The "Pique Dame" of Tschaikovsky has a style like that of other composers beyond set forms of the older operas though not of the music drama. The arias, duets, choruses and ballets are dramatically appropriate, and the orchestra is more of a function than an accompaniment. In "Boris Godonnow" there is no principle tenor part, no principle contralto part and no principle soprano part. If it is a singer's opera at all it is a basso's, but it really is more for chorus. The writing for solo declamatory passages occassioned the use of the lyric passages in the orchestra, which was made the purveyor of color. The atmosphere is not symphonic, though the development is important and we find a remarkable use of the leitmotiv but the composer never even heard of Wagner. Nicolai Andreyevitch Rimski-Korsakov was a serious student of Russian folk lore. His music is free and expressive--so much so that when he studied technique seriously, it was almost impaired. His operas are versatile, but his "Snow Maiden" is a trifle old-fashioned, although he fails to express pathos, delicate tenderness etc. The stage phantasmoriga, of "Christmas Eve or Vakoul the Smith", especially at the transformation scenes is accompanied with music wild and bizarre, yet consummate in its descriptive finesse. He was dissatisfied with the foreign elements of the Italian form of opera which Glinka and Tschaikovsky could assimilate to excellent purpose. He cannot seem to decide whether opera is lyrical or symphonic. His orchestra suggests the soft freshness of a May night atmosphere in the steppes of Russia, the aroma of flowers, the enchanting long drawn notes of a nightingale interspersed with the love element, and the vocal characterization of the Mayor and the Bailiff in this "A May Night" is extremely clever. Like Strauss, he uses certain themes for certain instruments and has the Russian desire to mingle meaning and sound.