Description

Rimski-Korsakov is best known by his purely orchestral works such as Scheherazade and Capriccio Espagnol. His Christmas Eve (1895) is an opera in four acts composed between 1894 and 1895, Rimsky-Korsakov wrote the libretto, which he based on a short story, Christmas Eve, from Nikolai Gogol's Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka. The story had been used as the basis for an opera at least three times previously. Tchaikovsky had written an opera on the same theme, but Rimsky's is the one that stayed in the Russian repertory, for its color, beauty, humor, and charm. There's nothing Christmas like about the piece, really, and the only spot of religion comes when the hero Vakula terrifies the Devil by making the sign of the cross. Instead, there's a great deal of humor, a ballet of stars, a procession of comets, a visit to St. Petersburg (with the familiar Polonaise), and a happy ending. God, witches, devils, and the pagan deities of old Russia seem on good terms here, and a clever and hard-working man like Vakula can outwit the Devil and get the village beauty to marry him.

Files