Unprotected

Opera, which was indicated by Adaevskaya herself as her “ Op. 5 ”, was written to her according to the libretto of Rudolf Mintslov , translated from German into Russian by Pyotr Ivanovich Kalashnikov , who also translated many of Adaevskaya’s songs. The opera was written in the period 1872/3, but was often revised by the composer until the 1920s ^[1] . A libretto in Russian was printed in St. Petersburg in 1873 ^[2] . The handwritten piano score (clavier) is named in German: Salomonida, die Tochter des Bojaren ^[3] . In the literature there is also the name "Neprozhaya, or Solomonida Saburova" ^[4] .

Production

Researchers do not have data on whether this opera was ever presented from beginning to end ^[4] . It is known that the soprano aria from the opera was performed in the mid-1870s in St. Petersburg by a certain soloist with an orchestra conducted by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov . On April 23, 1877, the overture and a series of excerpts from the opera were performed at the Italian Theater in Paris. Among the participating artists: alt - mademoiselle Schulz, tenor - Ottavio Nouvelli and mezzo-soprano - Adelaide Borgi-Mamo ^[5] .

The scene is a fortress near Novgorod , the beginning of the 16th century. The plot is a free fantasy based on the history of the marriage of Grand Duke Vasily III and his wife Solomonia Saburova . Solomonia, the daughter of a boyar, becomes a victim of the prejudices of her father, who believes that his beautiful wife was once unfaithful to him and that his daughter was not his. He rejects evidence refuting this slander. He convinces Solomonia that she is ugly, and even puts crooked mirrors around the castle to strengthen this idea in the minds of Solomonia. Once in the vicinity appears the Grand Duke himself, who poses as a merchant. Seeing Solomonia, he immediately falls in love with her and with the help of an ordinary mirror shows her that she is really beautiful. Demanding her hands from her father, Basil also refutes the rumors about the mother of Solomon, and everything ends happily ^[6] .

• " Dawn of Freedom "

• Lomtev D. G. Opera by Ella von Schulz-Adaevskaya (On the History of Musical Theater in Russia in the 1870s) // Scientific Herald of the Moscow Conservatory. - 2018 .-- No. 4 (35) . - S. 80–97 .
• Hüsken, Renate (2005). Ella Adaïewsky (1846-1926): Pianistin - Komponistin - Musikwissenschaftlerin . Cologne: Dohr. ISBN 3-936655-18-9 .