The opera marks a great advance on the composer's earlier works such as Natalka Poltavka and Utoplena with its folklore and nationalistic elements being much more closely integrated in a continuous musical framework which also clearly shows a debt to Tchaikovsky. But the episodic nature of the libretto (which may be due to some extent to political considerations during its revision in the Soviet era[citation needed]) is a serious problem. There are extensive non-narrative excursions for dances and patriotic marches and choruses; Kudryiaha is chosen to lead the Cossacks in a long scene in Act III and then vanishes from the rest of the opera; there is no attempt to balance the historical events with the story of Andriy and Maryltsya (which is effectively entirely squeezed into the antipenultimate scene); the absence of emotional or musical transition from the death of Andriy to the triumphalist conquest of Dubno (the final scene, which involves no singing) is evident and uncomfortable.