Editing Prince Igor (section)

==Performance history==
{{blockquote|"During the season of 1888–9 the Directorate of Imperial Theatres began to lead us a fine dance with the production of Prince Igor, which had been finished, published, and forwarded to the proper authorities. We were led by the nose the following season as well, with constant postponements of production for some reason or other."<ref>Rimsky-Korsakov 1923, p. 297)</ref> "On October 23, 1890, ''Prince Igor'' was produced at last, rehearsed fairly well by K. A. Kuchera, as [[Eduard Nápravník|Nápravník]] had declined the honor of conducting Borodin's opera. Both Glazunov and I were pleased with our orchestration and additions. The cuts later introduced by the Directorate in Act 3 of the opera did it considerable harm. The unscrupulousness of the Mariinsky Theatre subsequently went to the length of omitting Act 3 altogether. Taken all in all, the opera was a success and attracted ardent admirers, particularly among the younger generation."<ref>Rimsky-Korsakov (1923: p. 309)</ref>|Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, ''Chronicle of My Musical Life'', 1909}}

The world premiere was given in St. Petersburg on 4 November (23 October [[Old Style|O.S.]]), 1890 at the [[Mariinsky Theatre]]. Set designers were Yanov, Andreyev, and Bocharov, while [[Lev Ivanov]] was balletmaster. Moscow premieres followed in 1892 by the [[Russian Opera Society]], conducted by [[Iosif Pribik]]. The [[Bolshoi Theatre]] premiere was given in 1898 and was conducted by [[Ulrikh Avranek]]

Other notable premieres were given in [[Prague]] in 1899 and in Paris in 1909, with a [[Sergei Diaghilev]] production featuring [[Feodor Chaliapin]] as Galitsky and [[Maria Nikolaevna Kuznetsova]] as Yaroslavna. Ivanov's choreography was revived by [[Mikhail Fokin]] (and in that form can be seen in the [[Prince Igor (1969 film)|1969 film]].<ref>Alexander Shiryaev is quoted in Wiley, Roland John: "Dances in Opera: St. Petersburg" (''Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research '' Winter 2015, Vol. 33, No. 2; p. 246): "By us it was accepted to think that the entire merit of the composition of these dances belonged exclusively to Fokine. In point of fact he only strengthened, enlivened, sharpened and  embellished in various details the motifs of dances composed by L. Ivanov…"</ref> London saw the same production in 1914 conducted by [[Thomas Beecham]], again with Chaliapin as Galitsky. In 1915 the United States premiere took place at the [[Metropolitan Opera]], staged in Italian and conducted by [[Giorgio Polacco]]. The first performance in English was at [[Covent Garden]] on 26 July 1919, with [[Miriam Licette]] as Yaroslavna.<ref>Charles A Hooey, [http://www.musicweb-international.com/hooey/licette-bio.htm "Miriam Licette"] on Music Web International</ref>

In January and February 2009 there was a production at the [[Aalto Theatre]] by the [[Essen]] Opera. While some aspects of the production may have been unusual, one critic noted that "placing the (Polovtsian) Dances as a Finale is an elegant idea, ... the director Andrejs Zagars and the conductor [[Noam Zur]] have thus presented a musically and dramaturgically coherent ''Prince Igor''. Heartfelt applause for a worthwhile evening at the opera."<ref>[http://www.operapoint.com/blog/?p=512 Dr. Eva Maria Ernst on www.operapoint.com]{{dead link|date=July 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} 3 February 2009</ref>

In 2011 there was a concert performance in Moscow by Helikon Opera, based on [[Pavel Lamm]]'s reconstruction. A new edition based on 92 surviving manuscripts by Borodin was completed by musicologist Anna Bulycheva and published in 2012.<ref>Parin A. Innere Logik. Opernwelt, 06/2011</ref>

In 2014, the Metropolitan Opera in New York City staged a reconceived version, sung in Russian for the first time there. Director [[Dmitri Tcherniakov]] and conductor [[Gianandrea Noseda]] removed most of the melodies contributed by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov, although they retained those composers' orchestrations. They added many fragments by Borodin that Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov had omitted, basing their work on many decades of musicological research.  They rearranged the order in which some of the material appeared, in some cases taking account of notes left by Borodin. The overall conception made the opera more of a psychological drama about Prince Igor and his state of mind, given the deep depression he went into following his soldiers' loss to the Polovtsians.  The entire opera was reordered: after the prologue, in which the solar eclipse was taken as a bad omen, Act 1 presented a dream sequence dealing  with the relation of Igor and his son with the Polovtsian general and his daughter in the Polovtsian camp. The second act largely dealt with the antics of Prince Galitsky in Putivyl and ended with the destruction of the city. The third act ended with Prince Igor coming out of his depression to begin the rebuilding of the destroyed city. This production starred Russian bass [[Ildar Abdrazakov]] in the title role with Ukrainian soprano [[Oksana Dyka]] as Yaroslavna. The performances in New York included a worldwide HD broadcast.<ref>Pasachoff, J. M., and Pasachoff, N., [https://www.nature.com/articles/506432a "Eclipse of Power"], Nature, vol. 506, 27 February 2014, p. 432</ref><ref>Kandell, Leslie, [http://classicalvoiceamerica.org/2014/02/11/mets-prince-igor-an-exotic-romp-amid-the-poppies/ "Met's ''Prince Igor'': An Exotic Romp Among the Poppies"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140223045204/http://classicalvoiceamerica.org/2014/02/11/mets-prince-igor-an-exotic-romp-amid-the-poppies/ |date=2014-02-23 }} on classicalvoiceamerica.org</ref><ref>[[Anthony Tommasini|Tommasini, Anthony]], [https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/08/arts/music/a-new-vision-for-prince-igor-at-the-met.html "A New Vision for ''Prince Igor'' at the Met"], ''The New York Times'', February 7, 2014</ref> The production was jointly produced with [[De Nederlandse Opera]] of Amsterdam.

At the beginning of the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in February 2014, some of Borodin's music from this opera was played while an eclipsed sun, crescent-shaped, drifted across the upper levels of the center of the stadium, showing the basis of Russian history in the Prince Igor story.