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The Invisible City of Kitezh, completed in 1905, is a remarkable opera that fuses folklore, mysticism and realism. Its subject is the story of the advancing Mongol army’s entry to Great Kitezh and the city’s subsequent miraculous survival. Rejecting archaisms and the more religiously inclined suggestions of his librettist, Rimsky-Korsakov sought to create an opera that “is contemporary and even fairly advanced”. It is therefore through-composed, hinting at times at Wagnerian procedure, and flooded with the composer’s rich, apt and brilliant orchestral palette, fully supportive of the powerful vocal writing. Album Tracks 1. Prelude In Praise of the Wilderness 2. Act I Ah, You Forest, My Forest (Fevronya) 3. Act I Where Are You, My Dear Friends (Fevronya) 4. Act I I Know All the Forest Paths (Fevronya, Prince Vsevolod) 5. Act I Day and Night We Have Our Service (Fevronya, Prince Vsevolod) 6. Act I Dearest, How Can You Live Life Without Joy (Fevronya, Prince Vsevolod) 7. Act I Hail to Thee, Lips of Honey (Prince Vsevolod, Fevronya) 8. Act I As Soon As the Marksman Came (Chorus, Prince Vsevolod, Fevronya, Poyarok) 9. Act II Show Them, Mikhaylushka (The Bear Tamer, Chorus, the Ballad Singer) 10. Act II Ah, My Foolish Children! (The Ballad Singer, Chorus, the Bear Tamer, Kuterma) 11. Act II Gracious Benefactors (Chorus, Kuterma, Poyarok, Fevronya) 12. Act II Do Not Sin, God Allows a Good Word (Fevronya, Kuterma, Poyarok, Chorus) 13. Act II Over the Bridges of Guelder - Tree (Female Chorus, Bedyay, Burunday) 14. Act II There Will Be No Such Beauty in the Steppes (Burunday, Bedyay, Chorus, Kuterma, Fevronya) 15. Act II Stop, You Godless Heathens! (Kuterma, Chorus, Bedyay, Burunday, Fevronya) 1. Act III Scene 1 Good Fortune to You, Citizens of Kitezh (Poyarok, Chorus, Prince Vsevolod) 2. Act III Scene 1 God Still Preserves