Mikhail Glinka (1804–1857)

The collection is timed to coincide with the 215th anniversary of the birth of the Russian composer Mikhail Glinka, the first Russian classical composer, founder of the Russian national school of the world opera. Like Alexander Pushkin in literature, the composer created a new language of Russian music.

Mikhail Glinka’s output is not prolific. It includes A Life for the Tsar and Ruslan and Lyudmila operas, symphonic music, in particular, Waltz Fantasy and Kamarinskaya overture, chamber music, romances and other vocal compositions. The romance Do Not Tempt Me, which was one of the first works composed in 1825, is still in the repertoire of many vocalists.

The music of Mikhail Glinka is deeply national and patriotic. It is not by chance that it was his Patriotic Song that had been the national anthem of the Russian Federation for ten years (from 1991 to 2000).

The collection contains electronic copies of books, brochures, archive documents and visual materials. Of particular interest is the magazine publication of Mikhail Glinka’s Memoirs, published through the efforts of the composer’s sister L. I. Shestakova. These memoirs can be found in the “Composer’s Life and Work” section.

The collection also includes materials about two operas produced by Mikhail Glinka - A Life for the Tsar and Ruslan and Lyudmila: archive documents related to the operatic performances, as well as photographs of opera singers in makeup dressed up as characters of Glinka’s works.

The collection features materials from N. V. Balachenkova’s private collection, the Children's Postcard Museum, the Russian State Historical Archive, the Moscow Regional State Research Library and other sources.