The play "The Snow Maiden" was written by AN Ostrovsky "on occasion" and stands out very much against the background of his typical satirical works. The background of its creation is as follows: in 1873, the Maly Theater moved to the Bolshoi due to renovations, and the commission that dealt with all the imperial theaters in Moscow decided to stage a special performance that would involve both ballet, opera and drama troupes. They asked not only Ostrovsky, but also Tchaikovsky, who was in charge of the musical part, to take up the implementation of this idea. Both were carried away by their work so much that the extravaganza was ready very quickly.
Ostrovsky's The Snow Maiden is based on a folk tale that combines Slavic rituals and songs, as well as a mythological component. Thanks to this, the work, which has long been considered frivolous for such a serious playwright, becomes multi-layered and ambiguous. So, his nature resembles not so much a landscape as a portrait. If you download this work for free or read it online, then you can easily notice that the natural and human principles are mixed in it. The twofoldness of the play is easy to see if the Snow Maiden is read in full for a literature lesson. On the one hand, the viewer sees the Utopian Berendey kingdom, where even the tsar believes that all living things need to be loved, on the other hand, the human greed of Bobyl and Bobylikha appears, who see in their adopted daughter only a means for their own enrichment. The love that Snegurochka's heart longs for, she finds in Mizgir, who, even being Kupava's fiancé, still could not resist and also fell in love with the beauty. The story about this ends sadly - the Snow Maiden melts, succumbing to human feelings, and her fiance drowns in the lake.
At the same time, although the author is sad, he is light sad. He shows the viewer that in fact his work tells about the fearlessness and freedom that are in every person, about love and real light that overcome the fear of death. The play shows that loyalty, love and beauty of the soul are more important than material values, the desire for which is embodied in the images of the Snegurochka's adoptive parents and who still do not receive their dubious “happiness”. Thus, the playwright demonstrates the victory of the spiritual principle over the physical, the triumph of true feelings.
The Snow Maiden is perhaps the least typical of all the plays of Alexander Ostrovsky, which stands out sharply among other things in his work for lyricism, unusual problems (instead of social drama, the author paid attention to personal drama, designating love as the central theme) and absolutely fantastic entourage. The play tells the story of the Snow Maiden, who appears before us as a young girl, desperate for the only thing she never had - love. Remaining faithful to the main line, Ostrovsky simultaneously reveals a few more: the structure of his half-dusty, half-fairy world, the customs 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 Russian literary world owes the appearance of the play to a happy accident: at the very beginning of 1873, the building of the Maly Theater 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 the audience, it was decided to stage an extravaganza performance, unusual for those times, using at once the ballet, dramatic and opera components of the theater collective.
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 turned to the creativity of the people. There he found the legend about the Snow Maiden, which became the basis for his magnificent work.
In the early spring of 1873, Ostrovsky was busy working on the creation of the play. And not alone - since staging on stage is impossible without music, the playwright worked together with the then very young Pyotr Tchaikovsky. According to critics and writers, this is one of the reasons for the amazing rhythm of "The Snow Maiden" - words and music were composed in a single impulse, close interaction, and imbued with each other's rhythm, initially forming one whole.
It is symbolic that Ostrovsky put the last point in Snegurochka on the day of his fiftieth birthday, March 31. And a little more than a month later, on May 11, the premiere performance was shown. He received quite different reviews among critics, both positive and sharply negative, but already in the 20th century literary critics firmly agreed that The Snow Maiden was the brightest milestone in the work of the playwright.
Analysis of the work
Description of the work
The plot is based on the life of the Snow Maiden, born from the union of Frost and Spring-Red, her father and mother. The Snow Maiden lives in the Berendey 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 yearns for love, but cannot fall in love - even her interest in Lelia is dictated by the desire to be the only and unique, the desire that the shepherd, who evenly gives all the girls warmth and joy, was affectionate with her alone. And Bobyl and Bobylikha are not going to give her their love, they have a more important task: to cash in on the girl's beauty by marrying her. The Snow Maiden looks with indifference at the Berendei men, who change their lives for her, reject brides and violate social foundations; it is internally cold, it is alien to the full of life berendey - and therefore attracts them. However, the Snegurochka also bears misfortune - when she sees Lel, who is supportive of another and rejects her, the girl rushes to her mother with a request to let her fall in love - or die.
It was at this moment that Ostrovsky clearly expresses the central idea of \u200b\u200bhis work to the limit: life without love is meaningless. The Snow Maiden cannot and does not want to put up with the emptiness and coldness existing 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 bad.
The mother turns out to be right: the loving Snow Maiden melts under the first rays of the hot and clear sun, having managed, however, to discover a new world filled with meaning. And her lover, who had previously left his bride and expelled by the king Mizgir, parted with life in the pond, trying to reunite with the water that the Snow Maiden became.
main characters
(Scene from the ballet-play "Snow Maiden")
The Snow Maiden is the central figure of the work. A girl of extraordinary beauty, desperate to know love, but at the same time cold at heart. Pure, partly naive and completely alien to people-berendees, she turns out to be ready to give everything, even her life, in exchange for the knowledge of what love is and why everyone is so thirsty for it.
Frost is the father of Snegurochka, formidable and stern, striving to protect his daughter from all kinds of troubles.
Vesna-Krasna is the mother of a girl who, despite a presentiment of trouble, could not go against her nature and her daughter's prayers and endowed her with the ability to love.
Lel is a windy and cheerful shepherd boy who was the first to awaken some feelings and emotions in the Snow Maiden. It was because she was rejected by him that the girl rushed to Spring.
Misgir is a merchant guest, or, in other words, a merchant who fell in love with a girl so much that he not only offered all his riches for her, but also left Kupava, his failed bride, thereby violating the primordially observed customs of the Berendean kingdom. In the end, he found the reciprocity of the one he loved, but not for long - and after her death he 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: that Tsar Berendey, that Bobyl and Bobylikha, that the former bride of Mizgir Kupava - all of them are remembered by the reader, 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 found in literally every line, it sounds smoothly, like any rhymed verse. The Snegurochka is also decorated with the rich use of vernacular phrases - this is a completely logical and justified step of the playwright, who, while creating the work, relied on folk tales about a girl from the snow.
The same statement about versatility is also true in relation to the content: behind the seemingly simple story of the Snow Maiden (she went out into the real world - rejected people - received love - imbued with the human world - died) lurks not only the statement that life without love is meaningless, but also many other equally important aspects.
So, one of the central themes is the relationship of opposites, without which the natural course of things is impossible. Frost and Yarilo, cold and light, winter and the warm season are outwardly in conflict with each other, enter into irreconcilable contradiction, but at the same time, the thought that one does not exist without the other runs through the text as a red line.
In addition to the lyricism and sacrifice of love, the social aspect of the play, displayed against the background of fairy-tale foundations, is also of interest. The norms and customs of the Berendey kingdom are strictly observed, for violation they face expulsion, as happened with Mizgir. These norms are fair and to some extent reflect Ostrovsky's idea of \u200b\u200bthe ideal old Russian community, where loyalty and love for one's neighbor, life in unity with nature are at a premium. The figure of Tsar Berendey, the "good" Tsar, who, although forced to make harsh decisions, regards the fate of the Snow Maiden as tragic and sad, evokes unambiguously positive emotions; such a king is easy to sympathize with.
At the same time, in the Berendey kingdom, justice is observed in everything: even after the death of the Snow Maiden, due to her acceptance of love, Yarila's anger and disputes disappear, and the Berendey people can again enjoy the sun and warmth. Harmony prevails.
Below we characterize the play-fairy tale by A.N. Ostrovsky, making the necessary, from our point of view, accents.
The Snow Maiden extravaganza appeared one hundred and forty years ago, in 1873, in the Vestnik Evropy magazine. Everything was unusual in this play: genre (fairy tale play, extravaganza); combination of dramatic poetic text with music and ballet elements; plot; heroes - gods, demigods, ordinary inhabitants of the country - berendei; fantasy, organically fused with realistic, often everyday pictures; a folk language that includes elements of vernacular and, on the other hand, in some places turns into a high, poetic, solemn speech.
In the critical literature, an opinion was expressed that the appearance of such a play was associated with random circumstances: in 1873 the Maly Theater was closed for renovations, the troupe moved to the building of the Bolshoi Theater to occupy the artists of the drama and opera and ballet theaters, the management decided to ask A.N. Ostrovsky to write a corresponding play. He agreed.
In fact, everything was more serious. The move of the Maly Theater was only a pretext, an impetus for the implementation of the theatrical genre conceived by Ostrovsky. The playwright's interests have long been associated with plays of this kind, folklore was his favorite and native element, and the folk extravaganza occupied his thought long before 1873 and much later.
“On a holiday,” he wrote in 1881, “every working person is tempted to spend an evening outside the home ... I want to forget the boring reality, I want to see a different life, a different environment, other forms of community. I would like to see the boyar, princely mansions, royal chambers, I would like to hear hot and solemn speeches, I would like to see the triumph of truth. "
The action takes place in the fairyland of the Berendeys, as the playwright writes, in "prehistoric times." The name of the Berendey tribe is found in the Tale of Bygone Years. Heard the writer and oral stories about the ancient city of the Berendey and the king Berendey. "
Mythological characters pass before the viewer - gods (Yarilo), demigods (Frost, Spring-Red), the daughter of Frost and Spring-Red, the Snow Maiden (the child of a marriage opposite to Yarila), goblin, talking birds, bushes, ghosts. But all this fantasy is closely combined with realistic, everyday scenes. The great realist, the writer of everyday life could not fetter his imagination in the framework of fiction.
Living real life bursts into the play and gives special brightness to the time and place of its action.
The Snegurochka, Kupava, Lel, Moroz, Vesna-Krasna, Mizgir are endowed with features of unique characters. There is something in them from the people of Ostrovsky's time and later years.
The dialogue between Frost and Spring-Red about the future of their daughter is indistinguishable in tone even from the conversations of the parents of our time. Bobyl is a splinter from a typical idle peasant, a drinker, even Yarilo appears in the guise of a young pariah in white clothes with a human head in one hand and a sheaf of rye in the other (as he was painted in folk legends in some places of Russia).
There are not so many traces of the primitive communal system in the fairy-tale play (mostly mythological images). But there is plenty of evidence of the conventionality of "prehistoric time".
First of all, let us note the social inequality in the Berendean kingdom. Society is divided into rich and poor, with the latter openly jealous of the former. Not to mention Bobylikha, who dreams of "stuffing a bag thicker" and commanding the family like Kabanikha, let us turn our attention to the pure and noble Kupava, who, getting ready to marry Mizgir, draws her future this way: “8 to his house, in a large royal settlement , / In all sight, a rich mistress / I will reign ...
The richer Murash refuses to accept the shepherd Lel for the night, despising him as a poor man and not believing in his honesty: "Use your bows to deceive others, / And we know you, my friend, / What is safe is safe, they say."
It is no coincidence that in the remark to the first act we read: “On the right side is the poor Bobyl's hut, with a shaky porch; a bench in front of the hut; on the left side there is a large Murash hut decorated with carvings; in the back is the street; across the street Khmelnik and Murash the bee ". A small sketch becomes symbolic.
In the Berendey kingdom, elements of the social hierarchy are strong. Talking birds, singing about their life order, in essence, recreate a picture of the social system of the Berendei; they have voivods, clerks, boyars, nobles (this is in "prehistoric times"), peasants, serfs, centurions, people of different professions and positions: farmers, kissing men, fishermen, merchants, masters, servants, priest, youths, buffoons.
The king with his faithful assistant boyar Bermyat is crowning all this feast. Can the life of the Berendeans be considered a kind of idyll, serene and happy, as some researchers say?
Yes, in comparison with the surrounding world, where continuous wars are going on (buffoons are singing about them, depicted in The Lay of Igor's Campaign), the land of the Berendei may seem like a paradise.
For a peaceful life, for relative freedom, for the opportunity in any difficult case to turn to the king, the Berendeys praise without any measure the wise father of their land. And the king takes this praise for granted.
Nevertheless, life in the Berendey kingdom is far from ideal. No wonder the action of the play is opened by the words of Vesna-Krasna:
Cheerfully and coldly meets
Spring is its gloomy country.
This remark applies not only to the weather, then it turns out that the supreme deity Yarilo (the Sun) is angry with the Berendeys for the fact that Frost and Spring-Red, violating canons and traditions, entered into marriage and gave birth to an unprecedented creature - a beautiful girl. Yarilo swore a terrible oath to destroy both this girl, the Snow Maiden, and her father, and brought all sorts of troubles to the inhabitants of the country (however, they experienced these troubles even without Yarila's will).
The tsar himself is forced to admit that he has not seen well-being in the people for a long time. And the point is not only that, according to Bermyaty, compatriots "steal a little" (this sin is unforgivable, but we can correct it from the point of view of the king), the point is that the morale of the country's inhabitants has changed:
The service to beauty disappeared in them ...
But completely different passions are seen:
Vanity, envy of other people's outfits ...
People are jealous of wealth, lovers often cheat on each other, they are ready to fight with a rival. Priyuchi, calling the Berendeys to a meeting with the tsar, jokingly give evil but truthful characteristics to their contemporaries: “Sovereign people: / Boyars, nobles, / Boyar children, / Cheerful heads / Wide beards! / Do you, nobles, / Greyhound dogs, / Barefoot slaves! / Trade guests, / beaver hats, / Thick heads, / Thick beards, / Tight purses. / Clerks, clerks, / Hot guys, / Your business is to drag and hold, / Yes, to hold your hand with a hook (i.e., take bribes, bribes) / Old old women / Your business; muddy up, spinning, / Divorce the son and daughter-in-law. / Young fellows, / Daring daredevils, / people for the cause, / You are for idleness. / It's up to you to look around the towers / to lure the girls out.
Such "prehistoric times" are not much different from later times - the great playwright remains true to himself in exposing human vices and shortcomings. The researcher is hardly wrong when she writes that "Berendey's society is cruel, it no longer lives according to natural, but human laws, covering up its imperfection with the desires of Yaripa the Sun."
A few words about the king should be added here. In the critical literature, his figure is assessed positively. He really provided peace to his people, in any case, he did not embark on reckless wars, he thinks a lot about the happiness of young people, does not shy away from communicating with ordinary Berendey, to some extent he is not alien to art - he paints his palace. But unlimited power, as usual, left an imprint on his thoughts, feelings and behavior.
He is convinced that the will of the king has no boundaries. When he decides to gather all the lovers and arrange a collective wedding on the solemn Yarilin day, and Bermyata doubts the possibility of such a holiday, the tsar exclaims in anger: What? What is not allowed, bermata? Can't do what the king wants? Are you in your mind?
Having learned from Kupava that Mizgir cheated on her for the sake of the Snow Maiden, he considers Mizgir a criminal worthy of the death penalty. But since “there are no bloody laws in our code,” the tsar, on behalf of the people, condemns Mizgir to ostracism - eternal exile - and calls on those who want to fall in love with the Snow Maiden before the end of the night (no later!).
True, falling in love and disappointment in the Berendey kingdom flares up and goes out with the speed of a match, but such is the tradition of literature that goes back to the Renaissance - remember Romeo and Juliet, who fell in love in a matter of seconds, in fact, without recognizing each other. But even taking into account this tradition, the order of the king looks like an act of arbitrariness.
Hearing that the appearance of the Snow Maiden on the Berendeeva land caused a complete commotion among the young people due to jealousy, the tsar ordered Bermyata to “settle everyone and reconcile until tomorrow” (!), And the Snow Maiden to look for a friend after her heart.
The promised holiday is coming, a friend - Misgir - is found, young people are in love without memory, but the vengeful Yarilo remembers his oath. Hot passion destroys the Snow Maiden, she melts under the influence of sunlight. Misgir commits suicide, and the tsar, who shortly before that admired the beauty of the Snow Maiden and promised to arrange a feast with a mountain to the one who “will manage to captivate the Snow Maiden with love before dawn,” now solemnly says:
Snow Maiden sad demise
And the terrible death of Mizgir
They cannot disturb us. The sun knows
Whom to punish and pardon. Finished
True judgment! A product of frost,
The cold Snow Maiden died.
Now, the Tsar believes, Yarilo will stop his acts of revenge and "look at the loyalty of the submissive Berendei." The king most of all adores the obedience of his subjects to himself and to the highest deity - Yaril-Sun. Instead of a mourning one, he offers to sing a cheerful song, and the subjects are happy to fulfill the will of the king. The death of two people in comparison with the life of the masses does not matter.
In general, Ostrovsky's entire play, for all its apparent gaiety, is built on an antithesis, which creates a contradictory, sometimes bleak picture. Warmth and cold, wealth and poverty, love and infidelity, contentment with life and envy, war and peace, in a broader sense - good and evil, life and death are opposed to each other and determine the general atmosphere of the Berendean kingdom, and contradictions and disharmony in characters actors.
The hostile principle has penetrated even into space. The Yarilo-Sun, the blessed sun, which gives wealth and joy to earthlings, sends bad weather, crop failures, all kinds of sorrow to the Berendeys and destroys the innocent illegitimate daughter of illegal parents, taking revenge not only on Frost, but also on the spiritually close Spring-Red, depriving her beloved daughter.
If we talk about the philosophical aspect of the play, then before us is not the embodiment of the dream of an ideal "prehistoric" kingdom, but a fairy tale work imbued with a thirst for harmony of life in the present and the future. This harmony is deprived of the Berendey kingdom, this harmony is not present in the character of the main character.
She merged physical beauty with spiritual nobility, a kind of almost childish naivety and defenselessness with a cold heart, an inability to love. A desperate attempt to go beyond the circle designated by nature causes an inhuman tension of strength and emotions and ends in tragedy.
We can say that the playwright's idea to show “a different life, a different environment” so that the audience at least temporarily forgot “boring reality” was not entirely successful. But the image of the truth of life was fully succeeded, as A.N. Ostrovsky wrote about in the letter quoted above.
She is attracted by the persistent and irrepressible desire of the main character to change her fate, her high understanding of love, for the sake of which one can accept death:
Let me perish, love one moment
More dear to me than years of melancholy and tears ...
Everything that is dear in the world
Lives in just one word. This word
Love.
At first Lel fascinates her with her songs, the softness of nature. Mother reminds her that Lel is the beloved son of the Sun, hostile to the father of the Snow Maiden.
I'm not afraid of either Lelya or the Sun,
she answers ...
... Happiness
I’ll find or not, but I’ll look.
Love is above all, dearer than earthly existence - this is the leitmotif of the play. As noted in the critical literature, “in the late phase of creativity (from the second half of the 1870s), the main concern of the playwright was the fate of loving women.
In the chronological interval between "Thunderstorm" and "Dowry" Ostrovsky creates an extravaganza "Snow Maiden". And those are the unfortunate fate of a woman, albeit in a fabulous interpretation, in the foreground. The physical cold that surrounds the daughter Frost-father can be endured - the mental cold is unbearable. Love warms, makes a person a person. This is a great feeling, but it requires a lover's willingness to fight for his happiness.
Sometimes, unfortunately, a high romantic feeling ends tragically - for a number of reasons, including a conflict with society or supermundane forces, as was shown by the classics of distant and closer times to us and as A.N. Ostrovsky in his fairy tale play.
But the strength of the spirit of the dying hero gives rise to deep respect for him on the part of the person who perceives the art and does not pass without a trace for the consciousness and emotional world of the reader and viewer. From these positions can assess the tragedy of the Snow Maiden.
3.8 (76%) 5 vote [s]Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky
Snow Maiden
A Spring Tale in four acts with a prologue
The action takes place in the land of the Berendei in prehistoric times. Prologue on Krasnaya Gorka, near Berendey Posad, the capital of Tsar Berendey. The first action in the Berendeyevka settlement beyond the river. The second act in the palace of King Berendey. The third act in the reserved forest. The fourth act in the Yarilina Valley.
Faces :
Spring-Red.
Santa Claus.
Girl - Snow Maiden.
Leshy.
Maslenitsa - straw stuffed animal.
Bean Bakula.
Bobylikha, his wife.
Berendei 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 grove; to the left there is a dense dense forest of large pines and firs with branches hanging from the weight of the snow; deep, under the mountain, the river; openings and ice-holes are lined with spruce trees. Across the river Berendeyev Posad, the capital of Tsar Berendey: palaces, houses, huts - all wooden, with fanciful painted carvings; there are lights in the windows. The full moon gives silver to the entire open area. Roosters are crowing in the distance.
The first phenomenon
Leshy sitting on a dry tree stump. The whole sky is covered with birds that have flown in from overseas. Spring-Red on cranes, swans and geese descends to the ground, surrounded by a retinue of birds.
Leshy
The roosters crowed the end of winter
Spring-Red descends to the ground.
The midnight hour has come, the goblin's lodge
Fenced off - dive into the hollow and sleep!
(Falls into a hollow.)
Spring-Red goes down to Krasnaya Gorka, accompanied by birds.
Spring-Red
At the appointed hour, as usual
I come to the land of the Berendeys,
Cheerfully and coldly meets
Spring is its gloomy country.
Sad Look: Under the Shroud of Snow
Deprived of living, cheerful colors,
Deprived of fruitful power
The fields lie cold. In chains
Playful streams - in the quiet of midnight
You can't hear their glass murmur.
The forests stand silent, under the snow
Thick paws of firs are lowered,
Like old furrowed brows.
In the raspberries, under the pines they were shy
Cold darkness, icy
Icicles amber resin
Hangs from straight trunks. And in the clear sky
As the heat burns the moon and the stars shine
Enhanced radiance. Earth,
Covered with down powder
In response to their hello, it seems cold
Same shine, same diamonds
From the tops of trees and mountains, from gentle fields,
From the potholes of the road
And the same sparks hung in the air
They oscillate without falling, shimmer.
And everything is just light, and everything is just a cold shine,
And there is no heat. Not the way they meet me
The happy valleys of the south are there
Carpets of meadows, acacia scents,
And the warm steam of the cultivated gardens,
And milky, lazy radiance
From the dull moon on the minarets,
On poplars and black cypresses.
But I love midnight countries
I love their mighty nature
Wake up from sleep and call from the bowels of the earth
A giving birth, a mysterious force,
Carrier to the careless berendey
Abundance lives unpretentious. Lubo
Warm for the joys of love
For frequent games and celebrations, clean up
Secluded shrubs and groves
Silk carpets of colored herbs.
(Referring to the birds that shiver from the cold.)
Comrades: white-sided magpies,
Cheerful chatterboxes,
Gloomy rooks and larks
Singers of the fields, heralds of spring,
And you, crane, with your friend the heron,
Beauties, swans, and geese
Noisy, and bustling ducks,
And little birds - are you cold?
Though I'm ashamed but I have to confess
Before the birds. I myself am to blame
What is cold for me, Spring, and you.
Sixteen years ago for a joke
And amusing your fickle disposition,
Changeable and whimsical, has become
Flirt with Frost, old grandfather,
Gray-haired prankster; and since then
I'm in captivity with the old one. Man
Always like this: give a little will,
And he will take everything, that's how it is
From antiquity. Leave the gray-haired
But the trouble is, we have an old daughter -
Snow Maiden. In a deep forest slum
Returns to the abysmal bums
The old man is his child. Loving the Snow Maiden,
Feel sorry for her in an unhappy lot,
I am afraid to quarrel with the old;
And he is glad of that - chills, freezes
Me, Vesna, and Berendeev. The sun
Jealous looks at us angrily
And frowns at everyone and that's the reason
Severe winters and cold spring.
Are you trembling, poor things? Dance
You will get warm! I have seen more than once
That people were warmed up by dancing.
Though reluctantly, even from the cold, but dancing
We will celebrate the arrival for the housewarming.
Some birds take to instruments, others sing, and still others dance.
Chorus of birds
The birds were gathering
The singers gathered
Herds, herds.
Birds sat down
The singers sat down
Rows, rows.
And who are you, birds,
And who are you, singers,
Big, big?
The action takes place in the land of the Berendei in mythical times. The end of winter comes - the goblin is hiding in a hollow. Spring arrives on Krasnaya Gorka near Berendey Posad, the capital of Tsar Berendey, and with it the birds return: cranes, swans - Spring's retinue. Spring is greeted with cold by the country of the Berendeys, and all because of Spring's flirtations with Frost, the old grandfather, is recognized by Spring itself. Their daughter, Snegurochka, was born. Spring is afraid to quarrel with Frost for the sake of her daughter and is forced to endure everything. The "jealous" Sun itself is also angry. Therefore, Spring calls all birds to warm up with a dance, as people themselves do in the cold. But as soon as the fun begins - the choirs of birds and their dances - a blizzard rises. Spring hides the birds in the bushes until the next morning and promises to warm them. Meanwhile, Frost comes out of the forest and reminds Vesna that they have a common child. Each of the parents takes care of the Snow Maiden in their own way. Frost wants to hide her in the forest so that she lives among obedient animals in a forest chapel. Spring wants a different future for her daughter: to live among people, among cheerful friends and children who play and dance until midnight. Peaceful meeting turns into cpop. Frost knows that the God of the Sun of the Berendeys, hot Yarilo, has sworn to destroy the Snow Maiden. As soon as the fire of love is kindled in her heart, it will melt her. Spring does not believe. After a quarrel, Frost proposes to give their daughter to be raised by a childless Bean in a suburb, where the guys are unlikely to pay attention to their Snow Maiden. Spring agrees.
Frost calls the Snow Maiden from the forest and asks if she wants to live with people. The Snow Maiden admits that she has longed for girlish songs and round dances, that she likes the songs of the young shepherd Lelia. This especially frightens his father, and he punishes the Snow Maiden more than anything else in the world to beware of Lel, in which the "scorching rays" of the Sun live. Parting with his daughter, Moroz entrusts the care of her to his forest "leshutki". And finally, it gives way to Spring. Folk festivities begin - seeing off Maslenitsa. The Berendeys greet the arrival of Spring with songs.
Bobyl went to the forest for firewood and sees the Snow Maiden, dressed like a hawthorn. She wanted to stay with Bobyl with Bobylikha's adopted daughter.
It is not easy for the Snow Maiden to live with Bobyl and Bobylikha: the above-mentioned parents are angry that she, with her excessive bashfulness and modesty, has discouraged all the suitors and they cannot get rich with the help of a profitable marriage of their adopted daughter.
Lel comes to the Bobyls to stay, because they alone are ready to let him into the house for money collected by other families. The rest are afraid that their wives and daughters will not resist Lel's charm. The Snow Maiden does not understand Lel's requests for a kiss for a song, for a flower gift. She picks the flower with surprise and gives it to Lel, but the latter, singing a song and seeing other girls calling him, throws the already withered flower of the Snow Maiden and runs away to new fun. Many girls quarrel with guys who are inattentive to them because of their passion for the beauty of the Snow Maiden. Only Kupava, the daughter of a rich Slobozhan Murash, is affectionate to the Snow Maiden. She informs her of her happiness: a rich merchant guest from the royal settlement of Mizgir wooed her. Here Mizgir himself appears with two bags of gifts - a ransom for the bride for girls and boys. Kupava, together with Mizgir, approaches the Snow Maiden, who is spinning in front of the house, and calls her for the last time to lead the girls' round dances. But seeing the Snow Maiden, Mizgir fell passionately in love with her and rejected Kupava. He orders to carry his treasury to the Bobyl's house. The Snow Maiden resists these changes, not wishing any harm to Kupava, but the bribed Bobyl and Bobylikha make the Snow Maiden even drive Lel away, which Mizgir demands. The shocked Kupava asks Mizgir about the reasons for his betrayal and hears in response that the Snow Maiden has won his heart with her modesty and bashfulness, and Kupava's courage now seems to him a harbinger of future betrayal. The offended Kupava asks for protection from the Berendeys and sends curses to Mizgir. She wants to drown herself, but Lel stops her, and she falls unconscious into his arms.
In the chambers of Tsar Berendey, a conversation takes place between him and his close associate Bermata about the trouble in the kingdom: for fifteen years Yarilo has been unmerciful to the Berendey, winters are getting colder, springs are getting colder, and in some places there is snow in summer. Berendey is sure that Yarilo is angry with the Berendey for cooling their hearts, for the “cold of feelings”. In order to extinguish the anger of the Sun, Berendey decides to appease him with a victim: on Yarilin's day, the next day, tie as many grooms and brides as possible by marriage. However, Bermyata reports that because of some Snow Maiden who appeared in the settlement, all the girls quarreled with the guys and it is impossible to find grooms and brides for marriage. Here Kupava, abandoned by Mizgir, runs in and weeps all his grief to the king. The tsar orders to find Mizgir and summon the Berendeys to trial. They bring Mizgir, and Berendey asks Bermyata how to punish him for betraying his bride. Bermyata proposes to force Mizgir to marry Kupava. But Mizgir boldly objects that his bride is the Snow Maiden. Kupava also does not want to marry a traitor. The Berendeys do not have the death penalty, and Mizgir is sentenced to exile. Mizgir only asks the king to look at the Snow Maiden himself. Seeing the Snow Maiden who came with Bobyl and Bobylikha, the tsar was amazed at her beauty and tenderness, wants to find a worthy husband for her: such a “sacrifice” will surely cajole Yarila. The Snow Maiden admits that her heart does not know love. The king turns to his wife for advice. Elena the Beautiful says that the only one who can melt the heart of the Snow Maiden is Lel. Lel calls the Snow Maiden to twine wreaths until the morning sun and promises that love will awaken in her heart by morning. But Mizgir does not want to give up the Snow Maiden to his rival and asks permission to join the fight for the Snegurochka's heart. Berendey allows and is confident that at the dawn of the Berendei they will gladly meet the Sun, which will accept their atoning "sacrifice." The people glorify the wisdom of their king Berendey.
At dawn, girls and boys begin to dance in circles, in the center - the Snow Maiden with Lel, Mizgir appears and disappears in the forest. Delighted with Lel's singing, the tsar invites him to choose a girl who will reward him with a kiss. The Snow Maiden wants Lel to choose her, but Lel chooses Kupava. Other girls put up with their sweethearts, forgiving their past betrayals. Lel is looking for Kupava, who has gone home with her father, and meets a crying Snow Maiden, but he does not pity her for these “jealous tears”, caused not by love, but by envy of Kupava. He tells her about secret lovemaking, which is more valuable than a public kiss, and only for true love is he ready to lead her to meet the Sun in the morning. Lel recalls how he cried when the Snow Maiden had not previously responded to his love, and goes to the guys, leaving the Snow Maiden to wait. And yet, not love lives in the heart of the Snow Maiden, but only pride that it is Lel who will lead her to meet Yarila.
But then Mizgir finds Snegurochka, he pours out his soul to her, full of burning, real male passion. He, who never prayed for love from girls, falls on his knees before her. But the Snow Maiden is afraid of his passion, and threats to avenge humiliation are also terrible. She also rejects the priceless pearls with which Mizgir is trying to buy her love, and says that she will exchange her love for Lel's love. Then Mizgir wants to get the Snow Maiden by force. She calls Lelya, but "Leshutki" come to her aid, whom Father Frost instructed to take care of his daughter. They take Mizgir into the forest, beckoning him with the ghost of the Snow Maiden, in the forest he wanders all night, hoping to overtake the Snow Maiden-ghost.
Meanwhile, even the heart of the tsar's wife was melted by Lel's songs. But the shepherd deftly dodges both Elena the Beautiful, leaving her in the care of Bermyaty, and from the Snow Maiden, from whom he runs away, seeing Kupava. It was such a reckless and ardent love that his heart was waiting for, and he advises the Snow Maiden to "eavesdrop" on Kupavin's hot speeches in order to learn to love. The Snow Maiden, in her last hope, runs to mother Vesna and asks her to teach her real feelings. On the last day, when Spring can fulfill her daughter's request, since the next day Yarilo and Summer take over, Spring, rising from the water of the lake, reminds the Snow Maiden of her father's warning. But the Snow Maiden is ready to give her life for a moment of true love. The mother puts on her a magical wreath of flowers and herbs and promises that she will love the very first young man she meets. The Snow Maiden meets Mizgir and responds to his passion. The immensely happy Mizgir does not believe the danger and considers the Snow Maiden's desire to hide from Yarila's rays as empty fear. He solemnly leads the bride to Yarilina Mountain, where all the Berendei have gathered. At the first rays of the sun, the Snow Maiden melts, blessing the love that brings her death. It seems to Mizgir that the Snow Maiden deceived him, that the gods made fun of him, and in despair he rushes from Yarilina Mountain into the lake. “The Snow Maiden’s sad death and the terrible death of Mizgir cannot disturb us,” says the tsar, and all the Berendei hope that Yarila's anger will now go out, that he will give the Berendey strength, harvest, life.
Retold by E.P.Sudareva.