Cortege - Procession of the Nobles from “Mlada”
Mlada is an opera-ballet in four acts, composed between 1889 and 1890 by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, to a libretto by Viktor Krylov that was originally employed for an aborted project of the same name from 1872.The fantasy tale, Mlada, is about ancient pagan Slavs. Cleopatra emerges in a scene that exudes sensuality. Rimsky-Korsakov said "Among my musical impressions of Paris I reflect on music in Hungarian and Algerian cafes. The virtuoso playing of an Hungarian orchestra on pan flutes gave me the idea of introducing this ancient instrument... during the dances at Cleopatra's. In an Algerian cafe, I was attracted to the beat of a large drum... This effect I also borrowed for the scene of Cleopatra.”The Procession of the Nobles is used as the theme for the USA PBS public affairs program Inside Washington and was also used between 1957 and 1969 as the opening theme for the UK TV programme What the Papers Say.
