About the work
The Miller Who Was a Wizard, a Cheat and a Matchmaker is a comic opera in three acts on a libretto by Alexander Ablesimov; the violinist and composer Mikhail Sokolovsky arranged its score from Russian folk-song melodies and wrote its dramaturgically pivotal numbers himself. It premiered on 31 January 1779 at the theatre of the entrepreneur Michael Maddox in Moscow, followed shortly afterwards by a performance at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg.
Plot
The cunning miller Faddei trades on his reputation as a sorcerer to help the peasant’s son Filimon win Anyuta, whose parents cannot agree on whether a noble or a peasant suitor should marry her. Through a ruse, he presents Filimon as acceptable to both sides, securing the marriage.
Cultural significance
The work is considered the first Russian comic opera and was the most successful of its kind in the 18th century, remaining in the repertoire of Russian theatres well into the 19th. Its music was long misattributed to the composer Yevstigney Fomin but is now credited to Sokolovsky.