Flight of the Bumblebee

The Flight of the Bumblebee is an orchestral interlude from the third act of The Tale of Tsar Saltan, the opera Rimsky-Korsakov wrote in 1899–1900 for the Pushkin centenary; it accompanies the moment when Prince Guidon, helped by the Swan-Bird, is turned into an insect in order to fly across the sea to his father's court. The premiere was given in Moscow in 1900. Lifted out of the opera and arranged for almost every instrument in existence, the interlude long ago outgrew the work it belongs to and became a standard vehicle for displays of speed.