Musicology Annotation << Back Myth and Ritual in Musical Texts of Opera Cycles of Richard Wagner and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov Anna Fefelova The article describes the principles of interaction of the mytho-ritual basis and the music texts of two major opera cycles of the 19th century: Richard Wagner’s tetralogy “Der Ring des Nibelungen” and “Slavic tetralogy” of Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov (“May Night”, “The Snow Maiden”, “Mlada”, “Christmas Eve”). The main attention is given to two areas: direct interaction with the musical material, which is considered on the material of the orchestral introductions to the operas, and indirectly — in the organization of the leitmotiv system of Slavic tetralogy as semiotic space. Vorspielen to the operas of Wagner’s “Ring” realize a similar type of mytho-logic in the musical texture, while Rimsky-Korsakov in his operas shows different options for interaction with as close Wagner (The Snowmaiden), and an opposite nature. In the analysis of leitmotiv system of Rimsky-Korsakov’s ritual operas the main criterion is the meaning that forms at the junction of the sacred, verbal and musical texts. This criterion reveals mythos-ritual based logic of organization of operas’ artistic space. Keywords: Wagner, Rimsky-Korsakov, myth, ritual, opera, tetralogy. Contacts: annfefeloff@gmail.com Pp. 29-37.