Stage design for Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakovs opera The Snow Maiden Viktor Vasnetsov (1848-1926)

Description of Victor Vasnetsov’s painting "The Chambers of Tsar Berendey

In 1873 Alexander Ostrovsky wrote his famous play The Snow Maiden, which was staged on the theatrical stage. Scenery for the production was handled by many masters of the time, but Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov’s work occupies a special place. In 1882, he designed for the Abramtsevo Circle. The sketches of "The Snow Maiden" aroused great interest and essentially opened a new style of theatrical and decorative art.

"The Snow Maiden" is a fairy tale, the action of which takes place in a fictional country of Berendei, in a distant time. It stands out from the general trend of Ostrovsky’s work, which is filled with the grim reality of everyday life, the tragic loneliness and tension of a floundering soul. In "The Snow Maiden," however, love and youth reign. The philosophy of joie de vivre peeks through the phantasmagoric fairytale shell. Ostrovsky gives a folk tale, a legend, a song, a special and unique flavor.

A special place in the play belongs to the figure of King Berendey, who embodies the folk wisdom. The ruler, who nobly cares about his subjects and what fills their souls, is immeasurably kind and honest.

In 1885 Rimsky-Korsakov staged an opera of the same name, and Victor Vasnetsov again did the sketches and sets. That was when "The Chambers of Tsar Berendey" was born. Tsar’s mansion turns into a bright, picturesque scenery, filled with unique architectural details and other elements of national art, the palette of colors is rich in bright hues. Vasnetsov’s watercolor is now in the State Tretyakov Gallery.