Rimsky-Korsakov Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve (Ночь перед Рождеством, Noch' pered Rozhdestvom), is an opera with music and libretto by Rimsky-Korsakov. Composed between 1894-5, he based his opera on a short story, "Christmas Eve", from Nikolay Gogol. The story had been used as the basis for an opera at least three times previously, including for Tchaikovsky's Vakula the Smith. Oliver Knussen writes that "Rimsky is only interested in recreating the atmosphere of the folk-tale, fleshing it out for his stage pageant in a comparable way to Humperdinck in Hansel''.