KASHCHEY THE IMMORTAL: Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov, 1902. A late, one-act work which is a kind of pendant-piece to his ‘spring tale’, the Snowmaiden. This ‘autumn tale’ is an allegory of oppression and liberation, in which the evil Kashchey has magically concealed his death within his daughter’s tears, whose hard heart should keep it safe forever. He has reckoned without the power of love.
