The Miserly Knight

Rachmaninoff set Pushkin's little tragedy almost word for word, without a librettist, between 1903 and 1905. The central figure is a baron who descends to his cellar to gloat over his chests of gold and who dies denouncing his own son; the cast is entirely male and the long monologue in the vault occupies the heart of the piece. The composer conducted the premiere at the Bolshoi on 24 January 1906, paired with Francesca da Rimini. Chaliapin, for whom the title role was intended, never sang it.