However, he also spent much time in support of women's causes, much to the consternation of his fellow composers, who felt he should devote his time and talent to music. The idea of a choral epilogue in the original scenario was no doubt inspired by the example of A Life for the Tsar by Mikhail Glinka, to whose memory Prince Igor is dedicated.īorodin's primary occupation was chemistry, including research and teaching. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Chronicle of My Musical Life, 1909 In those days this whole middle part was non-existent, and the chorus formed one unbroken number of rather considerable dimensions.
The episodes of the solar eclipse, of the parting from Yaroslavna, etc., divide it into halves which fringe the entire prologue. At present this chorus extolls Igor as he starts on his expedition against the Polovtsy. Borodin's closing chorus ., which, in the epilogue of the opera (subsequently removed) extolled Igor's exploits, was shifted by the author himself to the prologue of the opera, of which it now forms a part. In his memoirs, Rimsky-Korsakov mentions an 1876 concert at which Borodin's "closing chorus" was performed, the first public performance of any music from Prince Igor identified by him: This period also marks the creation of two new characters, the deserters Skula and Yeroshka, who have much in common with the rogue monks Varlaam and Misail in Boris Godunov. īorodin returned to Prince Igor in 1874, inspired by the success of his colleagues Rimsky-Korsakov and Mussorgsky in the staging of their historical operas, The Maid of Pskov (1873) and Boris Godunov (1874). Of the eight numbers he had composed for Act 4 of Mlada, those that eventually found their way into (or back into) Prince Igor included No. 1 (Prologue: The opening C major chorus), No. 2 (material for Yaroslavna's arioso and Igor's aria), No. 3 (Prologue: The eclipse), No. 4 (Act 3: The trio), and No. 8 (Act 4: The closing chorus). The Mlada project was soon aborted, and Borodin, like the other members of The Mighty Handful who were involved – César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov – thought about ways to recycle the music he contributed.
To me, opera without drama, in the strict sense, is unnatural." This began a period of about four years in which he proceeded no further on Prince Igor, but began diverting materials for the opera into his other works, the Symphony No. 2 in B minor (1869–1876) and the collaborative opera-ballet Mlada (1872). He expressed his misgivings in a letter to his wife: "There is too little drama here, and no movement. He soon began to have doubts and ceased composing. Alexander Borodin, reply to Stasov's proposalĪfter collecting material from literary sources, Borodin began composition in September 1869 with initial versions of Yaroslavna's arioso and Konchakovna's cavatina, and sketched the Polovtsian Dances and March of the Polovtsy.
0 kommentar(er)
