Bastien und Bastienne to perform of Mozart's juvenile works. Bastienne, a shepherdess, fears that her "dearest friend", Bastien, has forsaken her for another pretty face, and decides to go into the pasture to be comforted by her flock of lambs. Before she can leave, however, she runs into Colas, the village soothsayer. Bastienne requests the help of his magical powers to help win back her Bastien. Colas (being a soothsayer) knows all about the problem, and comforts her with the knowledge that Bastien has not abandoned her, rather, he's merely been distracted lately by 'the lady of the manor'. His advice is to
The Mandarin's Son The Mandarin's Son The Mandarin's Son ("Сын мандарина" in Cyrillic; "Syn mandarina" in transliteration) is comic opera in one act by César Cui, composed in 1859. The libretto, which includes spoken dialogue, was written by Viktor Krylov. No small influence for this work came from the French composer Daniel Auber, particularly his "Le cheval de bronze", which had a similar setting, and was being performed in Saint Petersburg at the time. Cui dedicated this opera to his bride, Mal'vina Bamberg. (They had married the previous year.) The orchestration is credited to Mily Balakirev. The first performance of "The Mandarin's Son"