History Theatre / TheTsarsBride

* PlayfulPursuit: Marfa teasingly reminds her VictoriousChildhoodFriend fiance how they used to chase each other as kids and invites him to try and catch her again. Unfortunately, she does so in a delirium, as she [[spoiler:has gone insane after learning of said fiance's murder.]]

''The Tsar’s Bride'' (Russian: Царская невеста, Tsarskaya nevesta) is an opera by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, first performed in 1899. It is based on a historical drama of the same name by Lev Mey. Although it’s frequently performed in the former Soviet Union, it’s little known outside it. Interestingly, another Ivan the Terrible-centered drama by Mey, ''The Maid of Pskov'', had also been previously adapted to music by the same composer.

* AdultFear: Marfa is separated from her childhood sweetheart right during their engagement feast, has to marry a man she is frightened of, and finally gets poisoned and dies a slow agonizing death for no fault of her own.

* KarmaHoudini: Bomelius has mixed both of the potions and forced Lyubasha to sleep with him in exchange for making the poisonous one; he gets no comeuppance in the end. Gryaznoi nearly kills him when he sees Marfa dying and believes the physician has given him the wrong potion, but as Lyubasha steps in to explain, the attention gets focused on her and Bomelius is forgotten.
** Some productions avert this: for example, in the 1965 opera film, he is shown led away for trial too, in the 2015 Belarus Opera production, Skuratov kills him, and in the 2018 Astrakhan Opera production, he commits suicide.

* LovePotion: Discussed, but eventually never consumed. It’s a powder that Gryaznoi plans to slip into Marfa’s drink, but as Lyubasha puts the poison in its place, we never learn whether it would have worked and how.

* LovePotion: Discussed, but eventually never consumed.
* LyricalDissonance: The mad scene. Marfa happily sings of her love for Lykov and their upcoming wedding, Gryaznoi sings heart-wrenchingly of his remorse for what he has done to her, and everyone else is lamenting Marfa’s fate.
* KarmaHoudini: Bomelius has mixed both of the potions and forced Lyubasha to sleep with him in exchange for making the poisonous one; he gets no comeuppance in the end. Gryaznoi nearly kills him when he sees Marfa dying and believes the physician has given him the wrong potion, but as Lyubasha steps in to explain, the attention gets focused on her and Bomelius is forgotten.
** Some productions avert this: for example, in the 1965 opera film, he is shown led away for trial too, in the 2015 Belarus Opera production, Skuratov kills him, and in the 2018 Astrakhan Opera production, he commits suicide.
* MistakenForRomance: Tsar Ivan is very interested in Dunyasha and talks to her for a long while. Everyone thinks he shall marry her and is completely dumbstruck when the Tsar announces Marfa as his choice. RealLife showed he picked Dunyasha as a bride for his son (the opera doesn’t mention it).
* MurderTheHypotenuse:
** Gryaznoi frames and stabs Lykov. At that moment, he still believes that he gave Marfa a love potion and she won’t care about Lykov anyway.
** Lyubasha poisons Marfa, even though she realizes it will hardly bring Gryaznoi back to her.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: When Marfa is dying and has lost her grip on reality, it dawns on Gryaznoi that it’s primarily him who has destroyed her life.
* NothingPersonal: Lyubasha’s musings when she is thinking of buying the poison for Marfa basically amount to that. She’s doing it not because she hates Marfa personally, but to get her revenge on Gryaznoi.
* OneSteveLimit: Downplayed; there are two Ivans and two Grigorys, but as Tsar Ivan barely appears and Grigory #2 is [[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname only known as Malyuta Skuratov]], it’s hard to get confused.
* PetTheDog: Ivan the Terrible (a complex TragicVillain in Mey’s plays) is very kind and friendly towards Dunyasha when he sees how frightened she is at the bride-choosing ceremony.
* ShesAllGrownUp: Lykov and Marfa realized the romantic nature of their feelings when they met after several years of separation.
* ShipperOnDeck: Marfa has many troubles but having LoveObstructingParents isn’t one of them: Sobakin and his wife have shipped her with Lykov since she was a little girl.
* SuicideByCop: Lyubasha tells Gryaznoi how she engineered Marfa’s death to provoke him into killing her. Gryaznoi gives himself up to the oprichniks and cries he’ll beg for the worst tortures imagined.
* TenorBoy: The good-hearted and naive Lykov is a typical one.
* VillainOfAnotherStory: Malyuta Skuratov openly boasts about his killings and doesn't even pretend to be in any way moral. However, in this particular story, he is, if anything, one of the more ''sympathetic'' characters (it helps that he does nothing villainous onscreen, holds no grudge against Lykov or the Sobakin family and, in most productions, is quite nice towards his MoralityPet Lyubasha).
* WomanScorned: Lyubasha doesn’t care that she causes two deaths and then gets killed herself. Since Gryaznoi has rejected her, there’s not much of a life for her anyway.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Lyubasha was abducted from her hometown by the oprichniks who slaughtered her kin. She found love with Gryaznoi, but he never truly loved her. Then he decided to marry Marfa and cast off Lyubasha who has no family to protect her and, as an ex-mistress, can’t hope for respect. On top of it all, midway through the libretto she is coerced into sleeping with Bomelius, and that breaks what’s left of her dignity. No wonder the poor woman goes AxCrazy.
* {{Yandere}}: Gryaznoi for Marfa and Lyubasha for Gryaznoi. Both are absolutely devoted to their love interest but driven to murder out of jealousy.