Stepan Shevyryov’s Libretto on the Ballad by Vasily Zhukovsky (Opera Vadim, or the Awakening of the Twelve Sleeping Maidens by Alexey Verstovsky)

Abstract

The article focuses on the history of S.P. Shevyryov’s work on the libretto for A.N. Verstovsky’s opera Vadim, or The Awakening of the Twelve Sleeping Maidens, staged in Moscow in 1832. Shevyryov’s parody-polemic rendition of V.A. Zhukovsky’s ballad reflected his Italian theatrical experiences. The changes introduced by the librettist to the ballad plot were not accepted by Verstovsky, who rejected Shevyryov’s composition. The article reviews the sources on the texts from Shevyryov’s libretto, which has not been preserved in its entirety.