BETWEEN January 19th, 1900, and April 4th, 1905, I read before the Musical Association of London five papers dealing with the Development of National Opera in Russia, covering a period from the first performance of Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar in 1836, to the production of Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera The Tsar’s Bride, in 1899. These lectures were illustrated by the following artists: the late Mrs. Henry J. Wood, Miss Grainger Kerr, Mr. Seth Hughes, Mr. Robert Maitland; Sir (Mr.) Henry J. Wood and Mr. Richard Epstein at the piano. While using these lectures as the scaffolding of my present book, I have added a considerable amount of new material, amassed during ten years unremitting research into my subject. The additions concern chiefly the earlier phases of Russian music, and the operas that have appeared since 1900. The volume also contains some account of the foundation of the nationalist school of composers under the leadership of Balakirev. It has been my privilege to meet and converse with most of the members of this circle. I give also a few details about the literary champion of “the Invincible Band,” Vladimir Stassov, under whose guidance I first studied the history of Russian music. With all modesty I believe I may claim to have been a pioneer worker in this field. When in 1895 I published my translation (from the French edition of M. Habets) of Stassov’s book on Borodin, and followed it up in 1897 by a series of articles—the fruits of my first visit to Russia—in that short-lived weekly The Musician, the literature of the subject was by no means copious, even in Russia itself; while the daily increasing public in Western Europe who were anxious to learn something about the remarkable galaxy of composers newly arisen in the east, based their knowledge and opinions almost entirely upon CÉsar Cui’s pamphlet La Musique en Russie, an interesting, but in many respects misleading, statement of the phenomenon; or upon the views propagated by Rubinstein and his followers, wherefrom they learnt that the Russians, though musically gifted, were only represented by incapable amateurs.

Happily for its own enjoyment, the world has grown wiser. The last few years have witnessed the vindication of Moussorgsky’s genius in France and England; a consummation devoutly wished, but hardly anticipated, by those who had been convinced from the beginning of the nobility and sincerity of spirit and motive which entitles his two finished operas to be regarded as masterpieces. During Sir Joseph Beecham’s season of Russian Opera at Drury Lane last year, Rimsky-Korsakov’s early music-drama Ivan the Terrible (“The Maid of Pskov”) made a profound impression, with Shaliapin in the part of the tyrant Tsar. In the forthcoming season it is Borodin’s turn to be introduced to the British public, and I confidently predict the success of his lyric opera Prince Igor. So, one by one, these Russians, “eaters of tallow candles, Polar bears, too long consumers of foreign products, are admitted in their turn in the character of producers.”[1]

In view of the extended interest now felt in Russian opera, drama and ballet, it has been thought worth while to offer to the public this outline of the development of a genuine national opera, from the history of which we have much to learn in this country, both as regards the things to be attempted and those to be shunned. Too much technical analysis has been intentionally avoided in this volume. The musician can supply this deficiency by the study of the scores mentioned in the book, which, dating from Glinka’s time, have nearly all been published and are therefore accessible to the student; the average opera-goer will be glad to gain a general view of the subject, unencumbered by the monotonous terminology of musical analysis.