Alexander Borodin

The Profile

Aleksandr Porfiryevich Borodin (1833–1887) was a Russian Romantic composer and chemist, a member of The Five, best known for Prince Igor (Knyaz' Igor'), the Polovtsian Dances, string quartets and symphonic works.

Borodin combined a scientific career as a chemist and professor with composition. He left Prince Igor unfinished at his death in 1887; Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov completed portions of it. His Polovtsian Dances are among his most famous excerpts.

The available review praises Prince Igor as an epic, evocative example of 19th-century Russian opera, highlighting the Polovtsian Dances and Glazunov's overture. It emphasizes Borodin's dual career as a chemist and composer and notes narrative and librettistic incompleteness completed by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov. Vocally, the work favors deep voices and contains exceptional moments for contralto and spinto soprano.