Sadko

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera Sadko was inspired by the bylina of Sadko and premiered at Savva Mamontov’s Russian Private Opera in Moscow on 26 December 1897. The sets were designed by Konstantin Korovin and Sergei Malyutin, while Nadezhda Zabela-Vrubel performed in costumes designed by her husband Mikhail Vrubel. In 1901, the opera was mounted at the Mariinsky Theatre in the sets of Victor Vasnetsov. Some of the most outstanding decors for Sadko were created by Ivan Bilibin in 1913 and 1914. Boris Anisfeld designed the sets and costumes for Mikhail Fokine’s one-act ballet The Underwater Kingdom, set to the music of Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera in 1911.