The Tsar's Bride

The Tsar's Bride (Carskaя nevesta)

The Tsar's Bride (Carskaя nevesta) was composed in 1898 and premiered in 1899 in Moscow. The libretto was written by Ilya Tyumenev, based on a drama by Lev Mey. The opera was performed in Serbia for the first time in 1925 at the Narodno pozorište in Beograd, and with the new production by Opera SNP this work will be performed in Novi Sad for the first time.

The opera has four acts, and the action is set in 16th-century Russia, during the reign of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. At the center of the story is Marfa Sobakina, the girl chosen by the tsar as his bride, while she is already engaged to Ivan Lykov. The narrator Grigoriy Gryaznoy, obsessed with Marfa, through his tragic web of events brings about Marfa's madness and death.