Opera in 4 acts Libretto: Il'ya Tyumenev [Based: Lev Mey: Tsarskaya nevesta / The Tsar's Bride] Premier: 22 Oct. (3 Nov.) 1899, Moscow theater of the Private Opera of S.I. Mamontov
The Tsar's Bride was composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1899. It tells the story of a beautiful young girl who is chosen-quite against her will-by Tsar Ivan the Terrible to be his bride. The actors, singers and musicians of the Bolshoi Opera & Theatre star in this motion picture, which is sung in Russian with English subtitles. Upon its original theatrical release, the New York Times acclaimed the Rimsky-Korsakov score as one which "surgers and soars, magnificently voiced by the grand old Bolshoi."