Rimski-Korsakov - The Tsar's Bride - Shaguch, Hvorostovsky, Akimov, Borodina / Kirov Opera & Orchestra, Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, Valery Gergiev / Philips 2x Audio CD 1999 / 462 618-2

UPC 028946261828

The Tsar's Bride (Russian: Царская невеста, tr. Tsarskaya nevesta) is an opera in four acts by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, the composer's tenth opera. The libretto, by Ilia Tyumenev, is based on the drama of the same name by Lev Mey. Mey's play was first suggested to the composer as an opera subject in 1868 by Mily Balakirev. (Alexander Borodin, too, once toyed with the idea.) However, the opera was not composed until thirty years later, in 1898. The first performance of the opera took place in 1899 at the Moscow theater of the Private Opera of S.I. Mamontov.

Rimsky-Korsakov himself said of the opera that he intended it as a reaction against the ideas of Richard Wagner, and to be in the style of "cantilena par excellence".

The Tsar's Bride is a repertory opera in Russia, although it is not part of the standard operatic repertoire in the West.