Leader, Philip Whiteway
Conductor, E. GODFREY BROWN
The Snowmaiden was Rimsky-Korsakov's third opera and one of his most characteristic compositions. (1) The opera opens with an orchestral prelude suggesting the gradual awakening of nature from her winter sleep. (2) The ' Dance of the Birds ' describes the birds' greeting of the spring. (3) The action of the human part of this spring fairy-tale passes in the quaint kingdom of Berendeys, a people who live in fantastically shaped houses painted in many colours and are ruled by a kindly, but despotic, Tsar. Rimsky-Korsakov here describes a procession of the Tsar and his court. (4) Awaiting dawn in the Holy Wood at the spring solstice, the Tsar orders his buffoons to amuse him.