Rimsky-Korsakov - The Maid of Pskov (Ivan, The Terrible) [1994]

CD1
1. The Maid of Pskov - Overture
2. The Maid of Pskov / Act 1 - (Scene 1) "Catch me! Catch me!"
3. The Maid of Pskov / Act 1 - The story of princess Lada: "This is the tale of the valiant hero, Gorinya"  play
4. The Maid of Pskov / Act 1 - Song of Mikhailo Tucha: "Let me hear your call"
5. The Maid of Pskov / Act 1 - "Here, in the garden, it's cooler than indoors"	
6. The Maid of Pskov / Act 1 - (Scene 2) "Who's called us to this meeting?"

CD2
1. The Maid of Pskov / Act 2 - (Scene 1) "Our terrible tsar rides to Mighty Pskov"
2. The Maid of Pskov / Act 2 - "Ah, Nanny, Nanny"
3. The Maid of Pskov / Act 2 - "The bells ring within the walls"
4. The Maid of Pskov / Act 2 - (Scene 2) Intermezzo - "Should I enter, or not? 
5. The Maid of Pskov / Act 2 - "Tsar and ruler, we serve you!"
6. The Maid of Pskov / Act 2 - "I have been meaning to ask you"              play
7. The Maid of Pskov / Act 3 - (Scene 1) "Ah, you dear, most leafy oak forest"
8. The Maid of Pskov / Act 3 - "Alone, in the wood"
9. The Maid of Pskov / Act 3 - (Scene 2) "So, I have pardoned Pskov"
10. The Maid of Pskov / Act 3 - "Hello there, Olga Ivanovna..."              play
11. The Maid of Pskov / Act 3 - "The weeping and the sorrow of a maiden"
12. The Maid of Pskov / Act 3 - "You reckless girl!"

Ivan the Terrible - Vladimir Ognovenko
Princess Olga - Galina Gorchakova
Mikhail A. Tucha - Vladimir Galuzin
Vlasyevna - Luydmila Filatova
Perfilyevna - Evgenia Perlasova-Verkovich
Styosha - Olga Korzhenskaia
Price Yuri I. Tokmakov - Gennady Bezzubenkov
Boyar Nikita Matuta - Nikolai Gassiev
Prince Afanasy Vyazemski - Evgeni Fedorov
Yushko Velebin - Georgy Zastavny
Bomelius - Yuri Laptiev

Kirov Opera & Orchestra
Valery Gergiev, 1994

It was a strange situation, probably unique in the history of opera: two composers who are now world-famous shared an apartment. Either of them worked on an opera at this time. These operas were both about a tyrannical Russian tsar, and not only the action but also the music of the two operas had very much in common. There are scenes sounding like plagiarisms of one another. But it is really difficult, if not impossible, to tell which is the original and which is the copy. In fact, the composers didn't mind. They even helped each other.

The two composers in question are Modest Mussorgsky and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and the "twin operas" are "Boris Godunov" and "The Maid of Pskov", also known as "Ivan the Terrible". The time when the composers lived together was 1871/72. Rimsky was the first to finish his work, and he was also the first to get it performed (in 1873), while Mussorgsky had to wait one year longer, but when Diaghilev introduced both operas to the West at the beginning of the 20th century, he presented them in reverse order, and "The Maid of Pskov" seemed but a feeble imitation of "Boris". Outside Russia it never caught on. Nor did any of Rimsky's other 14 operas, not even his last, "The Golden Cockerel" (usually known by the French name under which it was produced by Diaghilev, "Le Coq d'or").

Inside Russia, however, especially in St. Petersburg, "The Maid of Pskov" was never forgotten, although it was always ranked below "Boris Godunov". And this is probably how it is: "Boris Godunov" is a masterpiece of the highest rank, to many the greatest of Russian operas, and if Rimsky's "Maid of Pskov" cannot match "Boris", no other opera can. "Boris" apart, however, "The Maid of Pskov" is still a very attractive example of a history-based opera, the genre so beloved by 19th-century Russians, and of high musical merit. Whoever likes this kind of opera will also appreciate "The Maid of Pskov" with its magnificent choruses (especially the so-called "Veche" scene, which certainly is on par with "Boris Godunov"), with Olga's Arietta in the second act, with the soliloquy of the guilt-ridden Tsar Ivan in the last act and with the end, when Ivan bows over the dead body of his illegitimate daughter with the chorus singing a touching hymn and the orchestra transfiguring the scene in a climactic postlude.

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