 1947 production were the uncustomary changes in tempo brought about by the closer attention paid by the conductor Eduard Grikurov to the trials and tribulations of the characters. The title role at the premiere was sung by People’s Artist of the Russian Federation Tatiana Lavrova, who had just been awarded a first degree Stalin Prize for her role as Natasha Rostova in Prokofiev’s opera War and Peace. Her performance as the Snow Maiden was received as the «poetization of chaste maidenhood,» while the directorial interpretation was praised as a lyrical-psychological poem.

Audio recording of the final scene of The Snow Maiden.
The title role is sung by Tatiana Lavrova. The Maly Opera Theatre Orchestra is conducted by Eduard Grikurov.