The Golden Cockerel is an opera in three acts, with short prologue and even shorter epilogue, composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, the last opera he completed before his death in 1908. Its libretto written by Vladimir Belsky derives from Alexander Pushkin's 1834 poem The Tale of the Golden Cockerel. The opera was completed in 1907 and premiered in 1909 in Moscow, after the composer's death. Outside Russia it has often been performed in French as Le coq d'or.
Ivan Bilibin's 1909 stage set design for Act 2: The Tsardom of Tsar Dadon, Town Square
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1897
Tsar Dadon meets the Shemakha queen
Vladimir Pikok sang the role of the Astrologer in the premiere of the opera. The difficult role is written for a tenor altino, as the Astrologer is a eunuch. (Solodovnikov Theatre, Moscow, 1909)
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov
was a Russian composer, a member of the group of composers known as The Five. He was a master of orchestration. His best-known orchestral compositions—Capriccio Espagnol, the Russian Easter Festival Overture, and the symphonic suite Scheherazade—are staples of the classical music repertoire, along with suites and excerpts from some of his fifteen operas. Scheherazade is an example of his frequent use of fairy-tale and folk subjects.
Rimsky-Korsakov's birthplace in Tikhvin
Rimsky-Korsakov family coat of arms
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1856
Rimsky-Korsakov in 1866, when he was a michman in the Russian Navy