[1] Letter from Borodin to Countess Mercy-Argenteau.

[2] The show refers to a legend of St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, the saint held in most honour by the Russians.

[3] Gorbounov. “A Sketch for the History of Russian Opera” (in Russian).

[4] Gorbounov. “A Sketch for the History of Russian Opera.”

[5] Some authorities believe that the music, as well as the text of this opera, was written by Matinsky.

[6] Karatagyn gives a list of twenty-six operas in the preface to Jurgenson’s edition of The Miller.

[7] A History of Russian Opera (Istoriya Russ. OperÎ), Jurgenson, St. Petersburg, 1905.

[8] He must not be confounded with V. V. Berezovsky, whose “Russian Music” (Rousskaya Muzyka: Kritiko-istorichesky Ocherk) appeared in 1898.

[9] The first performance of Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar took place here in November of that year.

[10] Possibly Madox.

[11] Sometimes written Astaritta.

[12] In Grove’s Dictionary of Music I give the date of Alabiev’s birth as August 30th, 1787, following most of the approved authorities of the day. But more recent investigations have revealed the correct date as August 4th.

[13] Soloveiv asserts that Sousanin did not save the Tsar from the Poles but from the Russian Cossacks who had become demoralised during the long interregnum.

[14] This fragment of a familiar melody drew down on Glinka the criticism of an aristocratic amateur that the music of A Life for the Tsar was fit for coachmen and serfs, and provoked Glinka’s sarcastic retort: “What matter, since the servants are better than their masters.”

[15] The appearance of the Commandatore is accompanied by a sinister progression as thrilling in its way as that strange and horrible chord with which Richard Strauss leads up to Salome’s sacrilegious kiss in the closing scene of this opera.

[16] Balakirev, Cui, Moussorgsky, Borodin, and Rimsky-Korsakov.

[17] In Vek (The Century). No. I.

[18] In Severnoy Pchela (The Northern Bee).

[19] Reprinted in “Twenty-five Years of Russian Art.” The collected works (Sobranie Sochinenie) of Vladimir Stassov. Vol. I.

[20] “Accept life as it comes.” (Nie tak iivi kak khochetsya.)

[21] He also visited England, making his appearance at one of the concerts of the Philharmonic Society, in May 1857.

[22] Henceforth alluded to as the I. R. M. S., or the Musical Society.

[23] “The Chronicle of my Musical Life” (Lietopis moi muzykalnoi Jizn), 1844-1906. N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov (Edited by his widow). St. Petersburg, 1909.

[24] Mme. Maleziomova, whom I met in St. Petersburg, was for many years dame de compagnie, or chaperon, at Rubinstein’s classes at the Conservatoire. She was a devoted friend of the master’s, and few people knew more of his fascinating personality or spoke more eloquently of his teaching.

[25] Eight Russian and eleven German operas. Six of the latter were secular and five based on Biblical subject.

[26] “A History of Russian Opera” (Istoriya Russ. Opera). V. Cheshikin. St. Petersburg, 1905. P. Jurgenson.

[27] Dmitri Donskoi was produced in St. Petersburg in 1852; Esmeralda, first staged in Moscow in 1847, was brought out in the modern capital in 1853.

[28] For a fuller analysis of Lermontov’s poem see “Poetry and Progress in Russia,” by Rosa Newmarch. John Lane, The Bodley Head, London and New York.

[29] The Oprichniki, a band of hot-headed and dissolute young nobles who formed the bodyguard of Ivan the Terrible and were always prepared to carry out his orders. They carried a dog’s head and a broom at their saddle-bow, to show that they worried the enemies of the Tsar and swept them from the face of the earth.

[30] Rimsky-Korsakov was the first of the Russian composers to write a symphony.

[31] Free in the sense of offering gratuitous instruction.

[32] He was a warm advocate of the higher education of women, and one of the founders of the School of Medicine for Women at St. Petersburg.

[33] She married a naval officer, the Admiral Molas who went down in the flagship Petropavlovsk at the entrance of the harbour of Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese war. With him perished the great war painter, Vassily Verestchagin.

[34] Mme. Rimsky-Korsakov still takes an active interest in musical questions. Articles over her initials often appear in the Russian musical papers, and recently she has taken up her pen in defence of her husband’s editorial work for Moussorgsky’s operas.

[35] These impressions are taken from an article of mine (in French) published in the SammelbÄnde der Internationalen Musik Gesellschaft (Jahrgang IV. Heft I.), Oktober-Dezember 1902. Leipzig, Breitkopf and HÄrtel.

[36] In 1908 he was Russian consul at New York.

[37] The Bogatyri were the heroes of ancient and legendary days.

[38] Collected Works (Sobranye Sochinenie, 4 Volumes). “Twenty-five years of Russian Art” (musical section), Vol. I. “In the Tracks of Russian Art” (musical section), Vol. I. “A. S. Dargomijsky.” “A. N. Serov.” “Gabriel Lomakin.” “Perov and Moussorgsky” (Vol. II.), are among his chief contributions to musical literature. But there are a number of critical articles on first performances, etc., which cannot be enumerated here.

[39] My article on Moussorgsky in Grove’s “Dictionary of Music.”

[40] In the reign of Alexis the revision of the Bible carried out by the Patriarch Nicon (1655) resulted in a great schism in the Orthodox Church, a number of people clinging to the old version of the Scriptures in spite of the errors it contained. Thus was formed the sect of the Old Believers which still exists in Russia.

[41] Quoted from an article by me, “Moussorgsky’s Operas,” in the “Musical Times,” July 1st, 1913.

[42] Published by V. Yastrebtsiev in the Moscow weekly, “Musika.” No. 135, June 22 (O.S.), 1913.

[43] He was appointed musical critic of the St. Petersburg “Viedomosty” in 1864.

[44] Ponchielli has used the same subject for his opera “Gioconda”; while Mascagni, influenced possibly by the Russian realists, made a literal setting of Heine’s poem “William Ratcliff” in the style of The Stone Guest (“Guglielmo Ratcliff,” Milan 1895.)

[45] The opera was produced in St. Petersburg in February, 1911, the Emperor and Empress being present. It will be given shortly by the Zimin Opera Company, in Moscow. Published by Jurgenson, Moscow.

[46] It will be remembered that Zaremba was satirized in Moussorgsky’s humorous Scena “The Musician’s Peep-show” as that “denizen of cloudland” who used to deliver to his bewildered classes inspired dictums something in this style:

[47] This opera is now given abroad under the title of Ivan the Terrible, which brings home to foreigners some realisation of its period and of its gloomy central figure.

[48] Impressions Musicales et LittÉraires, par Camille Bellaigue.

[49] There are no less than ten true folk-themes contained in the opera of Tsar Saltan. The theme of the Elder Sisters, in the Introduction, may be found in Rimsky-Korsakov’s collection of National Songs, No. 24, communicated by Balakirev. The theme of the Tale of the Old Grand-father is a street cry (“Any fruit or greens”); a theme used by the Prince Gvidon is taken from a child’s song, No. 66, in Korsakov’s collection; others may be found in the same volume; also in the collections of Stakhovich and Prach.

[50] Citizens of the Lower-town would be a more literal translation of the title, but would convey nothing to foreigners.

[51] This composer must not be confused with his nephew A. S. Taneiev, the composer of a rather Frenchified opera entitled “Love’s Revenge.”

[52] Quoted in the article on this composer in the Russian edition of Riemann’s Musical Dictionary, 1904.

[53] Pan is the title of the Polish gentry, Sotnik, literally a centurion, a military grade.

[54] For example, the Court ballets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were practically opera-ballets, since they included songs, dances and spoken dialogue.

[55] “A singer’s mind becomes subtler with every mental excursion into history, sacred or profane.”—D. Ffrangcon Davies. “The Singing of the Future.” John Lane, The Bodley Head.

[56] Communicated at my request by my friend, Mr. Herbert Heyner, who has made a special study of Shaliapin’s art both at the opera and from gramophone records.