# Need help from people familiar with Rimsky-Korsakov's Sadko



## Rania (Jun 23, 2009)

I will be giving an informal presentation on the Russian Five to an audience of mostly non-musicians, and I am looking for good examples to listen to/ watch from Rimsky-Korsakov's Sadko. I am unfamiliar with the opera at all and I'm having a hard time finding specific places in the work (the two recordings on Naxos do not include booklets). In "Nineteenth Century Romanticism in Music", Richard Longyear writes, "(In Sadko), the composer juxtaposes fantasy with portraits of medieval Russia (including a chorus in rapis 11/4 meter), folk-like scenes to represent the "real" world, and some of the best musical portrayals of the ocean ever composed".
Can anyone help me locate those places in the score or in a recording?
What would be a good excerpt of the opera to show to a general audience?

Thank you so much.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

The key excerpts are the three songs of the guests from other lands (Song of the Venetian Merchant, Song of the Varangian and Song of India). For the examples you mention I would have to consult my CD recording of the opera before being able to advise.

N.


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## Barelytenor (Nov 19, 2011)

Off the top of my head the Venetian Guest aria ("Gorod kammenii, gorodam vsem mat' " "Stone city, mother of all cities") has a lot of contrasts of stone versus water (and the declension of "blue sea" in all 18 Russian noun forms). There is also a Sea King

Here's from Wikipedia

[url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadko_(opera) [/URL]

Good luck, in a hurry.

George


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## gardibolt (May 22, 2015)

Song of India in particular was a very popular parlor piano piece and was turned into a swing song in the 1940s. Not a lot of Russian composers had top 40 hits.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

These might help:
https://operascribe.com/backgrounds/sadko-rimsky-korsakov-dossier/
https://operascribe.com/2017/07/21/the-young-man-and-the-sea-sadko-rimsky-korsakov/


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