[1]) A Pushkin centenary celebration performance on 27 May 1899 at the Tauride Palace in Saint Petersburg featured Feodor Chaliapin in the title role, and utilized the chorus and ballet of the Mariinsky Theatre.

Beneath a pale moon, they light campfires, prepare a meal and sing of the freedom of their nomadic existence.

Zemfira is now grown up, has her own child, and lives with Aleko, a Russian who has abandoned civilisation for the Gypsy life.

Alone, Aleko broods on the catastrophe of his relationship with Zemfira and the failure of his attempt to flee the ordinary world.

[5]Geoffrey Norris has noted criticism of the opera as lacking in dramatic momentum and the libretto as being a hastily crafted "hotchpotch".

A contemporary critic in the Moskovskiye vedomosti wrote of the opera at the time of the premiere: Of course there are faults, but they are far outweighed by merits, which lead one to expect much from this young composer in the future.