• Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov. Opera in a prologue and four acts. 1900.
• Libretto by Vladimir Nikolayevich Belsky, after the verse folk-tale by Pushkin.
• First performance at the Solodovnikov Theatre, Moscow, by the Mamontov Opera, on 3^rd November 1900.

In the prologue the three sisters express their wishes, to cook, to weave and, for the youngest, to marry the Tsar and bear him a son. The Tsar overhears her wish and marries her, while the older sisters become Royal Cook and Court Weaver, but seek to take revenge, when the Tsar goes off to the wars, leaving his young wife pregnant. In the first act the Tsaritsa waits for a reply from the Tsar to her message of his son's birth, but her letter has been intercepted and news of the birth of a monster conveyed to the Tsar. A messenger now brings his orders that mother and baby be cast into the sea. Washed up, after childhood in a barrel at sea, on the coast of an island, Prince Guidon saves the Swan Princess from an attacking kite and is rewarded with a magic city, of which he becomes king. On the advice of the Princess, Guidon transforms himself into a bee, and reaches his father's court with three sailors, who tell of the marvels of Guidon's island. The Tsar wants to visit the island and Barbarikha's objections are silenced when the bee stings her. On the island again, Guidon seeks a wife and finds one in the Swan Princess. The Tsar comes to the island and is eventually re-united with his wife, while Barbarikha and her two daughters are finally pardoned.

The so-called Flight of the Bumble-Bee, which serves as an entr'acte before Prince Guidon's arrival at court as a bee, has served as a show-piece for a variety of instruments, from the tuba and the double bass to a well known arrangement for violin by Jascha Heifetz and a brilliant vehicle for trumpet virtuosity. Excerpts from The Tale of Tsar Saltan, of his Son, the Renowned and Mighty Bogatïr Prince Guidon Saltanovich, and of the Beautiful Swan-Princess are heard often enough in a concert suite by Rimsky-Korsakov, Musical Pictures, including the Tsar's departure for war, the barrel at sea and the three wonders related by the sailors.