Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
The Snow Maiden

Opera-goers will probably for the first time see a non-fairytale love story. Events are unfolding amid the pagan festival of Maslenitsa (the Pancake week), full of merry-making, enjoyment of life and mischief. Maslenitsa is a short span of time between Winter and Spring, between eternal calm and eternal love (which of them do people need more?). It bursts into the fairytale people’s life to make it madly real. Mythical things are interwoven with earthly life, while earthly life rises to a myth. One has to see it.