He came to it first by way of Russian history. The _Maid of Pskov_ ("Pskovityanka"[47]) was completed in 1872, and performed in St. Petersburg in January, 1873. The cast was a remarkably good one: Ivan the Terrible--Petrov; Michael Toucha--Orlov; Prince Tokmakov--Melnikov; Olga--Platonova; Vlassievna--Leonova. Napravnik was the conductor. Opinions as to its success vary greatly, but the early fate of the work does not seem to have been happy, partly because, as Stassov says, the public, accustomed only to Italian opera, were incapable of appreciating this attempt at serious historical music-drama, and partly because the opera suffered severely at the hands of the critics and the Censor. In _The Maid of Pskov_ ("Ivan the Terrible") Rimsky-Korsakov started under the influence of Dargomijsky's _The Stone Guest_, to the theory of which all the new Russian school at first subscribed. Afterwards Rimsky-Korsakov, like Tchaikovsky, alternated between lyrical and declamatory opera and occasionally effected a union of the two styles. In _The Maid of Pskov_ the solo parts consisted at first chiefly of mezzo-recitative of a somewhat dry quality, relieved by great variety of orchestral colour in the accompaniments. The choruses, on the other hand, were very national in style and full of melody and movement. The work underwent many revisions before it appeared in its present form. In 1877 the composer added the Overture to the Prologue and the Entr'actes. At this time he was assisting to edit the "monumental" edition of Glinka's operas which the master's sister Liudmilla Shestakov was bringing out at her own expense. "This occupation," says Rimsky-Korsakov, "proved to be an unexpected schooling, and enabled me to penetrate into every detail of Glinka's structural style." The first revision of _The Maid of Pskov_ and the editing of _A Life for the Tsar_ and _Russlan_ were carried on simultaneously. Therefore it is not surprising that Rimsky-Korsakov set himself to polish and tone down many youthful crudities which appeared in the original score of his own opera. Cui, Moussorgsky and Stassov, although at first they approved his resolution to revise the work, showed some disappointment at the results; while the composer's wife deeply regretted its first form. It was evident to all that what the work had gained in structure and technical treatment it had lost in freshness and lightness of touch. In 1878 the composer offered it once more, in this revised edition, to Baron Kistner, Director of the Imperial Opera, but without success. The work was laid aside until 1894, when it was again re-modelled and revived by the initiative of an amateur society at the Panaevsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, in April 1895. In this version it was mounted at the Imperial Opera House, Moscow, when Shaliapin appeared in the part of Ivan the Terrible. On this occasion the opera was preceded by the Prologue _Boyarinya Vera Sheloga_, composed in 1899. Its reception was