Which composer wrote the opera War and Peace?

Sergei Prokofiev wrote the opera War and Peace. Officially designated Op. 91, it is a large-scale Russian opera based on Leo Tolstoy’s novel, with a libretto prepared by Prokofiev and Mira Mendelson.

Prokofiev began composing it in 1941, after Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The work’s structure reflects Tolstoy’s contrast between private life and national catastrophe: its first seven scenes portray peace, while the final six deal with war and the 1812 French invasion of Russia. Soviet officials pressed Prokofiev to make the war scenes more patriotic, leading him to add marches, choruses and an epigraph.

The opera is unusually ambitious, lasting roughly four hours in its full form and involving a large cast, chorus and orchestra. It was first performed in a partial form in 1946, but the complete thirteen-scene version reached the stage only after Prokofiev’s death. Its themes include Natasha, Andrei, Pierre, Napoleon and Field Marshal Kutuzov.