The Polovtsian Dances (or Polovetsian Dances) are perhaps the best known selections from Alexander Borodin's opera Prince Igor (1890). They are often played as a stand-alone concert piece as one of the best known works in the classical repertoire.[citation needed] In the opera the dances are performed with chorus, but concert performances often omit the choral parts. The dances do not include the "Polovtsian March" which opens Act III (No. 18), but the overture, dances, and march from the opera have been performed together to form a suite from Prince Igor. In the opera Prince Igor, the dances occur in Act II (in the original edition). A typical performance lasts between 11 and 14 minutes.
Prince Igor (Russian: КнÑзь Игорь, Knyaz' Igor' ) is an opera in four acts with a prologue by Alexander Borodin. The composer adapted the libretto from the East Slavic epic The Lay of Igor's Host, which recounts the campaign of Russian prince Igor Svyatoslavich against the invading Polovtsian tribes in 1185. The opera was left unfinished upon the composer's death in 1887 and was edited and completed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov. It was first performed in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1890.
The Polovtsian Dances (or Polovetsian Dances) are perhaps the best known selections from Alexander Borodin's opera Prince Igor (1890). They are often played as a stand-alone concert piece as one of the best known works in the classical repertoire.[citation needed] In the opera the dances are performed with chorus, but concert performances often omit the choral parts. The dances do not include the "Polovtsian March" which opens Act III (No. 18), but the overture, dances, and march from the opera have been performed together to form a suite from Prince Igor. In the opera Prince Igor, the dances occur in Act II (in the original edition). A typical performance lasts between 11 and 14 minutes. Prince Igor (Russian: КнÑзь Игорь, Knyaz' Igor' ) is an opera in four acts with a prologue by Alexander Borodin. The composer adapted the libretto from the East Slavic epic The Lay of Igor's Host, which recounts the campaign of Russian prince Igor Svyatoslavich against the invading Polovtsian tribes in 1185. The opera was left unfinished upon the composer's death in 1887 and was edited and completed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov. It was first performed in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1890.