Vladimir Sollogub
Russian count, poet, writer, artist and ethnographer (b. 8/20 August 1813 in Saint Petersburg; d. 17 June 1882 [N.S.] in Bad Homburg), born Vladimir Aleksandrovich Sollogub (Владимир Александрович Соллогуб).
Tchaikovsky's Settings of Works by Sollogub
Sollogub was the author of the libretto for Tchaikovsky's 1869 opera Undina (Ундина), based on a translation by Vasily Zhukovsky (1783–1852) of the novel Undine (1811) by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué (1777–1843). Sollogub's libretto had originally been written for the composer Aleksey Lvov's opera of the same name, which premiered in an 1848 production in Saint Petersburg.
The words of Tchaikovsky's song Tell Me, What in the Shade of the Branches? (Скажи, о чем в тени ветвей), No. 1 of the Six Romances, Op. 57 (1884), are taken from Marta Petrovna's romance in Sollogub's comedy-vaudeville Trouble from a Tender Heart (Беда от нежного сердца) (1850).
