Rimsky-Korsakov: The Legend of the Invisible City Of Kitezh

The Invisible City of Kitezh completed in 1905 is a remarkable opera that fuses folklore mysticism and realism. Its subject is the story of the advancing Mongol army's entry to Great Kitezh and the city's subsequent miraculous survival. Rejecting archaisms and the more religiously inclined suggestions of his librettist Rimsky-Korsakov sought to create an opera that 'is contemporary and even fairly advanced'. It is therefore through-composed hinting at times at Wagnerian procedure and flooded with the composer's rich apt and brilliant orchestral palette fully supportive of the powerful vocal writing.