About the work
A fragment of an opera by Modest Mussorgsky based on Nikolai Gogol's comedy of the same name (1842); in the summer of 1868 Mussorgsky set only the first act, word for word after Gogol's text, before abandoning the project. The posthumous premiere of this single act, in Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's edition, took place on 12 December 1908 at the Hall of the Nobility in Moscow.
Plot
The indecisive civil servant Podkolyosin has the matchmaker Fyokla Ivanovna propose a bride but keeps putting off any decision. His determined friend Kochkaryov eventually pushes him to finally set off to meet her – at which point Mussorgsky's setting breaks off.
Cultural significance
With his word-for-word setting of Gogol's prose, Mussorgsky sought to test a radically realistic style of declamation that translates everyday speech rhythms directly into music. He never continued the experiment himself, but it influenced later Russian operas with similarly speech-driven declamation, such as Shostakovich's The Nose.