Khovanshchina is an opera in five acts by Modest Mussorgsky. The work was written between 1872 and 1880 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The composer wrote the libretto based on historical sources. The opera was almost finished in piano score when the composer died in 1881, but the orchestration was almost entirely lacking.
Scene design by Apollinariy Vasnetsov for the Russian Private Opera, Moscow, 1897), showing the Red Square
Autograph vocal score of Khovanshchina, featuring "Dawn on the Moscow River" (1874)
Affiche for a performance at the Solodovnikov Theatre (Moscow, 1897)
Fyodor Shalyapin as Dosifey (Russian Private Opera (Mamontov's Private Russian Opera in Moscow), Moscow, 1897)
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the group known as "The Five". He was an innovator of Russian music in the Romantic period. He strove to achieve a uniquely Russian musical identity, often in deliberate defiance of the established conventions of Western music.
The aristocratic Mussorgsky brothers—Filaret (also known as "Yevgeniy", left), and Modest (right), 1858
Monument on the site of the Mussorgky family house in Karevo, Pskov Oblast
Young Mussorgsky as a cadet in the Preobrazhensky Regiment of the Imperial Guard, 1856
Alexander Dargomyzhsky
