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• Major Operas
• High Romantic
• Opera

Khovanshchina (‘The Khovansky Affair’), a dark opera, full of conspiracy, gloom and imminent violence, was based on a historical event. In 1682, the future modernizing tsar Peter the Great (1672–1725) was made co-ruler of Russia with his mentally retarded half-brother Ivan V (1666–96). At this time, introducing Greek and Latin practices into the Russian Church was ...

• Personalities
• High Romantic
• Opera

was performed in 1874. Dissolute Demise In 1872 Mussorgsky, who eked out a bare existence through occasional engagements as a pianist, had begun work on another opera, Khovanshchina (‘The Khovansky Affair’). This, too, took its subject from Russian history, but the work was abandoned and was eventually completed by Rimsky-Korsakov. Similarly, Mussorgsky’s comedy Sorochintsy ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Late Romantic

as in his masterpiece, the opera Boris Godunov (1868–73). Boris’s noble soliloquies and the splendid choruses show a concern for the plight of the Russian masses. Another opera, Khovanshchina (‘The Khovansky Affair’, 1873), followed three masterly song cycles: The Nursery (1872), a brilliant depiction of childhood, Sunless (1874) and Songs and Dances of Death (1877), in which the ...

• Personalities
• Classical
• Composer
• Late Romantic

(Ni’-ku-li Rim’-ske Kôr’-sa-kôf) 1844–1908 Russian composer Born to a land-owning family, Rimsky-Korsakov served in the Russian navy and composed the first ‘Russian’ symphony while on duty off Gravesend. He joined Balakirev’s circle, ‘The Five’, in 1861 and following the success of Sadko (1867), a tone-poem about the sea, was appointed professor at the new St Petersburg Conservatory. In addition ...