# The Tale of Tsar Saltan



## Clouds Weep Snowflakes (Feb 24, 2019)

Did anyone here watch this opera? I watched it in Tel-Aviv last June with my mother, quite the opera, though I was really tired of the day (it was quite late at night and afterwards we needed a hour drive back to Jerusalem) and that hampered my experience a bit, but it was still good and worth our money...next time I'll remember if I go to something till late at night to get some sleep before...

Moving on, If I think this opera is good (and I do), would I like more of this composer (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov) or something similar? What would you recommend?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_Tsar_Saltan_(opera)


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## david johnson (Jun 25, 2007)

I have always enjoyed RK music. For orchestral music, try his Scheherazade, Russian Easter Overture. If you are asking about his operas, I can't help other than say I have enjoyed each suite I've heard of those various works.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

I'm still investigating Rimsky-Korsakov's operas, but I've very much enjoyed what I've heard. Most are fairy / folktale operas, a Russian response to Wagner. _The Snow Maiden_ (his own favourite) and _Sadko _ [video here, with subtitles!] are beautiful; so too is the shorter _Koshchei the Deathless_. Mussorgsky and Borodin's historical operas are better, but there are good productions of _The Tsar's Bride_ (Soviet-era movie here, 2018 Bolshoi there).


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

I haven't seen it live, but I have watched it on Blu-ray:









I'm definitely a Rimsky fan and my favourite of his operas are Sadko and The Tsar's Bride. However of the ones I know, the one most like Tale of Tsar Saltan is The invisible city of Kitezh, so I would suggest trying that next. Another one I'm fond of is May Night, but there are a number of wonderful ones including Kaschey the Immortal and The Golden Cock. They are all quite different and have wonderfully imaginative orchestration.

I'm not as keen on The Maid of Pskov and The Snow Maiden, but you can find most of his operas on YouTube so sample them for yourself and find your own favourites.

N.


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## Clouds Weep Snowflakes (Feb 24, 2019)

Good news everybody-a shop in Tel-Aviv sells a collection of his operas for a reasonable price, I'll get it this week!


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Clouds Weep Snowflakes said:


> Good news everybody-a shop in Tel-Aviv sells a collection of his operas for a reasonable price, I'll get it this week!


Is this the Decca boxset?









It's a frustrating boxset: excellent recordings, but no libretti, only synopses. You're probably better off getting individual CDs, with a booklet.


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## Clouds Weep Snowflakes (Feb 24, 2019)

Dr. Shatterhand said:


> Is this the Decca boxset?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Well, I have Mendelssohn's "songs without words" on CDs that work fine, sadly I lost the booklet, but I can always Google, and so I did, and as I said the CDs work fine, why throw them away?
And I'm not sure if exactly this one, I'll have to check...


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Clouds Weep Snowflakes said:


> Well, I have Mendelssohn's "songs without words" on CDs that work fine, sadly I lost the booklet, but I can always Google, and so I did, and as I said the CDs work fine, why throw them away?
> And I'm not sure if exactly this one, I'll have to check...


Operas (unlike Mendelssohn) do come with words - plenty of them, and, in this case, in Russian. Following the story is important to really appreciate the opera - and I haven't managed to find English language libretti online.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

I have all the recordings in those sets, but in the original individual releases with distinctive light blue packaging and they each have the libretto. I agree with Shatterhand, it is better to have the recordings with the librettos.

N.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Here's a link to a translated libretto for Tsar Saltan

http://aquarius-classic.ru/album?aid=188&tid=7&ver=eng


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

It's regrettable that the Gergiev performance of _Tsar Saltan_ isn't available on CD also - presumably if it had been released on both CD and DVD/Blu-ray sales would have been split too much between the two formats.


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## Clouds Weep Snowflakes (Feb 24, 2019)

Dr. Shatterhand said:


> Operas (unlike Mendelssohn) do come with words - plenty of them, and, in this case, in Russian. Following the story is important to really appreciate the opera - and I haven't managed to find English language libretti online.


Well, of course it's not the same with the words and they are very important, but at worst I can Google them, not to mention I'll need a translation as I don't speak Russian...


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

After you acquire and listen to the RK operas (no small feat!) there are many Russian operas that are not so well known, but are really quite entertaining. Needless to say, the Tchaikovsky operas are worthy of attention, even the "others". Queen of Spades and Eugen Onegin are so great they overwhelm things like Iolanta, Mazeppa. The Stone Guest by Alexander Dargomyzhsky is really quite good, if a tad old-fashioned and is much easier to digest than the vastly longer Mozart Don Giovanni (same story). Glinka's Russlan and Lyudmilla is wonderful and sheds a whole new light on the ubiquitous overture. Then there are the three operas by Rachmaninoff that I enjoy an awful lot: The Miserly Knight, Francesca da Rimini, Aleko.


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## Clouds Weep Snowflakes (Feb 24, 2019)

mbhaub said:


> After you acquire and listen to the RK operas (no small feat!) there are many Russian operas that are not so well known, but are really quite entertaining. Needless to say, the Tchaikovsky operas are worthy of attention, even the "others". Queen of Spades and Eugen Onegin are so great they overwhelm things like Iolanta, Mazeppa. The Stone Guest by Alexander Dargomyzhsky is really quite good, if a tad old-fashioned and is much easier to digest than the vastly longer Mozart Don Giovanni (same story). Glinka's Russlan and Lyudmilla is wonderful and sheds a whole new light on the ubiquitous overture. Then there are the three operas by Rachmaninoff that I enjoy an awful lot: The Miserly Knight, Francesca da Rimini, Aleko.


I like quite a lot of Classical music from Russia, Tchaikovsky's three ballets are some of my absolute favorites in the whole of music, for example; what would you recommend that I may not be familiar with?


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