History and culture: The archives of the composer Rimsky-Korsakov presented at an exhibition in St. Petersburg

"In the Kashchey Kingdom" exhibition, which continues the series of chamber shows started in 2011 and representing the composer's operatic heritage, opens on October 29th, 2015, at the Memorial Museum-Apartment of Rimsky-Korsakov (St. Petersburg). The "In the Kashchey Kingdom" project is the ninth and perhaps the most compound in the cycle. A similarity of the folk sources and the plot motifs of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Kashchey the Immortal" opera and Stravinsky's "The Firebird" ballet have combined two musical masterpieces in one exposition at once.

Visitors will learn about the sensational discovery of the author's complete manuscript of "Kashchey the Immortal" and to see the score, which was considered irretrievably lost for many years. Today it is one of the rarities of the collection of Manuscript Division of the Theatrical and Musical Art Museum (an autograph of the score was purchased in 1994 from the descendants of G. V. Furman - a former Rimsky-Korsakov’s trainee). At the exhibition scenic life of the opera is presented in photos and programs from 1902-1903-ies and in some later materials - the costumes’ sketches by Korovin created to the performance of 1917, a rendering of Kashchey’s image for I. V. Yershov by P. B. Lambin, the drawings of costumes and decorations performed by E. M. Petrova for a play staged in 1926, and the costumes by the artist P. I. Goncharov and E. G. Lopukhina.

With the staging of "The Firebird", which release excited and conquered Paris in 1910, the world fame of Stravinsky has begun. At the exhibition the fairytale ballet is presented with sketches of costumes and the props, created by A. Y. Golovin and L. S. Bakst, the sensational premiere of which they were preparing together with Stravinsky, Diaghilev and Fokine. It took place in one evening with the "Scheherazade" by Rimsky-Korsakov. There are some evidences of later productions: the sketches of scenery, posters and curtain by V. I. Dorrer to a play at the Kirov Theater, D. D. Bushen’s sketches for release in Lisbon and T. K. Sotnikova-Ratner’s for the B. J. Eifman theater's ballet.