Sadko

Opera by NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV, 1898, first produced in Moscow. The LIBRETTO is based on an ancient Russian epic.

Sadko is a popular minstrel in Novgorod, the first capital of Russia. He has dreams of selling wares abroad, which are realized when a flock of swans on Lake limen—in reality the feathered daughters of the King of the Ocean—take him to their abode on the bottom of the lake. He catches magic goldfish that turn out to be made of real gold. He returns to Novgorod a rich man.

Sadko is a model of the Russian fairy-tale opera. The Song of India, sung by a Hindu merchant visiting Novgorod, is a perennial favorite on the concert stage.

The score of Sadko abounds in bold innovations. A chorus in meter was considered so difficult to perform that Russian opera choristers devised a line of 11 syllables as an aid to learning it: "Rim-sky-Kor-sa-kov-is-al-to-ge-ther-mad!"