Search - N. Rimsky-Korsakov :: Snow Maiden-Complete Opera

Lovely Opera, Decent Recording

Eric S. Kim | Southern California | 09/21/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Snow Maiden by Rimsky-Korsakov is a very rarely heard opera. It's popular in Russia, but it hasn't found an official repertoire in the rest of the world. I'm pretty sure that this could be a quite successful opera if people worldwide have heard about it. It's a fairly colorful opera, filled with lush orchestrations (and motifs) and some pretty good arias. This particular recording from Capriccio Records isn't all that great. Conductor Stoyan Angelov gives a very good reading on the score, but everything else seems very average. The Bulgarian Radio Symphony Orchestra makes no mistakes, but I wish they gave some more emotion in their performance. Same goes for the choir. On the bright side, though, I have no problem with Angelov and his soloists. The sopranos and tenors, especially, give very impressive performances. So basically, this would have been a great recording if it weren't for the average orchestra and choir, subpar sound quality, and the lack of a darn libretto. Still, it gives me great pleasure to listen to a Rimsky-Korsakov opera. I just hope this will be world-famous sometime in the future."

Gorgeous music in mostly fine performances

G.D. | Norway | 12/31/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a far, far more than merely serviceable performance of one of Rimsky-Korsakov's own favorite compositions, but it isn't perfect; some of the singing is on the questionable side, and while the orchestral playing is good, one could imagine a little more opulence and sheen certain places. But never mind - as long as this is the only viable performance available I won't hesitate to call it an essential acquisition (I don't actually know whether it actually is - I see that the Fedoseyev and Lazarev performances might be available as well, and I've heard neither but good things about the Fedoseyev). Snow Maiden is anyway a thrilling, enchantingly atmospheric - utterly magical - fairy-tale opera that demands to be heard by anyone with the most remote interest in romantic opera. Of course, Rimsky-Korsakov often gets away through his peerless mastery of orchestration, but in most of this opera the musical material is itself very strong (for a perfect example of orchestral ingenuity and melodic skill - and beautiful choral writing - sample that most magical of numbers, the Evocation of the birds).



The 3,5 hours work was premiered in 1882 and is composed to a text by the composer himself, based on a comedy by Ostrovsky concerning the Snow Maiden, daughter of King Frost and the Spring Fairy, who longs for love but will melt if she experiences it. Without going through the various themes and motions, it is a touching but simple story ending, of course, with her disappearance but the return of the sun and spring. More importantly, Rimsky-Korsakov supplied astonishingly wonderful music for it, and his mastery of orchestration doesn't imply that the orchestration is overloaded - in fact, it often achieves a chamber like feel, transparent and moving and with much delectable writing for solo instruments. The drama might not be very taut, and one might obviously debate whether the rhapsodic character of fairy-tales makes for very effective operatic dramas (the third act is definitely most dramatically effective), but I don't think I care; with music as fine as this, I only wish that the scenes and whole work were drawn out even longer.



The recorded sound is quite decent, but tends to favor the soloists (which might not be completely optimal, since anyone listening to this opera would want to crank up the volume to revel in the orchestral detail). The singing is generally fine, but with somewhat exaggerated vibrato at times, and many voices have a certain hardness to them - probably at least in part because of the recorded sound. The title role is taken by Elena Zemenkova, and she has a bright, very beautiful and steady voice and a technique to match (wonderful coloratura), The most impressive singer here, however, is probably Ghiuselev as King Frost - it is a really magnificent performance of a big, authoritative, noble-sounding and moving voice. Alexandrina Milcheva as the Spring Fairy is very good as well, with a beautiful voice with real character, and so is Videnov as Misgir - warm and vibrant and very much alive. Not all the other roles are equally successful - there is some wobbling and at certain points somewhat questionable intonation, even, but also a lot of fine, moving singing.



I am, in the end, a little uncertain about the star rating for this one. The singing and instrumental performances are not five-star quality overall, although easily four stars - much of the solo singing is really good and so is the orchestra, e.g. the many instrumental soloists. On the other hand, I usually interpret five stars to mean `essential acquisition', and this recording is probably an essential acquisition, depending a little on the availability and quality of the Fedoseyev set, insofar as it is the only easily available issue of this wonderful music. In any case, I do hope readers are going to pick up some version or other of this opera; it is a magical experience."