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by Nadia F., a Russian woman living in St Petersburg, Russia
Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov was a famous Russian national composer and music teacher. He wrote 15 operas based on the Russian tales by Russian writers Alexander Pushkin and Nikolai Gogol, including the Russian history. Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov was born on March 18, 1844 in the town Tikhvin, near Novgorod city in Russia in a noble family. In 1856 following the family tradition he joined the Saint-Petersburg Russian Imperial Naval College and at the same time took the piano lessons from the famous pianist Kanille F. Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov got acquainted with the professional music society and decided to devote his life to music. But after graduating from the college, he was sent on the circumnavigation on the clipper "Almaz" for 3 years. Upon the return to Saint-Petersburg,Rimsky-Korsakov continued his music studies and composed his first symphony based on Russian national style, "the Serbian fantasy," his well known orchestral piece "Sadko" (1867), the suite for the orchestra "Antar" (based on the Arabic tale). In 1871 Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov became the professor of composition, orchestration and the music theory in the Saint-Petersburg conservatory. He was the teacher of many well-known composers: Alexander Glazunov, Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky. Rimsky-Korsakov also edited the compositions of other well-known composers - Mussorgsky M. and Borodin A. In 1872 his first opera "The Maid of Pskov" was performed on the stage of the Saint-Petersburg Mariisnky theatre. In 1873 Rimsky-Korsakov accepted the post of the inspector of the Naval orchestras, in 1874 he became the director of the musical school. In 1879 he composed the 3-act opera "May Night", by the book of Nikolai Gogol. In 1881, he composed the "Snow maid", by the book of Ostrovsky.
The famous "Sheherazade", "Capriccio espagnol", "Russian Easter Overture" (1888) were created in the late 1880s. The last period of the creativity of Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov began in 1889 from the creation of the fantastic opera-ballet "Mlada", then the creation of "The Immortal Koschei" (1902), opera "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" (1899), based on the book by famous Russian writer Alexander Pushkin; "Christmas Eve" (1894), based on the book by Gogol. Other famous operas byNikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov are:
Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov died in 1908 in his own country estate in Lubensk, near Pskov in Russia. |
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