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Prince Igor, a story by Georgina Mauriño, based on an opera.
The Song of Igor is an old Russian poem that tells the story of a prince who, despite bad omens, goes to war with his son... The composer Borodin tells the story in his opera Prince Igor.
Apart from writing the story, Georgina also made the illustrations. You can see some of them below introducing the main characters. On one side, in the Russian court of Putivl we have Pirnce and Princess Igor and Jaroslavna, their son Prince Vladimir Igoryevich, and Igor’s corrupt brother Galitsky; the Polovtsian nomads who live in their camps looking to conquer the Russian steppes are lead by Kahn Kontchack, who has a beautiful daughter, Kontchakovna.
Some secondary characters represent the people, among them are a paid of musicians… the beautiful Polovtsian maiden and dans and sing for Kahn Kontchack describing their lands with dreams of liberty. These are their words:
Fly away on the wings of the wind
To our native land
0, you, our native song.
To that place where we sang to you so freely,
Where things were so idyllic for you and me.
There under the sultry sky
The air is full of bliss.
There under the murmur of the sea
The hills slumber under the clouds.
There the sun shines so brightly,
Our native hills are flooded with light,
In the valleys splendid roses bloom,
Nightingales sing in the green forests
And the sweet grape grows.0, fly away there.
The Polovtsian dances and choirs are the most famous number in this opera and it has inspired all sorts of versions (we encourage you to look for them on the web).
The original story of Prince Igor is based on medieval poem, in the roots of Russian literature. It is actually full of learnings from the human nature. From our newsletter we encourage you to explore, discuss and share with your friends.
*NOTE. We have edited this post with ElevenLabs for the narrator’s voice and some old P.D. recordings which you can find at European Archives. We are here testing new ways, so we are grateful for your comments or any other feedback.
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