Skazka o Tsare Saltane
(The Tale of Tsar Saltan)
Tsar Saltan overhears three sisters who are confiding to each other their
views on the subject of happiness. The youngest, having declared that she
would wish nothing better than to become the mother of a hero, is chosen
by Saltan for his bride. While he is at the War the jealous sisters plot
against the young queen, who with her little son is consigned to the waves
in a barrel, which drifts on to an island. One day the Tsarevich, now a
sturdy youth, saves a swan from a pike that is pursuing it. He is rewarded
with magic powers enabling him to build a Wonder-City, over which he is
chosen to reign, and the swan, having resumed her former estate of Princess,
consents to share his throne. Returning from the Wars, Tsar Saltan hears
of the famous island, and journeying thither is reunited with his queen.
synopsis by M. Montagu Nathan, Rimsky-Korsakof, Duffield & Co.,
New York, 1917.
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