Sadko and his band of travelling merchants en route to Venice.
Rimsky-Korsakov’s fairy tale opera “Sadko” at the Mariinsky last night. Telling the tale of Sadko, a down beat Minstrel who is bewitched by the Sea Princess, forgets his wife and goes on adventures to find his fortune. After 12 years away and becoming rich, he is summoned to marry the Sea Princess under the waves, and nearly does so before Neptune intervenes – after all, Sadko is married. The Princess is turned into the River Volkova as punishment and Sadko wakes up on a lonely beach, only to find his broken-hearted wife searching for him. He thinks its all a dream until he finds his crew have safely returned and he is now the richest merchant in Novgorod. Moral: Try for your dreams.
The Indian Merchants song can be heard here
Sadko (Viktor Lutsyuk) and Sea Princess Volkhova (Gelena Gaskarova)
Sea Princess Volkhova with her swan maidens
The splendid Indian Merchant (Yevgeny Akimov)
Nezhata (Lydia Bobokhin), Sadlo’s wife Lyubava (Nadezhade Serdyuk), Gelena Gaskarova as the Sea Princess, Conductor Mikhail Sinkevich, Viktor Lutsyuk as Sadko and Alexander Morozov as the Sea King.