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Borodin: Polovetsian Dances:

Borodin was, in his terms, "a Sunday Composer." He was a Doctor of Medicine and a noted Professor of Chemistry who composed in his spare time. Largely self taught, the opera Prince Igor was one of his greatest works. It was completed and largely orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov. Prince Igor depicts the 12th century war of the Russians against the nomadic Polovtsians. The famous dances from the second act, with their scintillating choruses, have long been a favorite among audiences and performers.

Dramatically, this opera has it all. Greed, power, religion, true love, loyalty, love of country, etc., are all in play. Prince Igor and his son, Vladimir, pray to God for safety, and go off to fight the Polovtsians in order to protect their native land and people from Khan Konchak, sort of a Saddam Hussein of his time. While he is gone, his wife mourns and worries for his safety. His ruthless brother-in-law, on the other hand, tries to steal his town from him. Prince Igor and Vladimir are captured by the Polovtsians. While they are captured, Vladimir falls in love with the one person in the world he is forbidden to be with, Khan Konchak's daughter, Konchakovna. This is sort of the Romeo and Juliet / West Side Story side theme. The mighty Khan suggest to Igor that they should renew an earlier military alliance and that together they would be able to subjugate other nations. Igor rejects the offer for he is not interested in hurting innocent people. In order to persuade the Russian prince to accept his plan, and to demonstrate the delights of Polovtsian life, the Khan orders him to be entertained with singing and dancing. Hence, the Polovtsian Dances, which are the finale to Act II of the opera.

Khan Konchak is basically a male chauvinist pig, and he tells Igor that he can have any of these women from beyond the Caspian Sea if he will join forces, and take over everyone else's land with him. In the dances, slave-girls, maidens, boys, men, and all, praise Khan as if he is God Almighty - probably because they know if they don't, Khan will have them killed. What they really want is to go home to the land of their childhood. They miss home, but are enslaved by Khan for his pleasure. Khan even offers his own daughter to Vladimir if Igor will accept. Igor not only has a wife at home, whom he still loves, but also is not interested at all in taking over innocent people's land. Thus he rejects momentary pleasure for what he feels is right.

Meanwhile, during the time Igor was captured, the Polovtsian army has been wrecking his home town. However, in the end, things are happy. True love prevails as Vladimir and Konchakovna get together, Igor escapes, returns home safely, and is reunited with his home town. Perhaps the moral to this story, the heartfelt message, is that it is more noble to stand up for what is right than to give in to temptation and hurt other people for personal gain.

Notes by Patricia Sparti
The Georgetown University Orchestra
Patricia C. Sparti, Music Director


Shorter version with picture:

 [] Borodin was born in St. Petersburg, officially the son of a serf whose name he therefore took.  In truth, however, Alexander’s parents were the local Prince and his mistress.  Fortunately, he was brought up quite conventionally in his parents’ home and thus he was able to enjoy many of the privileges and benefits accorded to a Prince’s son.  His two great interests in life, both of which developed during his teens, were Chemistry and Music.  Despite his later celebrity as a composer, it was actually his scientific career that was his “day job”.  Indeed, by 1864 he had the Chair of Chemistry at the Medical-Surgical Academy of St. Petersburg.

In 1862 he met Balakirev and became re-acquainted with Musorgsky, with whom he had served some years earlier in the army.  Along with Rimsky-Korsakov and Cui, this circle of Russo-centric composers came to be dubbed “The Mighty Handful” (also known as “The Five”).  Borodin’s interest in composition and indeed all music had not seriously diminished on account of his academic research, but he had had very little time for serious writing.  However, Balakirev rekindled that compositional flame and gave Borodin sufficient help and encouragement to tackle a symphony.

The success of the symphony encouraged him to start work on not one but two operas.  The second of these, Prince Igor, was begun in 1869, then laid aside, and taken up again in 1874 with new additions during the next two years.  By the year 1882, his academic duties, and his responsibilities to his increasingly ailing wife, took up so much time that he was unable to complete any new major musical works.  Although he continued to tinker with Prince Igor, it remained unfinished by the time he suddenly collapsed of heart failure at a ball in 1887.  The opera was completed for a production in 1890 by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazounov, the former having previously prepared the two popular Polovetsian Dances for concert performance during Borodin’s lifetime.  The story of the opera is set in the 12th century where Prince Igor, a southern Russian prince is captured in battle by the Khan of the Tartar tribe known as the Polovetski [for no obvious reason, there are several other variants of the English spelling].  The main melody of the first dance, by which the Polovetsian maidens sing for the Khan’s daughter, was borrowed by the musical Kismet and is familiar as “Stranger in Paradise”.  The second part is music for the Polovetsian slaves to entertain the imprisoned Prince.

The music was used as the basis of the Broadway show, Kismet, back in the 1950's.  Borodin won a Tony Award for the music. You may recognize the tune from #17 as "Strangers in Paradise" from the show.

Symphony Pro Musica
Hudson, MA