but further bloodshed is averted because the Golden Cockerel ensures that the old Tsar becomes besotted when he actually sees the beautiful Tsaritsa. The Tsaritsa herself encourages this situation by performing a seductive dance – which tempts the Tsar to try and partner her, but he is clumsy and makes a complete mess of it. The Tsaritsa realises that she can take over Dodon's country without further fighting – she engineers a marriage proposal from Dodon, which she coyly accepts. Act 3 The Final Scene starts with the wedding procession in all its splendour. As this reaches its conclusion, the Astrologer appears and says to Dodon, “You promised me anything I could ask for if there could be a happy resolution of your troubles ... .” “Yes, yes,” replies the Tsar, “just name it and you shall have it.” “Right,” says the Astrologer, “I want the Tsaritsa of Shemakha!” At this, the Tsar flares up in fury, and strikes down the Astrologer with a blow from his mace. The Golden Cockerel, loyal to his Astrologer master, then swoops across and pecks through the Tsar's jugular. The sky darkens. When light returns, the Tsaritsa and the little cockerel are gone. Epilogue The Astrologer comes again before the curtain and announces the end of his story, reminding the public that what they just saw was “merely illusion,” that only he and the Tsaritsa were mortals and real. Principal arias and numbers Act 1 Introduction: "I Am a Sorcerer" «Я колдун» (orchestra, Astrologer) Lullaby (orchestra, guards, Amelfa) Act 2 Aria: "Hymn to the Sun" «Ответь мне, зоркое светило» (Tsaritsa of Shemakha) Dance (Tsaritsa of Shemakha, orchestra) Chorus (slaves) Act 3 Scene: "Wedding Procession" «Свадебное шествие» (Amelfa, people) Analysis Preface to The Golden Cockerel by librettist V. Belsky (1907) The purely human character of Pushkin's story, The Golden Cockerel – a tragi-comedy showing the fatal results of human passion and weakness – allows us to place the plot in any surroundings and in any period. On these points the author does not commit himself, but indicates vaguely in the manner of fairy-tales: "In a certain far-off tsardom", "in a country set on the borders of the world".... Nevertheless, the name Dodon and certain details and expressions used in the story prove the poet's desire to give his work the air of a popular Russian fairy tale (like Tsar Saltan), and similar to those fables