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
Karim Bare Karim Bare Karim Bare (born October 28, 1983) is a Nigerien former swimmer, who specialized in sprint freestyle events. Bare qualified for the men's 100 m freestyle at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, by receiving a Universality place from FINA without meeting a standard entry time. He participated in an unprecedented first heat against two other swimmers Farkhod Oripov of Tajikistan and Eric Moussambani of Equatorial Guinea, later dubbed himself as "Eric the Eel". Before the race began, Bare plunged into the pool, along with Oripov, without beating the gun, and were eventually disqualified for a false start, leaving