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 Saturdays 22 and 29 June, new style. Upon our arrival in Paris, rehearsals commenced. The orchestra, which proved to be excellent, the men being amiable and painstaking, had been borrowed from [[Édouard Colonne|Colonne]]. Their playing in the concerts was fine... The success was considerable, with plenty of applause, but the attendance was not large. "Night on Bald Mountain" was performed at the second concert, on 29 June 1889, where it followed [[Alexander Borodin|Borodin]]'s 'Polovtsian Dances' and 'Polovtsian March' from "[[Prince Igor]]" in the second half of the program. Rimsky-Korsakov later mentions another performance of the piece, taking place on 25