History

Composition history

Performance history

• Date: 25 January, 1875
• Place: Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg
• Conductor: Eduard Nápravník
• Scene Desighers: Mikhayil Bocharov, Matvey Shishkov, Lagorio

Moscow Premiere

• Date: 23 October, 1879
• Place: Bolshoy Theatre, Moscow
• Conductor: Enrico Bevignani

Original Interpreters

The opera received 100 performances in the first decade since its premiere. Its first performance in Paris was in May 1911, where the critics considered the opera to be old-fashioned.

Publication history

• 1878, V. Bessel and Co., St. Petersburg
• 1958, Muzgiz, Moscow

Critical reception

Rubinstein invited several musicians of the group known as The Five, including César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, as well as the critic Vladimir Stasov to a private hearing of the opera in September 1871, where the guests did not regard the work favourably. However, melodic motifs from The Demon inspired comparable motifs in Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina and Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.

Roles and setting

Roles

Setting

• Time: Unspecified
• Place: Georgia

Synopsis

Act 1

Act 2

Act 3

References