Sadko

In splendid chambers in Novgorod, wealthy guests and eminent merchants have gathered for a feast. The good young man Sadko, a skilled gusli player and singer, is ordered to sing of the glory of Novgorod and its riches. But Sadko answers the haughty merchants that if he had a treasury of gold, he would not sit idle in Novgorod, but would “buy fine goods, outfit ships, and go seek routes along the great rivers to the blue sea and farther... Across distant seas, across the wide expanse of the land, the glory of Novgorod would resound!”