Editing Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (section)

===Operas===
{{listen|type=music|header=Music samples
|filename=Rimsky-Korsakov - flight of the bumblebee.oga|title=Flight of the Bumblebee|description=''Flight of the Bumblebee'' performed by US Army Band|format=[[Ogg]]
|filename2=Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - Bumblebee.ogg|title2=The Flight of the Bumblebee|description2=Arrangement for two pianos by Russel Warner, performed by Neal and Nancy O'Doan|format2=[[Ogg]]
|filename3=Rimsky-Korsakov - Vasa Prihoda (1929) Chant Hindou.ogg|title3=The Song of the Indian Guest|description3=1929 recording of transcription for violin and piano, featuring violinist [[Váša Příhoda]]|format3=[[Ogg]]
}}
While Rimsky-Korsakov is best known in the West for his orchestral works, his operas are more complex, offering a wider variety of orchestral effects than in his instrumental works and fine vocal writing.<ref name="abng1632"/> Excerpts and suites from them have proved as popular in the West as the purely orchestral works. The best-known of these excerpts is probably "[[Flight of the Bumblebee]]" from ''[[The Tale of Tsar Saltan (opera)|The Tale of Tsar Saltan]],'' which has often been heard by itself in orchestral programs, and in countless arrangements and transcriptions, most famously in a piano version made by Russian composer [[Sergei Rachmaninoff]]. Other selections familiar to listeners in the West are "Dance of the Tumblers" from ''The Snow Maiden'', "Procession of the Nobles" from ''[[Mlada (Rimsky-Korsakov)|Mlada]]'', and "Song of the Indian Guest" (or, less accurately, "Song of India") from ''[[Sadko (opera)|Sadko]]'', as well as suites from ''[[The Golden Cockerel]]'' and ''[[The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya]]''.<ref name="schonberg364"/>

The Operas fall into three categories:
* '''Historical drama:''' ''[[The Maid of Pskov]]'', and its prologue ''[[The Noblewoman Vera Sheloga]]'', ''[[Mozart and Salieri (opera)|Mozart and Salieri]]'', ''[[The Tsar's Bride (opera)|The Tsar's Bride]]'', ''[[Pan Voyevoda]]'', ''[[Servilia (opera)|Servilya]]''
* '''Folk operas:''' ''[[May Night]]'', ''[[Christmas Eve (opera)|Christmas Eve]]''
* '''Fairy tales and legends:''' ''[[The Snow Maiden]]'', ''[[Mlada (Rimsky-Korsakov)|Mlada]]'', ''[[Sadko (opera)|Sadko]]'', ''[[Kashchey the Deathless]]'', ''[[The Tale of Tsar Saltan (Rimsky-Korsakov)|The Tale of Tsar Saltan]]'', ''[[The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya]]'', and ''[[The Golden Cockerel]]''.

Of this range, Rimsky-Korsakov wrote in 1902, "In every new work of mine I am trying to do something that is new for me. On the one hand, I am pushed on by the thought that in this way, [my music] will retain freshness and interest, but at the same time I am prompted by my pride to think that many facets, devices, moods and styles, if not all, should be within my reach."<ref name="mfw21405"/> Among his operatic works, Rimsky-Korsakov’s "Snegurochka", also known as "The Snow-Maiden", sums up his compositional character. The Snow-maiden is a character who is the personification of love and passion, and yet she melts in the first rays of the sun. Rimsky-Korsakov’s works mirror the snow-maiden, as they are exquisite, but can quickly turn cold and pellucid and “dissolve at the touch of the living language of passion”.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Sabaneev |first1=Leonid |last2=Pring |first2=S. W. |date=1928 |title=Rimsky-Korsakov |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/915953 |journal=The Musical Times |volume=69 |issue=1023 |pages=403–405 |doi=10.2307/915953 |jstor=915953 |issn=0027-4666}}</ref>

American music critic and journalist [[Harold C. Schonberg]] wrote that the operas "open up a delightful new world, the world of the Russian East, the world of supernaturalism and the exotic, the world of Slavic pantheism and vanished races. Genuine poetry suffuses them, and they are scored with brilliance and resource."<ref name="schonberg364">Schonberg, p. 364.</ref> According to some critics Rimsky-Korsakov's music in these works lacks dramatic power, a seemingly fatal flaw in an operatic composer. This may have been conscious, as he repeatedly stated in his writing that he felt operas were first and foremost musical works rather than mainly dramatic ones. Ironically, the operas succeed dramatically in most cases by being deliberately non-theatrical.<ref name="abng1633">Abraham, ''New Grove (1980)'', 16:33.</ref>