Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov's one-act opera Kashchey the Immortal, based on a Russian fairy tale, was premiered in December 1902. The opera is filled with leitmotifs, used to identify its characters musically and dramatically across a series of three tableaus. Tableau 1 opens on the Princess, being held prisoner by Kashchey the Immortal, a wizard who rules a magical land. In a series of cantilenas based on Russian folk melodies, she tells of her plight, while her captor interjects his presence in darker, tritone-based lines, supported by dark-hued accompaniment from the orchestra. Kashchey tries to coax songs from her, while the Princess longs for rescue by her beloved, Ivan Korolevich. Kashchey shows him approaching through a magical mirror, and the Princess tells, to an accompanying chorale from the orchestra, of also seeing a woman—Kashchey's daughter Kashcheyevna—in the mirror. To tumultuous accompaniment on the winds and strings, Kashchey unleashes the Storm Knight to keep his daughter from Ivan. In a reflective, lightly scored arioso, he explains that his immortality is contingent upon his daughter never feeling emotion or shedding tears. To the frenzied accompaniment of the orchestra, he conjures a storm to help force the Princess to sing for him. A choir, accompanied by winds, reeds, and harps, evokes the storm—the Princess, in a melody that anticipates a leitmotif from Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh, laments that her beloved will die. Tableau 2 opens on Kashcheyevna who, in a bold arioso, tells of her anticipation of the arrival of a would-be suitor, who will die by her sword as have all the others. Ivan arrives and succumbs to Kashcheyevna's potion, which makes him forget the Princess. They sing a subdued duet before Ivan passes out. Kashcheyevna prepares to kill him when the Storm Knight's arrival, in a bold declamation accompanied by tempestuous winds, awakens Ivan, to a noble chorale by the brass. The Storm Knight restores Ivan's memory and reveals that he has betrayed Kashchey, in revenge for having been held a prisoner for so long. They depart on the Storm Knight's magic carpet, to swirling wind passages, amid the protests of Kashcheyevna. Tableau 3 takes us back to Kashchey's castle, where the Princess is singing a lullaby. The Storm Knight brings Ivan to her, and the two sing a love duet, ending on Ivan's noble leitmotif, when they are interrupted by Kashcheyevna. She tries to seduce the knight but he rejects her in a dark-toned reply, taking up his sword to the call of his leitmotif. Kashchey, in a dark arioso, awakens and expresses his displeasure with all that transpires. Kashcheyevna reveals her love for Ivan and her pain, and her tears, and is transformed into a willow tree, and Kashchey dies. The choir announces their freedom in a bold finale, joined by the Storm Knight, and, in a full orchestral variant on Ivan's theme, the couple walk to freedom singing a hymn to springtime and love.

© Bruce Eder, Rovi