Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

For much of his life, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov had to balance his music against the demands of a career in the Russian Navy.

Rimsky-Korsakov also composed several operas, including one, Le coq d’Or (The Golden Cock) (1906), that was considered so difficult for any prospective cast that when it was finally produced, a year after the composer’s death, the tasks of singing and dancing were split – the dancers would take center stage, pantomiming the action, while the singers sat on the side of the stage. Le coq d’Or has a libretto by Vladimir Bielsky, based on a famous poem by Pushkin. Rimsky-Korsakov’s own military career may have played a role in assuring that this story would interest him: the plot involves a King Dodon, who sends his sons off to fight the enemies of his realm because he is too lazy and indulgent to lead the troops himself.

His most famous symphonic works include Capriccio Espagnol (1887), Scheherazade (1888), and The Russian Eastern Festival Overture (1888).