Night on Bald Mountain 25 December 1858, has been interpreted as an indication of Mussorgsky's intent to write an opera on the subject of Gogol's short story "St. John's Eve" (, "Vecher nakanune Ivana Kupala", "St. John's Eve"). Gogol's tale contains the elements of witchcraft common to other stories in the "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka" collection, but does not feature a witches' sabbath. No further plans for this project were mentioned. The theme of a witches' sabbath, the central theme in all subsequent "Night on Bald Mountain" projects, appears to have been derived from the nonextant play "The Witch" (, "Ved′ma") by
Night on Bald Mountain April 1890, at the [[Théâtre de la Monnaie]] in [[Brussels]]. The following program is printed in Rimsky-Korsakov's edition of "Night on Bald Mountain", published in 1886 by [[V. Bessel and Co.]]: Subterranean sounds of non-human voices. Appearance of the spirits of darkness, followed by that of Chernobog. Glorification of Chernobog and [[Black Mass|Black Service]]. Sabbath. At the height of the sabbath, the distant ringing of a village church bell is heard; it disperses the spirits of darkness. Morning. Recordings of Rimsky-Korsakov's revision are too numerous to catalog in this article. [[File:Leopold Stokowski LOC 26447u.jpg|upright|thumb|Leopold Stokowski]] Millions of 20th-century listeners owe