His main works include: fifteen operas, including musicals, epic operas, mythological operas, lyrical comedy operas and monster revues, among which the most famous is "The Pskov Girl" , "May Night", "Snow Lady", "Christmas Eve", "Satko", "The Tsar's Bride", "The Story of King Sadan", etc. His last opera, The Golden Cockerel, was a biting satire. He is also the author of books such as "Practical Tutorial on Harmony", "Orchestral Instrumentation" and the biography "My Musical Life".

His symphonic music works are not numerous, but they are very exciting. The works of the 1860s mainly include "Symphony No. 1", the symphonic suite "Antar" and the symphonic music painting "Sathko"; the works of the 1880s include the symphonic suite "Shehra Chadha" , "Spanish Caprice" and "Symphony No. 3" etc.

In the last twenty years of his life, he almost never wrote in the form of purely symphonic music. Rimsky-Korsakov's symphonic music creations all have the tendency of title, narrative and sound-picture style. The plots of his symphonic music works are similar to Russian warrior songs and legends, Eastern folk tales and the stories of people's lives. The scenes are closely related. Generally speaking, his symphonic music works have strong national characteristics, sometimes with a strong oriental color. His masterpieces in this area have always been part of the repertoire of the world's symphonic music stages.

Other works: "Ivan the Tyrant", "The Snow Queen", "Mlada", "Shadek", "The Immortal Kjei", "Arabian Nights", "Russian Easter" ”, “Anda”, etc.