  thumb|alexander borodin prince igor (, knyaz' igor') is an opera in four acts with a prologue, written and composed by alexander borodin. the composer adapted the libretto from the ancient russian epic the lay of igor's host, which recounts the campaign of rus prince igor svyatoslavich against the invading cuman ("polovtsian") tribes in 1185. he also incorporated material drawn from two medieval kievan chronicles. the opera was left unfinished upon the composer's death in 1887 and was edited and completed by nikolai rimsky-korsakov and alexander glazunov. it was first performed in st. petersburg, russia, in 1890. ==composition history==  original composition: 1869â1887 after briefly considering lev mei's the tsar's bride as a subject (later taken up in 1898 by nikolai rimsky-korsakov, his 9th opera), borodin began looking for a new project for his first opera. vladimir stasov, critic and advisor to the mighty handful, suggested the lay of igor's host, a 12th-century epic prose poem, and sent borodin a scenario for a three-act opera on 30 april 1869.abraham and lloyd-jones (1986: p. 51). initially, borodin found the proposition intriguing, but daunting:  after collecting material from literary sources, borodin began composition in september 1869 with initial versions of yaroslavna's arioso and konchakovna's cavatina, and sketched the polovtsian dances and march of the polovtsy. he soon began to have doubts and ceased composing. he expressed his misgivings in a letter to his wife: "there is too little drama here, and no movement... to me, opera without drama, in the strict sense, is unnatural."malkiel and barry (1994: p. 16). this began a period of about four years in which he proceeded no further on prince igor, but began diverting materials for the opera into his other works, the symphony no 2 in b minor (1869â76) and the collaborative opera-ballet mlada (1872). the mlada pr
1890_operas Classical_musical_works_published_posthumously Operas Operas_by_Alexander_Borodin Operas_completed_by_others Russian-language_operas The_Tale_of_Igor\'s_Campaign