Rimsky-Korsakov - three operas
Although Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov is one of the greatest Russian composers, his music is very rarely performed outside of Russia. With the exception of the novelty excerpt Flight of The Bumble Bee, his compositions are unfairly neglected. It is regretable for his works are quite accessible and among the most important compositions of the early part of the 20th century. Having written many orchestral works and 15 operas, he deserve a bigger audience.
Michael Steinberg attempts to rectify this situation by placing three old but exceptional opera recordings on his web page titled Three Tales by Rimsky-Korsakov. These are Soviet era recordings from the 1960s of even older performances. The albums have excellent monaural sound and are converted to VBR MP3 at around 96kbps. The sound quality is so good that it is hard to believe that these were taken off vinyl discs over 40 years old. The files are nicely packed in an album zip along with a synopsis of each opera.
The Tale of Tsar Saltan was written in 1899. This 1953 performance by The Bolshoi Opera is conducted by Vassily Nebolsin and features Ivan Petrov as the Tsar, Vladimir Ivanovsky as Guidon, Yevgenia Smolenskaya as the Tsarina and Galina Olenitchenko as the Swan-Princess. Steinberg states there is no modern recording of the opera so this may be your only chance to hear this charming work. By the way, you will find “The Flight of The Bumble Bee” at the end of Act III.
The Tale of the Invisible City of Kitezh and of The Maiden Fevronia was wrtten in 1907. Again we have The Bolshoi but this time conducted by Vasili Nebolsin. Fevronia is sung by Natalya Rozhdestvenskaya. Other vocalists include Dmitri Tarkhov, Vladimir Ivanovsky, and Ivan Petrov in this 50s performance.
Christmas Eve is based on the Dikanka stories of Nikolai Gogol. The recording is from 1948 and conducted by Nicolai Golovanov with the Moscow Radio orchestra. Steinberg writes that this is a good place for the novice opera listener to start. I tend to agree with that but frankly I’m in love with the opera Tsar Saltan.
I am sure you will enjoy these rare recordings. Make sure you read Steinberg’s fine introductions on his web page and the opera synopsis included in the album zip.
Download
Tsar Saltan
The Tale of the Invisible City of Kitezh
Christmas Eve
Rimsky-Korsakov is very awesome in many ways, but “Peter and the Wolf” is not one of them, having been written later in history by Prokofiev. But still. Go Rimsky!
Comment by Scott — March 29, 2007 @ 4:24 am
Damn! You guys are fast! I had the post up for no more than 30 seconds before I realized my error. Blame it on brain freeze. I tried to change it before someone caught it. But NOOOOOOO! you had to find it first. Oh, well. It is nice to know you people are keeping me honest!
Comment by freealbums — March 29, 2007 @ 4:31 am
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Second free download for Muertepop records. “Matite Spuntate” is the new album of the impressive one man band 1984. It
includes several alternative rock influeces in the new eleven tracks release.
Free download in the release page of http://www.muertepop.com
Archive release page http://www.archive.org/details/muerte002
Comment by muertepop — March 29, 2007 @ 10:29 am
The Tale Of The Invisible City Of Kitezh is like the Holy Grail to me. Thanks to this wondrous place I have found it! I can see myself spending many happy hours here…
Comment by Russell — February 19, 2008 @ 11:57 am
Is “Christmas Eve” incomplete, or are the tracks just really poorly labeled?
Comment by Lethe — September 17, 2008 @ 11:11 pm
Thanks for posting this! :D
Comment by dj wish — October 14, 2010 @ 3:31 pm