Prince Igor

Makes sense, yeah.

So this'll be episode 29.5, Prince Igor, the film opera.

[upbeat music] Hello, and welcome to Tsar Power.

I'm your host, Roberto.

[laughs] And today we are talking about this other thing.

It's a f- it's a film or whatever.

And today, instead of covering a Russian ruler, we are bringing what we usually bring to Patreon to the main feed, as we're talking about the film opera, Prince Igor, in this episode, 29.5.

Mm-hmm, lots of stuff to talk about.

He grew up in the 1960s, and his mother had a collection of 78 RPM records.

Neil used to love Alexander Borodin's Plovzian Dances from the opera Prince Igor, just as much as any pop record.

His primary school, St Oswald's, was quite modern for its time, and used to play music in the school hall and encourage the children to dance around to it.

Neil vividly remembers whirling around the room to the Blue Danube Waltz by Johann Strauss, which he thought was fantastic.

Out of the bite of the sea, from among the great iron human troops, he plucked like a tornado, and Kobyaka dropped in the town of Kiev, in the guardroom of Sviatoslav.

Now the Germans and the Venetians, now the Greeks and the Moravians, sing glory to Sviatoslav, but chide Prince Igor, for he let abundance sink to the bottom of the Kayala and filled up the Cuban rivers with Russian gold.

Now Igor the Prince has switched from a saddle of gold to a thrall's saddle, pined away have the ramparts of towns and merriment has drooped.

And Sieteslav saw a troubled dream in Kiev upon the hills.

On high you soar to deeds in your turbulence, like the falcon that rides the winds as he strives in turbulence to overcome the bird.

for you have iron breastplates under Latin helmets.

These have made the earth rumble, and many nations, Hins, Lithuanians, yet Vangians, Derbners, and Cumans, have dropped their spears and bowed their heads beneath those steel swords." But already, oh Prince Igor, the sunlight has dimmed, and, not goodly, the tree sheds its foliage.

Along the Ross and the Sula, the towns have been distributed, and Igor's brave troops cannot be brought back to life.