The Flight of the Bumblebee

Composer: RIMSKY-KORSAKOV, Nikolai
  • This famous piece is an intermezzo from Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera Skazka o Tsare Saltane (The Tale of Tsar Saltan). The opera was composed between 1899-1900, and it was based on a fairy tale by Pushkin.1 
    • Rimsky-Korsakov composed this opera for the Pushkin Centenary in 1899.2
    • The full title of this opera (in English) is: The Tale of Tsar Saltan, of his Son the Renowned and Mighty Bogatïr Prince Guidon Saltanovich, and of the Beautiful Swan Princess.3
    • Rimsky-Korsakov extracted an orchestral suite from this opera around 1901, entitled Musical Pictures from the Tale of Tsar Saltan, but interestingly, that suite didn’t include The Flight of the Bumblebee!4
  • This movement is an intermezzo in Act 3 of the opera. It comes directly after Prince Guidon, the hero of the piece, has learned (from the Swan Princess) how to turn into a bee so that he can fly off to visit his faraway father (and observe several characters unawares).5

Sources

  1. Marina Frolova-Walker, Mark Humphreys, Lyle Neff, Rita McAllister, Iosif Genrikhovich Rayskin, and Detlef Gojowy, “Rimsky-Korsakov family,” Grove Music Online (2001), January 8, 2020, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000052074. 
  2. Richard Taruskin, “Tale of Tsar Saltan, The,” Grove Music Online. 2002; Accessed 7 Jan. 2020. https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-5000905025. 
  3. Ibid.
  4. Frolova-Walker, et al, “Rimsky-Korsakov family,” Grove Music Online.
  5. Richard Taruskin, “Tale of Tsar Saltan, The,” Grove Music Online. 

Cut IDs

40023