Snegurochka

The Snow Maiden by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky https://youtu.be/mQdNl64u_14 Russian State Orchestra and Chorus Andrei Christiakov The Snow Maiden is a figure in Russian folk tales. She is beautiful and has skin as white as snow, blue eyes and curly hair. She is known as ‘Snegurochka’ in Russian - ‘sneg’ is the Russian word for snow. She is the daughter of the immortal Gods, Father Frost and Mother Spring. The Snow Maiden first appeared in writing in the nineteenth century. The roots of this character can be found in Slavic pagan beliefs. The folk tale became even more popular in 1873 when it was converted into a play,‘The Snow Maiden’ for the Moscow Imperial Theatre. It was written by Aleksandr Ostrovsky, with music written by Tchaikovsky. The tale was also adapted into an opera by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, ‘The Snow Maiden: A Spring Fairy Tale’, in 1881.