The legend of the invisible city of Kitezh at Barcelona Opera House Gran Teatre Del Liceu

An innocent country girl named Fevroniya saves her town from a Tartar attack: she makes a wish, the wish comes true, and Kitezh becomes invisible. But there is a secret gate into the city... Rimsky-Korsakov composed a veritable musical monument to the Slavic soul dreamed of by Tolstoy. In the eternal debate between West and East, he opted clearly for the latter, complete with its mysteries and its ancestral legends. The score, which has Wagnerian ambitions, draws on the heritage of the Russian musical tradition, both popular and religious, and the true leading role belongs to the people (the chorus). Somewhat surprisingly, the opera has close links with the Liceu: the first production outside Russia was staged here and for a whole decade (1926-36) it was by far the Barcelona audience's favourite work.