Opera the Snow Maiden Program Notes, Sheet Music and Recordings

Program Notes & Analysis

A "Blissful, Intense Fervor": The Composer's Spring

When Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov sat down to compose The Snow Maiden in the summer of 1880, he was a man reborn. The 1870s had been a dark and difficult decade, marked by the psychological decline and death of his friend Modest Mussorgsky and a creative crisis that saw the "Mighty Handful"—the small circle of nationalist composers—begin to drift apart. Rimsky-Korsakov, who had been teaching himself the "rules" of Western harmony and counterpoint, was searching for a new path. He found it not in a grand historical drama, but in a "spring fairy tale" by the playwright Alexander Ostrovsky. He and his wife moved to a dacha in the village of Stelëvo, a landscape of forests, lakes, and "ancient, pagan rites." He later wrote, "I was living in a magic dream... I had a feeling of blissful, intense creative fervor." He composed the entire, massive opera in just three months. This opera was not just about the coming of spring; it was his own artistic spring. It was a "pantheistic" work, a celebration of nature, folk myth, and the power of art, and he considered it his definitive masterpiece.

The "Mighty Handful" and the "Fairy-Tale" Tradition

The Snow Maiden is, in many ways, the grandest achievement of the "Mighty Handful's" nationalist project. This group of composers, led by Mily Balakirev, sought to create a "true" Russian art, free from the constraints of Italian bel canto and German symphonic development. They turned to the "true" source: Russian folklore and folk music. While Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov had brilliantly applied these ideals to historical drama, Rimsky-Korsakov’s genius lay in the "fantastic." He was the direct heir to Mikhail Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila, and he saw the skazka (fairy tale) as the perfect vehicle for a uniquely Russian sound. The Snow Maiden is not a "realist" opera in the verismo sense, like the works of Puccini; it is a grand, symbolic "myth-opera," a pageant of ritual and magic that aims to capture the pre-Christian, "pantheistic" soul of Russia.

Ostrovsky's Myth: A Solar Drama

The libretto, which Rimsky-Korsakov adapted himself directly from Ostrovsky's play, is far more than a simple fairy tale. It is a profound philosophical drama about the conflict between nature and man, and the necessary, tragic "sacrifice" that bridges the two. The plot is a "solar myth." The land of the Berendeyans is trapped in an endless winter because the sun-god, Yarilo, is angry. He is angry because the natural order has been broken; the people's "hearts have grown cold." The opera is, in effect, a "rite of spring," a story of how the natural balance must be restored. Snegurochka, the Snow Maiden, is the key. She is an "elemental," a creature of pure ice, water, and moonlight. Her desire to experience human love (and its "warmth") is a "transgression" against her nature, but it is this very transgression—her "melting"—that serves as the "offering" to appease the angry sun, finally ending the long winter and allowing summer to return. Her death is not a "tragedy" in the human sense; it is a "joyful" sacrifice that saves the world.

The Two Worlds: Folk vs. Fantastic

The entire, massive score is built on a brilliant musical "code" that separates the "human" world from the "fantastic" one. Rimsky-Korsakov was a master ethnomusicologist who had published the first great collections of Russian folk songs. He uses this knowledge to define his characters. The Human World: The Berendeyans (the villagers, Kupava, Mizgir) and, most importantly, the shepherd-singer Lel, are all defined by music that is diatonic and modal. Their arias and choruses are based on the actual melodies and rhythms of Russian folk song. This music is earthy, rhythmic, and "real." The famous "Dance of the Tumblers" (Skomorokhi) is a brilliant example of this folk-based, festive music. The Fantastic World: The nature spirits (Grandfather Frost, Spring Beauty, the Wood-Sprite) and the Snow Maiden herself (at the beginning of the opera) are given a completely different, "magic" sound. Their music is "unnatural"—it is highly chromatic, filled with "unsettling" augmented chords, and built on the "supernatural" octatonic and whole-tone scales. This musical "code" (human=folk, magic=chromatic) became the absolute blueprint for his entire "fairy-tale" style and was passed directly to his most famous pupil.

Snegurochka: A Tragedy of Transformation

Snegurochka (Snow Maiden) is one of the most unique heroines in the repertoire. She is not a "victim" in the traditional sense. She is an "other," a "half-being" who is defined by what she lacks: human warmth. The opera is the story of her tragic transformation. Her music at the beginning is "cold"—it is high, light, and almost "instrumental," like a flute. It is the brilliant, "unfeeling" music of a coloratura soprano. She is enchanted by the "warm," folk-based music of the shepherd Lel, and her great desire is to be able to "feel" as he does. Her great "aria" of the Prologue, "S podruzhkami" (To go berry-picking with my friends), is a heartbreaking lament of her own isolation—she can hear the human songs, but she cannot "feel" them. The opera's climax is not her death, but her plea to her mother, Spring Beauty, to grant her the "gift" of human love. When Spring gives her this "warmth," her "magic" music vanishes. Snegurochka sings, for the first time, in a passionate, "human," and soaringly romantic style. It is at this exact moment, when she finally becomes capable of love, that she also becomes "mortal" and vulnerable to the sun. Her final "melting" scene is a masterpiece of orchestration, a shimmering, glittering, "dissolving" passage of harps, celesta, and strings, as she melts back into the earth, a final, "ecstatic" sacrifice.

The Philosopher-Tsar: An Artist's Self-Portrait

While the opera is full of passionate lovers—the fickle shepherd Lel (a "trouser role" for a mezzo-soprano), the tragic Kupava, and the obsessive Mizgir—its true moral center is the Tsar Berendey. He is one of the strangest and most beloved "king" roles in opera. He is not a "guilty" bass like Mussorgsky’s Boris, or a "bumbling" bass like Tsar Saltan. He is a high, lyrical tenor, a "philosopher-king" and an artist. He rules not by power, but by a "religion of art." His great Cavatina in Act II, "Tucha so gromom" (The cloud with its thunder) is a sublime hymn to the beauty of nature. He believes the "anger" of the sun-god is a direct result of his people's "cold hearts" and their lack of "aesthetic appreciation." He believes he can restore the natural order through art, beauty, and love. Tsar Berendey is, in almost every way, a loving self-portrait of Rimsky-Korsakov himself—the "artist-priest" who can restore harmony to the world through the divine power of his music.

The Sound of Nature: A Precursor to Stravinsky

The Snow Maiden is a "textbook" of orchestration; Rimsky-Korsakov was, after all, the man who literally wrote the book on the subject. The orchestra is the natural world. The score is filled with "leitmotifs" for the natural world: the "bird calls" in the forest (played by a trio of flutes), the "cold" static chords for Grandfather Frost, the "warm" horn calls for the sun-god Yarilo. This "pantheistic" sound, where the orchestra itself becomes a "living, breathing" forest, was a profound and direct influence on Rimsky-Korsakov's most brilliant pupil, Igor Stravinsky. The "magic" harmonies of The Snow Maiden and the "bird calls" of the forest are the clear ancestors of the "magic" garden and the "supernatural" bird in Stravinsky’s 1910 ballet, The Firebird. The Snow Maiden is the "source code" for the "magical Russian" sound that would help define 20th-century music.

The Story of the Opera

Prologue: The Red Hill

It is the end of winter, in the mythical land of the Berendeyans. Spring Beauty and Grandfather Frost (Ded-Moroz) are in a clearing. They have a 15-year-old daughter, Snegurochka (The Snow Maiden), who is a creature of ice and water, with a "cold" heart. They have kept her hidden because the sun-god, Yarilo, is angry at them and has sworn to destroy Snegurochka if he ever sees her, or if she ever experiences the "warmth" of human love. Snegurochka, however, has watched the humans from afar and, enchanted by the songs of the shepherd Lel, begs her parents to let her live among them. They reluctantly agree, entrusting her to the care of the Wood-Sprite and making her the "adopted" daughter of a human couple, Bobyl and Bobylikha. The act ends as the Berendeyans celebrate the "Shrovetide" carnival, burning a straw-man of Winter.

Act I: The Village

In the village, Snegurochka is enchanted by the "human" world, but she is also sad. The shepherd, Lel, sings for her (his "Third Song"), but his love is fickle, and he quickly abandons her for the other, "warmer" village girls. Snegurochka is left alone. Her friend, Kupava, arrives, overjoyed, to announce her upcoming wedding to the wealthy merchant, Mizgir. Mizgir arrives for the wedding ceremony, but when he sees Snegurochka, he is instantly struck by her "unearthly" beauty. In a moment of brutal cruelty, he publicly renounces the heartbroken Kupava and offers his riches to Snegurochka instead. Snegurochka, not understanding "love," is confused and runs away. Kupava is left humiliated and vows to seek justice from the Tsar.

Act II: The Court of Tsar Berendey

In the Tsar's palace, the blind bards sing his praises. Kupava arrives and tells the Tsar of Mizgir's betrayal. The Tsar, a "philosopher-king," is horrified by this "crime against love." He sees this "coldness of heart" as the very reason the sun-god Yarilo is angry and has "frozen" their land. He summons Mizgir, who remains defiant, captivated by Snegurochka. The Tsar sentences Mizgir to a life of exile. He then sees Snegurochka for the first time and is amazed by her beauty, but also disturbed by her "cold" heart. He declares that the man who can successfully "warm" Snegurochka's heart and win her love by sunrise (the start of the festival of Yarilo) will marry her and be rewarded.

Act III: The Forest

That evening, the people celebrate in the forest. The Tsar commands Lel to sing, and as a reward, allows him to "choose" a kiss from any girl. Lel, to Snegurochka's delight, chooses her. But this small, warm kiss only makes her more miserable, as she "feels" something but cannot "hold" him; he leaves her again for the other girls. Mizgir, now an outcast, finds her. He corners her, professing his obsessive, passionate love. Snegurochka, terrified by this "hot" emotion, flees. She calls for the Wood-Sprite, who hides her in the forest as Mizgir chases after her, lost in the "magic" of the woods.

Act IV: The Valley of Yarilo

At dawn, in a sacred valley, Snegurochka calls for her mother, Spring Beauty. Spring rises from a lake and, moved by her daughter's sorrow, grants her the one, fatal "gift": the capacity for human love and passion. Instantly, Snegurochka's "cold" music transforms into a "warm," passionate, and soaring melody. Mizgir finds her. Snegurochka, no longer afraid, rushes to him, and for the first time, she feels true, passionate love. At that exact moment, the first rays of the rising sun strike her. The sun-god Yarilo has claimed his victim. In a final, beautiful, and ecstatic aria, Snegurochka "melts," telling Mizgir not to be sad, as she is dying of "love." She dissolves into a pool of water. Mizgir, in despair, throws himself into the lake. The Tsar and the people arrive. Instead of mourning, the Tsar interprets this as the "sacrifice" that has ended the long winter. The opera ends with a massive, triumphant hymn to Yarilo, as the people celebrate the return of the sun.