The Golden Cockerel
From Sadler's Wells, the new Royal Opera production of Rimsky-Korsakov's opera based on a story by Pushkin - a surrealistic fantasy in which doddery old King Dodon takes the advice of an astrologer and his magic golden cockerel and goes to war. He ends up defeated and seduced by the exotic Queen of Shemakha. The implied satire of the tsar caused the opera to be banned by the Russian censor: it was not performed until after the composer's death. Sung in Russian.
Royal Opera Chorus and Orchestra, conductor Gennadi Rozhdestvensky Act
7.45 The Coq and the Tsar
An investigation into the satirical intent behind Belsky's adaptation of Pushkin's tale and Rimsky-Korsakov's further alterations.
8.10 Acts 2 and 3