The opera Mlada was originally not the work of one composer but four, a collaboration between four of the most important Russian composers of the nineteenth century. In 1872, commissioned by Sepan Gedeonov and the Mariinsky Theater of St. Petersburg, Rimsky-Korsakov, together with Modest Mussorgsky, Cesar Cui, and Alexander Borodin composed an opera entitled Mlada. The opera was based on a libretto by Viktor Krilov, with a plot derived from Slavic mythology. It was completed by April of that same year, but was never performed: fragments of the work were published decades later, and in some cases the composers recycled numbers from the opera into other works.

Rimsky-Korsakov returned to the libretto of Mlada in 1892, and completed a four-act opera that was premiered at the Mariinsky Theater some 17 years after Gedeonov's original commission. It has been suggested that Rimsky-Korsakov was inspired to return to this libretto—which he allegedly did not think much of—after seeing Wagner's Ring performed in Russia during the 1889-90 opera season. Rimsky was drawn to Wagner's mythological narrative, and also to his music, traces of which may be found in Mlada.

This opera is in fact an "opera-ballet," a hybrid genre that would later be taken up with great success by Igor Stravinsky; for Rimsky, however, this hybrid was a failure, not faring much better than its original manifestation. It was only performed six times, and is rarely revived, perhaps due in part to the massive orchestral forces and large number of voices Rimsky's score demands, not to mention the difficulty in staging this extravagant work of fancy. The title role of the opera is performed not by a singer, but by a dancer. The other characters in the work include assorted princes and princesses, a number of gods and goddesses, supernatural creatures such as ghosts, werewolves, and sprites, and the sorcerer Kashchey the Deathless, a familiar figure in Slavic folk mythology. The plot of Mlada echoes some elements of Wagner's Ring operas, most notably in the symbolic use of a ring. In Rimsky's opera, a princess, Mlada, is killed by her rival Voyslava with a poisoned ring. Voyslava, who had killed Mlada out of love for Mlada's betrothed Yaromir, is scorned by Yaromir. In a desperate attempt to win Yaromir's love, Voyslava makes a pact with the goddess of the underworld, who casts a love spell on Yaromir. The young man, however, is not enthralled by Voyslava for long, after a vision reveals to him that it was she who killed Mlada. Later, at a festival, Yaromir encounters Mlada's shade and seeks to cross over into the realm of shades to be with her. The opera ends after Yaromir, who has killed Yoyslava, is in turn killed by the goddess of the underworld. In the final scene, Yaromir and Mlada are reunited as shades.

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