William Ratcliff (Cui)

William Ratcliff (Вилльям Ратклифф or Вильям Ратклиф in Cyrillic; Vill'jam Ratkliff or Vil'jam Ratklif in transliteration) is an opera in three acts, composed by César Cui during 1861–1868; it was premiered on 14 February 1869 (Old Style) at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg under the conductorship of Eduard Nápravník.

Although it was revived in Moscow in 1900 under Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, it never became part of the standard operatic repertoire either in Russia or in the West.

The libretto of the opera was adapted by the composer from Vasily Zhukovsky's Russian verse translation of the like-named tragedy by Heinrich Heine, with some additional verses by Viktor Krylov, who had already written the libretti for Cui's operas Prisoner of the Caucasus and The Mandarin's Son.

(The same play has been used for other operas, most notably Pietro Mascagni's Guglielmo Ratcliff, which premiered over a quarter century later.)

The plot is fairly bloody, and follows the conventions of the German Schicksalsdrama, or "drama of fate" of the early 19th century.

Many relevant motives and events actually occur before the curtain rises and have to be rendered in long narratives, leaving the action on stage significantly static for much of the time.

The primary departures from Heine's original drama include the wedding choruses in Act I and the replacement of the intimate "Pater Noster" episode in the tavern scene of Act II, Tableau 1 with a comic ensemble scene.

Amidst a congratulatory chorus, Ratcliff's agent Lesley delivers a challenge to Douglas to a duel.

He tells Lesley of the two spectres that reach out to embrace each other, and of his childhood with Mary, and why he killed her two previous suitors.

Ratcliff, regaining consciousness, begins to hear witches laughing at him and runs off amidst thunder, lightning, and wind.

In Mary's bedroom, she tells Margaret how sweet William Ratcliff used to be, and how she is having dreams that he is a spectre reaching out to her.

"Цезарь Антонович Кюи: биографический очерк" ["César Antonovich Cui: a biographical sketch."]