About the work
Sadko is an opera (an "opera-bylina") in seven scenes by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, premiered in Moscow in 1898. The work is based on the old Russian heroic legend (bylina) of the singer and merchant Sadko of Novgorod and combines fairy tale, myth, and seafaring romance.
Plot
The poor gusli player Sadko of Novgorod wins, through his wondrous playing, the love of the sea tsar's daughter Volkhova. With her help and a bold wager he attains wealth and sets off on a great sea voyage. On the high seas he enters the underwater realm of the Sea Tsar, where his playing sets the whole sea dancing and unleashes a devastating storm. Only the intervention of a higher power ends the chaos; Volkhova sacrificially transforms into the river Volkhov, and Sadko returns to his faithful wife and a flourishing homeland.
Cultural significance
Sadko is famous for its colourful orchestration and exotically shimmering sound pictures that display Rimsky-Korsakov's masterful art of instrumentation. The "Song of the Indian Guest" became world-famous as a concert piece. The work combines Russian folklore, symphonic tone-painting, and the fairy-tale into a showpiece of Russian national opera and is among Rimsky-Korsakov's best-known stage works.