Rimsky-Korsakov's pen-ultimate opera was never popular at home in Soviet times, even with a text rewritten for Communist purposes, partly because of unease about its inescapably religious nature and perhaps also because of its Wagnerian elements. Yet it is certainly not the Russian Parsifal, as it has been foolishly described; rather, it draws upon the magical, the fantastic, the legendary and the religious, finding exciting and sometimes moving contact between them. Too complicated for summary here, the plot has at its centre the woodland maiden Fevroniya and her betrothal to Prince Vsevolod; there are ceremonies, a Tartar abduction, and a final transfiguration when the mysterious city of Kitezh welcomes the lovers to eternal life. It is a beautiful score, and one of Rimsky-Korsakov's subtlest.
There have not been many recordings. One conducted by Vassily Nebolsin in the 1950s and issued in the West on Chant du Monde had Natalya Rozhdestvenskaya (the conductor Gennadi's mother) as Fevroniya; it won a Grand Prix. Two years ago, a good version was issued by Koch Schwann of the performance under Vladimir Fedoseyev at the Bregenz Festival, though the opera was cut and the ending weakened by denying Vsevolod and Fevroniya their union in God. The ambience, on the floating stage before an audience of 6,000, created some problems, not least for the Fevroniya, Yelena Prokina. It is not an easy role. The original producer, Vassily Shkafer, was puzzled as to why the composer had written the central part 'for a dramatic soprano whereas the figure of Fevroniya is actually ... designed to be ... light, ethereal, disembodied. 'Yelena Prokina was all of the latter, but she had difficulty in projecting her voice across the Bregenz stage. On the new recording, Galina Gorchakova has the dramatic power, but, skilfully as she phrases the music, she lacks the simplicity first revealed in the forest and sustained throughout Fevroniya's trials. Both sopranos have steady support from their tenors, with Yuri Marusin a strong and lyrical Vsevolod. Vladimir Galusin repeats his hectic performance of the drunkard Grishka Kuter'ma from the earlier set.
Or strictly, the later set. The Koch Schwann was recorded in July 1995 and issued in December 1997; Gergiev's was also made live, as part of the St Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov Festival in February 1994. There are different problems of recording. On the Philips version, the sound occasionally seems to biff the microphones; the chorus, which sings excellently, is not always clear; and there is a great deal of clumping. However, the orchestra, which matters a great deal, is lucid. One may add that the Philips documentation is superior, with good essays, plus the Russian original and translations in English, French and German (the English slips up occasionally, as when Fevroniya's brother is described as a tree-creeper: not that pretty little bird, but a woodsman who climbs trees after honey). Neither set, then, is wholly satisfactory. With the above reservations, newcomers would probably do slightly better with the Philips.'