Khovanshchina

No, Mussorgsky left Khovanshchina incomplete when he died in 1881. His friend and fellow composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov completed and orchestrated the score, and this version became the standard for decades.

The opera portrays political upheaval in late 17th-century Russia during the transition between the regency of Sophia Alekseyevna and the rise of the young Peter the Great. It focuses on the power struggles involving Prince Ivan Khovansky, the Old Believers, and the streltsy, Moscow's elite military corps.

Rimsky-Korsakov created the first performing version in the early 1880s, and Dmitri Shostakovich produced a later revision that many conductors prefer for its closer fidelity to Mussorgsky's original scoring. Modern productions use either version, with the Shostakovich edition gaining favor since the mid-20th century.

The Prelude, known as 'Dawn on the Moscow River,' is the most frequently performed excerpt and often appears on orchestral programs independently. The opera also contains the colorful 'Dance of the Persian Slaves' and a devastating final scene in which the Old Believers immolate themselves.