Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky Snow Maiden spring fairy tale. Read the book “The Snow Maiden” online in full - Alexander Ostrovsky - MyBook. Russian folk tale "The Snow Maiden"
“The Snow Maiden” is perhaps the least typical of all Alexander Ostrovsky’s plays, which stands out sharply among his other works for its lyricism, unusual themes (instead of social drama, the author paid attention to personal drama, identifying the theme of love as the central theme) and absolutely fantastic surroundings. The play tells the story of the Snow Maiden, who appears before us as a young girl desperately yearning for the only thing she never had - love. Remaining true to the main line, Ostrovsky simultaneously reveals several more: the structure of his half-epic, half-fairy-tale world, the morals and customs of the Berendeys, the theme of continuity and retribution, and the cyclical nature of life, noting, albeit in an allegorical form, that life and death always go hand in hand.
History of creation
The appearance of the play in Russian literary world owes it to a happy accident: at the very beginning of 1873, the Maly Theater building was closed for major repairs, and a group of actors temporarily moved to the Bolshoi. Having decided to take advantage of the opportunities of the new stage and attract spectators, it was decided to organize an extravaganza performance, unusual for those times, using the ballet, drama and opera components of the theater team at once.
It was with the proposal to write a play for this extravaganza that they turned to Ostrovsky, who, taking the opportunity to implement a literary experiment, agreed. The author changed his habit of looking for inspiration in the unsightly sides of real life, and in search of material for the play he turned to the creativity of the people. There he found a legend about the Snow Maiden girl, which became the basis for his magnificent work.
In the early spring of 1873, Ostrovsky worked hard to create the play. And not alone - since stage production is impossible without music, the playwright worked together with the then very young Pyotr Tchaikovsky. According to critics and writers, this is precisely one of the reasons for the amazing rhythm of “The Snow Maiden” - words and music were composed in a single impulse, in close interaction, and were imbued with each other’s rhythm, initially forming one whole.
It is symbolic that Ostrovsky put the last point in “The Snow Maiden” on the day of his fiftieth anniversary, March 31. And a little more than a month later, on May 11, the premiere performance took place. He received quite different reviews among critics, both positive and sharply negative, but already in the 20th century literary scholars firmly agreed that “The Snow Maiden” is the brightest milestone in the playwright’s work.
Analysis of the work
Description of the work
The plot is based on the life path of the Snow Maiden girl, born from the union of Frost and Spring-Red, her father and mother. The Snow Maiden lives in Berendey's kingdom, invented by Ostrovsky, but not with her relatives - she left her father Frost, who protected her from all possible troubles, - but in the family of Bobyl and Bobylikha. The Snow Maiden longs for love, but cannot fall in love - even her interest in Lelya is dictated by the desire to be one and only, the desire for the shepherd boy, who equally gives warmth and joy to all the girls, to be affectionate with her alone. But Bobyl and Bobylikha are not going to shower her with their love; they have a more important task: to cash in on the girl’s beauty by marrying her off. The Snow Maiden indifferently looks at the Berendey men who change their lives for her, reject brides and violate social norms; she is internally cold, she is alien to the Berendeys, who are full of life - and therefore attracts them. However, misfortune also befalls the Snow Maiden - when she sees Lel, who is favorable to another and rejects her, the girl rushes to her mother with a request to let her fall in love - or die.
It is at this moment that Ostrovsky clearly expresses the central idea of his work: life without love is meaningless. The Snow Maiden cannot and does not want to put up with the emptiness and coldness that exists in her heart, and Spring, which is the personification of love, allows her daughter to experience this feeling, despite the fact that she herself thinks it’s bad.
The mother turns out to be right: the beloved Snow Maiden melts under the first rays of the hot and clear sun, having, however, managed to discover a new world filled with meaning. And her lover, who had previously abandoned his bride and was expelled by Tsar Mizgir, gives up his life in the pond, striving to reunite with the water, which the Snow Maiden has become.
Main characters
(Scene from the ballet performance "The Snow Maiden")
The Snow Maiden is the central figure of the work. A girl of extraordinary beauty who desperately wants to know love, but at the same time cold at heart. Pure, partly naive and completely alien to the Berendey people, she turns out to be ready to give everything, even her life, in exchange for knowledge of what love is and why everyone craves it so much.
Frost is the father of the Snow Maiden, formidable and strict, trying to protect his daughter from all kinds of troubles.
Vesna-Krasna is the mother of a girl who, despite a premonition of trouble, could not go against her nature and her daughter’s pleas and endowed her with the ability to love.
Lel is a windy and cheerful shepherd who was the first to awaken some feelings and emotions in the Snow Maiden. It was precisely because she was rejected by him that the girl rushed to Vesna.
Mizgir is a trade guest, or, in other words, a merchant who fell in love with the girl so much that he not only offered all his wealth for her, but also left Kupava, his failed bride, thereby violating the traditionally observed customs of the Berendey kingdom. In the end, he found reciprocity with the one he loved, but not for long - and after her death he himself lost his life.
It is worth noting that despite the large number of characters in the play, even the minor characters turned out to be bright and characteristic: Tsar Berendey, Bobyl and Bobylikha, Mizgir’s ex-bride Kupava - all of them are remembered by the reader and have their own distinctive features and characteristics.
“The Snow Maiden” is a complex and multifaceted work, including both compositionally and rhythmically. The play is written without rhyme, but thanks to the unique rhythm and melodiousness present in literally every line, it sounds smoothly, like any rhymed verse. “The Snow Maiden” is also decorated with the rich use of colloquial expressions - this is a completely logical and justified step by the playwright, who, when creating the work, relied on folk tales telling about a girl made of snow.
The same statement about versatility is also true in relation to the content: behind the outwardly simple story of the Snow Maiden (she went out into the real world - rejected people - received love - was imbued with the human world - died) lies not only the statement that life without love is meaningless, but also many other equally important aspects.
Thus, one of the central themes is the interrelation of opposites, without which the natural course of things is impossible. Frost and Yarilo, cold and light, winter and the warm season outwardly oppose each other, enter into irreconcilable contradiction, but at the same time, a red line through the text runs the idea that one does not exist without the other.
In addition to the lyricism and sacrifice of love, the social aspect of the play, displayed against the backdrop of fairy-tale foundations, is also of interest. The norms and customs of the Berendey kingdom are strictly observed; violation is punishable by expulsion, as happened with Mizgir. These norms are fair and to some extent reflect Ostrovsky’s idea of an ideal old Russian community, where loyalty and love for one’s neighbor, life in unity with nature are valued. The figure of Tsar Berendey, the “kind” Tsar, who, although forced to make harsh decisions, regards the fate of the Snow Maiden as tragic, sad, evokes definitely positive emotions; It is easy to sympathize with such a king.
At the same time, in Berendey’s kingdom, justice is observed in everything: even after the death of the Snow Maiden as a result of her acceptance of love, Yarila’s anger and dispute disappears, and the Berendeyites can again enjoy the sun and warmth. Harmony triumphs.
Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky
Snow Maiden
spring tale in four acts with a prologue
The action takes place in the country of the Berendeys in prehistoric times. Prologue on Krasnaya Gorka, near Berendeyev Posad, the capital of Tsar Berendey. The first action in the settlement beyond the river Berendeyevka. The second act in the palace of Tsar Berendey. The third act is in a reserved forest. The fourth act in the Yarilina Valley.
Persons :
Vesna-Krasna.
Father Frost.
Girl – Snow Maiden.
Goblin.
Maslenitsa- straw man.
Bobyl Bakula.
Bobylikha, his wife.
Berendey of both sexes and all ages.
Spring Suite, birds: cranes, geese, ducks, rooks, magpies, starlings, larks and others.
The beginning of spring. Midnight. Red hill covered with snow. To the right are bushes and a rare leafless birch tree; to the left is a continuous dense forest of large pines and spruces with branches hanging from the weight of the snow; in the depths, under the mountain, a river; The ice holes and ice holes are lined with spruce trees. Beyond the river is Berendeyev Posad, the capital of Tsar Berendey: palaces, houses, huts - all wooden, with intricate painted carvings; lights in the windows. The full moon silvers the entire open area. Roosters crow in the distance.
First appearance
Goblin sits on a dry stump. The entire sky is covered with birds flying in from across the sea. Vesna-Krasna on cranes, swans and geese descends to the ground, surrounded by a retinue of birds.
Goblin
The roosters crowed the end of winter,
Spring-Red descends to the earth.
The midnight hour has come, Goblin's gatehouse
If you watch out, dive into the hollow and sleep!
(Falls into a hollow.)
Vesna-Krasna descends onto Krasnaya Gorka, accompanied by birds.
Vesna-Krasna
At the appointed hour in the usual sequence
I appear on the land of the Berendeys,
Greets you sadly and coldly
Spring its gloomy country.
Sad view: under a veil of snow
Deprived of living, cheerful colors,
Deprived of fruitful power,
The fields lie cold. In chains
Playful streams - in the silence of midnight
You can't hear their glass murmur.
The forests are silent, under the snow
The thick paws of the fir trees are lowered,
Like old, frowning eyebrows.
In the raspberry fields, under the pines they were shy
Cold darkness, icy
Amber resin icicles
Hanging from straight trunks. And in a clear sky
How the moon burns and the stars shine
Increased radiance. Earth,
Covered with downy powder,
In response to their greetings, the cold one seems
Same shine, same diamonds
From the tops of trees and mountains, from flat fields,
From the potholes of the road flattened.
And the same sparks hung in the air,
They waver without falling, they flicker.
And everything is just light, and everything is just a cold shine,
And there is no heat. That's not how I'm greeted
Happy valleys of the south, there
Carpets of meadows, acacia scents,
And the warm steam of cultivated gardens,
And the milky, lazy glow
From the frosted moon on the minarets,
On poplars and black cypresses.
But I love midnight lands
I love their powerful nature
Wake up from sleep and call from the depths of the earth
Giving birth, mysterious power,
Bearing to the careless Berendeys
Abundance lives unpretentious. Lubo
Warm for the joys of love,
For frequent games and celebrations, clean up
Secluded bushes and groves
Silk carpets of colored grasses.
(Addressing the birds who are shivering from the cold.)
Comrades: white-sided magpies,
Cheerful tickler talkers,
Gloomy rooks and larks,
Singers of the fields, heralds of spring,
And you, crane, with your friend the heron,
Beautiful swans and geese
Loud and fussy ducks,
And small birds - are you cold?
Even though I'm ashamed, I have to admit it
Before the birds. It's my own fault
That it’s cold for me, Vesna, and you.
Sixteen years since I'm just a joke
And amusing my fickle temper,
Changeable and whimsical, has become
Flirting with Frost, the old grandfather,
A gray-haired prankster; and from then on
I am in captivity with the old one. Man
It’s always like this: give me a little will,
And he’ll take it all, that’s how it goes
From antiquity. I would like to leave the gray one,
But the trouble is, the old man and I have a daughter -
Snow Maiden. In the deep forest slums,
In the unmelting ice it returns
The old man is his child. Loving the Snow Maiden,
Feeling sorry for her in her unhappy lot,
I'm afraid to quarrel with the old one;
And he’s happy about it - he’s chilling and freezing
Me, Vesna, and the Berendeys. Sun
The jealous one looks at us angrily
And frowns at everyone, and that's the reason
Cruel winters and cold springs.
Are you shaking, poor things? Dance,
Keep warm! I've seen it more than once
That people warmed up by dancing.
Even reluctantly, even in the cold, but dancing
Let's celebrate our arrival for a housewarming party.
Some birds take up instruments, others sing, and others dance.
Choir of birds
The birds gathered
The singers gathered
In herds, in herds.
The birds were landing
The singers sat down
Rows, rows.
Who are your birds?
Who are you singers?
Big, big?
Who are your birds?
Who are you singers?
Smaller, smaller?
Eagle - governor,
Quail - clerk,
Clerk, clerk.
Owl - commander,
Yellow boots,
Boots, boots.
Geese - boyars,
Ducklings are nobles
Nobles, nobles.
Chiryats are peasants,
Sparrows are slaves,
Slaves, slaves.
Our crane is a centurion
With long legs
With your feet, with your feet.
The rooster is a kisser,
Chechet is a trading guest,
Trade, trade.
Puberty swallows –
Orca maidens,
Girls, girls.
Our woodpecker is a carpenter,
Fisherman - tavern,
Tavern, tavern.
Pancake heron,
Whooper cuckoo,
Clique, clique.
Red face
The crow is pretty,
Pretty, pretty.
On the roads in winter,
In the summer, at the end of the day,
I'll get stuck, I'll get stuck.
Crow in matting,
There is no one more expensive
More expensive, more expensive.
From the forest, frost begins to fall on the dancing birds, then snow flakes, the wind rises - clouds roll in, cover the moon, darkness completely obscures the distance. Birds are screaming and huddling towards Spring.
Vesna-Krasna (to the birds)
Hurry into the bushes, into the bushes! I'm planning on making a joke
Old Man Frost. Wait until the morning
And tomorrow they will melt for you in the fields
Thawed patches, wormwood on the river.
Bask in the sun a little,
And you will begin to make nests.
Birds go into the bushes, come out of the forest Freezing.
Second phenomenon
Vesna-Krasna, Father Frost
Freezing
Spring-Red, is it back well?
Spring
And are you healthy, Santa Claus?
Freezing
My life is not bad. Berendey
They won’t forget about this winter,
She was cheerful; the sun was dancing
From the cold at dawn,
And in the evening I woke up with ears full of ears.
I’ll think about going for a walk, I’ll take a club,
I’ll clarify, I’ll make the night silverier,
That's why I need freedom and space.
Through rich town houses
Pounding in the corners
The ropes creak at the gates,
Sing under the runners
I love it
Love, love, love.
From the fishing line along the path behind the cart,
A creaking convoy hurries to spend the night.
I guard the convoy
I'll run ahead
On the edge of the field, in the distance,
On the frosty dust
I'll lie down in the haze,
In the midst of the midnight skies I will rise as a glow.
I will spill, Frost,
Ninety stripes
I’ll scatter in pillars and countless rays,
Multi-colored.
And the pillars push and spiral,
And under them the snow lights up,
A sea of light-fire, bright,
Spring fairy tale "Snow Maiden"
1
In the forested region of the Kostroma region, among wonderful nature, is located Shchelykovo, a former estate, and now a museum-reserve of the great Russian playwright A. N. Ostrovsky.
Ostrovsky first came to these places as a young man. He was twenty-five years old.
Since then, the writer had a cherished dream - to settle in Shchelykovo. He was able to realize this dream only 19 years later, when, together with his brother, he bought the estate from his stepmother. Having become a co-owner of the estate, Ostrovsky came there every year in early May and left only in late autumn.
Nature appeared before him in bright diversity, changing its clothes. He observed its revival, lush flowering and withering.
He also had his favorite places here.
Ostrovsky with early years had a passion for fishing. At the dam of the winding Kuekshi river, he spent long hours with fishing rods. Near the steep banks of the Sendega River he could be seen with a spear. He went with a seine to the wide Meru River, which flows into the Volga.
The writer found great pleasure in walking through the surrounding villages, forest tracts and clearings.
He often went to a grove with the strange name “Pig Forest”. Centuries-old birch trees grew in this grove.
Alexander Nikolaevich descended from the mountain on which the estate is located to the old bed of the Kueksha River and walked along the wide valley, which served as a place of festive games and entertainment for the surrounding youth. At the top of this sloping valley there is a spring. During Ostrovsky’s time, a fair was held here every spring, which attracted crowds of people.
The writer also visited a round clearing near the village of Lobanovo. Surrounded by forest, it was also a place for Sunday rest for peasant youth. Here the playwright watched the round dances and listened to the songs.
Ostrovsky often visited his friend I.V. Sobolev, a skilled woodcarver, in the village of Berezhki. The extraordinary silence of this forest corner, the sparseness of people (there were only a few houses there) and the peculiar northern architecture of the tall, sharp-topped barns that belonged to the residents of this village created the impression of some kind of detachment from the world, a fairy-tale quality.
Ostrovsky also had other places he liked.
His affection for Shchelykov only grew stronger over the years. He more than once expressed his admiration for the beauty of Shchelykovsky nature in letters to friends. So, on April 29, 1876, he wrote to the artist M. O. Mikeshin: “It’s a pity that you are not a landscape painter, otherwise you would have visited my village; You’ll hardly find a Russian landscape like this anywhere.”
2
Ostrovsky's observations of the people and nature of the Shchelykovo environs were reflected in many of his works.
They were most clearly reflected in the spring fairy tale “The Snow Maiden” (1873). The basis of this poetic work was made up of folk tales, traditions and legends, rituals and customs, sayings and songs, which the writer became familiar with from childhood. He colored folk fantasy with the bright colors of his own invention, imbued the work with subtle humor and inserted the images of his fairy tale into the frame of Shchelykov’s picturesque nature.
“The Snow Maiden” is a fairy tale about the beauty of powerful, ever-renewing nature and at the same time about human feelings, about the people, their aspirations and dreams.
In this life-affirming work, Ostrovsky paints his ideal of social life, which defines fair, beautiful human relationships.
The playwright begins his tale with the meeting of Frost and Spring on Red Hill.
Builder of ice palaces, owner and ruler of blizzards and blizzards, Frost is the poetic embodiment of winter, cold, freezing nature. Spring-Red, appearing accompanied by birds, is a warm breath and light penetrating the kingdom of winter, the personification of the fertilizing force, a symbol of awakening life.
The girl Snegurochka is a beautiful child of Frost and Spring. There is coldness in her soul - the harsh legacy of her father, but it also contains life-giving forces that bring her closer to her mother Spring.
Frost and Spring gave the Snow Maiden, when she was 15 years old, to the trans-river settlement of Berendeyev Posad, the capital of Tsar Berendey. And so Ostrovsky paints before us a kingdom of happy Berendeys.
What gave the poet the idea to create the image of the fabulous Berendey kingdom?
Ostrovsky obviously heard that in the Vladimir province there is a Berendeevo swamp. The legend about the ancient city of the Berendeys was associated with it. This legend could have suggested to Ostrovsky a fantastic image of the Berendey kingdom.
Russian village life, ancient rituals and customs, folk types that Ostrovsky admired in Shchelykov helped him recreate the appearance of the cheerful Berendeys.
The remarkable feature of Ostrovsky’s fairy tale is that it is fantastic and at the same time true, that in its conventional, bizarre images one can clearly see the deep truth of human feelings.
Ostrovsky embodied in the Berendey kingdom the people's dream of a fairy-tale country where peaceful labor, justice, art and beauty reign, where people are free, happy and cheerful.
Tsar Berendey personifies folk wisdom. This is “the father of his land”, “an intercessor for all orphans”, “a guardian of peace”, confident that the light “only holds on to truth and conscience.” The bloody deeds of war are alien to Berendey. His state is famous for its working, peaceful and joyful life. He is a philosopher, worker and artist. Berendey paints his chambers with a skillful brush and enjoys the luxurious colors of nature.
Berendey loves fun too. His close boyar Bermyata is a joker and wit, to whom the king entrusts the organization of folk amusements and games.
Ostrovsky admires in his fairy tale the simple people - noble, humane, cheerful, tireless in work and fun.
Tsar Berendey, addressing the singing and dancing Berendeys, says:
The people are generous
Great in everything: interfering with idleness
He won’t work and work like that,
Dance and sing to the fullest, until you drop.
Looking at you with a reasonable eye, you will say,
That you are an honest and kind people, for
Only the kind and honest are capable
Sing so loudly and dance so bravely.
The inner world of the Berendeys is clearly revealed in their attraction to art. They love songs, dances, music. Their houses are painted with colorful paints and decorated with intricate carvings.
Berendeys are distinguished by strong moral principles. They highly honor love. For them, love is the expression of a person’s best feelings, his service to beauty.
In their understanding, love is the attraction of free feelings, independent of selfish motives. Berendey’s words sound like law:
Does not tolerate coercion
Open marriage.
For the Berendeys, love is inseparable from fidelity. Slobozhanin Murash states:
I've been living for a long time, and the old order
Quite well known to me. Berendey,
Beloved by the gods, they lived honestly.
Without fear, we entrusted our daughter to the guy,
For us, a wreath is a guarantee of their love
And loyalty to death. And never once
The wreath was not desecrated by treason,
And the girls knew no deception,
They knew no resentment.
Fidelity to this word is valued above all else among the Berendeys.
Mizgir, a merchant from the royal settlement, had not yet entered into marriage with Kupava, but, having promised to exchange wreaths on Yarilin’s day, he thereby forever linked his fate with her. And when, captivated by the beauty of the Snow Maiden, he broke his word, in the eyes of the Berendeys he became a terrible, unheard-of criminal.
The Berendeys have no bloody laws. The death penalty is replaced here by eternal exile. They apply this measure of the highest punishment to Mizgir.
Condemning Mizgir, Tsar Berendey says:
Get away from us, criminal, scoffer
The fervor of trusting love,
Instilled in us by nature and the gods.
Drive him away from every door,
From every dwelling where they are sacredly venerated
Honest old customs!
Drive him into the desert, into the forest!
The Snow Maiden, the offspring of Frost, could not remain among the people praising the Sun, living by the warmth of its hot rays. The sun melted it and turned it into a stream.
Mizgir, who saw his dream in the graceful charm of his appearance, in modesty, in simple-minded naivety, in the spontaneity of the Snow Maiden’s character, was deceived in his hopes of happiness with her.
He complains:
I have been deceived by the gods; it's a joke
Cruel fate. But if the gods
Deceivers, the world is not worth living!
He runs away to Yarilina Mountain and throws himself into the lake.
Snegurochka and Mizgir died. But their death did not pass without a trace. She confirmed the correctness of the life and morals of the Berendeys. She melted the coldness and alienation between them, returning their inherent love and loyalty.
Addressing the people, before whose eyes the Snow Maiden and Mizgir died, the wise Berendey says:
Snow Maiden's sad death
And the terrible death of Mizgir
They can't disturb us. The sun knows
Whom to punish and have mercy on? Finished
Truthful trial! Frost's offspring -
The Cold Snow Maiden died.
For fifteen years she lived among us,
Fifteen years he was angry with us
Sun. Now, with her wonderful death,
Frost's interference ceased.
Let's drive away the last trace of cold
From our souls we turn to the Sun.
The Sun God Yarilo returned to the earth, and it came to life, promising abundant shoots.
The chorus of cheerful Berendeys welcomes Yarila, bringing warmth and abundance:
Grant, god of light,
Warm summer!
The Red Sun is ours!
There is no more beautiful person in the world!
Krasnopogodnoe,
Summer is grainy
The Red Sun is ours!
There is no more beautiful person in the world!
The fairy tale ends with this life-affirming hymn.
We know Ostrovsky, the author of plays that illuminate all aspects of contemporary Russian life, severely criticizing the “dark kingdom” of money-grubbers and tyrants. And in these plays the playwright showed the beauty of the Russian folk character, the poetry of Russian nature.
In “The Snow Maiden” Ostrovsky is a soulful lyricist, a singer of man and nature. Here the beauty of the characters, their unique originality are embodied in amazingly poetic language and melodic verses. Listen to how his verse sounds and sings, sometimes decorous and solemn, sometimes lively and folk-like, fervent, to how flexible this verse is, how obediently it submits to the poet’s thoughts.
The monologue of Spring flows majestically, describing the country under the rule of Frost:
Greets you sadly and coldly
Spring its gloomy country.
Sad view: under a veil of snow,
Deprived of living, cheerful colors,
Deprived of fruitful power,
The fields lie cold. In chains
Playful streams - in the silence of midnight
You can't hear their glass murmur
The song of birds is similar to a folk song:
The birds gathered
The singers gathered
In herds, in herds
The birds were landing
The singers sat down
Rows, rows.
And in a completely different way, decorously and solemnly, the people glorify Berendey:
Long live the wise one,
Great Berendey,
Lord silver-haired,
Father of his land!
Ostrovsky is a sorcerer of language and verse, a poet, like Pushkin, who masters all its modes, all its tones.
“The Snow Maiden” is a truly polyphonic work. The voices of the fantastic Frost and Spring, the cheerful songs of birds and the monologues of people sound differently. The solemn song of the blind guslars gives way to the silly chants of the boby Bakula, the wise measured speech of Tsar Berendey - to the passionate hymns of Lelya, addressed to the Sun.
“The Snow Maiden” also delights us with the play of its folk humor. We laugh heartily at the brave in words and cowardly in deeds Brusila, the narrow-minded Bobyl and Bobylikha, these lazy and stupid residents of the settlement beyond the river.
3
The images of “The Snow Maiden” are so wonderful, her poetic style is so musical that she charmed and captivated many artists.
Famous painters V. M. Vasnetsov, K. A. Korovin, B. M. Kustodiev, A. A. Arapov reproduced her images with their brushes.
N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov created the opera “The Snow Maiden”, in which he preserved Ostrovsky’s words.
It was no coincidence that the writer embodied this wonderful fairy tale in dramatic form. He intended it to be staged. Ostrovsky created a special type of play, full of fantastic transformations, enchanting scenes, and unbridled folk fun.
This fairy tale, the first in Russian drama, is distinguished by its rare entertainment and vivid theatricality.
The Snow Maiden was first staged at the Bolshoi Theater on May 11, 1873. In 1900, “The Snow Maiden” was staged almost simultaneously by two famous Russian directors: A.P. Lensky on the stage of the Maly Theater and K.S. Stanislavsky on the stage of the Art Theater.
For the production of “The Snow Maiden” at the Art Theater, composer A. T. Grechaninov wrote wonderful music.
K. S. Stanislavsky said this about Ostrovsky’s spring fairy tale: ““The Snow Maiden” is a fairy tale, a dream, a national legend, written and told in Ostrovsky’s magnificent sonorous verses. You might think that this playwright, the so-called realist and everyday life writer, never wrote anything ", except for wonderful poetry, and was not interested in anything else except pure poetry and romance."
Ostrovsky's fairy tale, staged by the Art Theater, made a huge impression on A. M. Gorky. In a letter to A.P. Chekhov, he noted: “But The Snow Maiden is an event. A huge event - believe me!.. I, you know, am filled with some kind of joy from The Snow Maiden, and although I saw terribly sad things in Moscow , but left it - as if he had bathed in living water.”