Among contraltos, after Leonova's day, Lavrovskaya and Kroutikova were the most popular. The tenors Nikolsky, Orlov, and Vassiliev all had fine voices. Orlov was good as Michael Toucha in _The Maid of Pskov_; while Vassiliev's best part was the King of Berendei in Rimsky-Korsakov's _Snow Maiden_. Another tenor, whose reputation however was chiefly made abroad, was Andreiev. Later on, during the 'eighties and 'nineties, Kamenskaya, a fine soprano, was inimitable in the part of Rogneda (Serov), and in Tchaikovsky's _Maid of Orleans_. Dolina, a rich and resonant mezzo-soprano, excelled as Ratmir in Glinka's _Russlan_. Slavina, whose greatest success was in Bizet's "Carmen," and Mravina, a high _coloratura_ soprano, were both favourites at this time. To this period also belong the triumphs of the Figners--husband and wife. Medea Figner was perhaps at her best as Carmen, and her husband was an admirable Don José, but it is as the creator of Lensky in _Eugene Oniegin_, and of Herman in _The Queen of Spades_ that he will live in the affections of the Russian public. [Illustration: SHALIAPIN AS DON QUIXOTE] In Feodor Ivanovich Shaliapin, Russia probably possesses the greatest living operatic artist. Born February 1/13, 1873, in the picturesque old city of Kazan, he is of peasant descent. He had practically no education in childhood, and as regards both his intellectual and musical culture he is, to all intents and purposes, an autodidact. For a time he is said to have worked with a shoe-maker in the same street where Maxim Gorky was toiling in the baker's underground shop, so graphically described in his tale "Twenty-six and One." For a short period Shaliapin sang in the Archbishop's choir, but at seventeen he joined a local operetta company which was almost on the verge of bankruptcy. When no pay was forthcoming, he earned a precarious livelihood by frequenting the railway station and doing the work of an outporter. He was often perilously near starvation. Later on, he went with a travelling company of Malo-Russians to the region of the Caspian and the Caucasus. On this tour he sang--and danced, when occasion demanded. In 1892 he found himself in Tiflis, where his voice and talents attracted the attention of a well-known singer Oussatov, who gave him some lessons and got him engaged at the opera in that town. He made his début at Tiflis in _A Life for the Tsar_. In 1894 he sang in St. Petersburg, at the Summer Theatre in the Aquarium, and also at the Panaevsky Theatre. The following year he was engaged at the Maryinsky Theatre, but the authorities seem to have been blind to the fact that in Shaliapin they had acquired a second Petrov. His appearances there were not very frequent. It was not until 1896, when the lawyer-millionaire Mamantov paid the fine which released him from the service of the Imperial Opera House, and invited him to join the Private Opera Company at Moscow, that Shaliapin got his great chance in life.